Disgraced Former San Francisco DA Hired by UC Berkeley

Chesa Boudin, the former district attorney of San Francisco who was thrown out of office in a recall election last year, was hired by the University of California Berkeley to run a research and advocacy center at the university’s law school.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the university made the announcement on Wednesday, appointing Boudin as the head of the new Criminal Law and Justice Center, with the mission of training future lawyers on how to make “lasting progress” towards criminal justice reform. Boudin has said that he has no intention of returning to politics due to “devastating” public discourse in the aftermath of his removal from office.

“In my new role, just as I did as district attorney, I will continue to draw on networks of advocates, activists, judges, and legal practitioners to support reform and advance safety in ways that are rigorous, principled, and responsive to the lived experiences of directly impacted communities,” Boudin wrote in a San Francisco Chronicle op-ed announcing his new position.

Some have raised the alarm about the possible impact of Boudin’s new role, even if he no longer holds political power. Steve Smith, a senior fellow with the Pacific Research Institute who has authored a study on crime in California, warned that “UC Berkeley law school continues the progressive strategy of gaslighting Californians—as Boudin puts it—dismissing the public’s concerns as ‘fear mongering’ and ‘scare tactics.’”

“The fears of California’s more than one million crime victims are real and justified,” Smith added. “And they don’t want new prosecutors being trained to follow Boudin’s reckless path in communities across the state.”

Boudin, the son of former far-left domestic terrorists, was narrowly elected in 2019. As one of many progressive prosecutors backed by the radical billionaire George Soros, Boudin pursued soft-on-crime policies as district attorney, refusing to enforce many laws or punishments for certain crimes, which contributed to a spike in crime in the city. In a stunning landslide, the recall effort against him in 2022 led to San Francisco voters ejecting him from office by a 10-point margin. San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D-Calif.) subsequently appointed Brooke Jenkins as his replacement, who went on to be elected in her own right later the same year.