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Person

Sarah Knight

Nationality:

American
Occupation:

Former Director of Open Society Foundations Democracy Program
Party:

Democratic Party
Main Residence:

Washington, D.C.

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Sarah Knight is the former vice president of network advancement for the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), and former director of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) democracy program. 1

Knight moderated panels for organizations including the Funders Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP) and Demand Justice and was named an ad hoc advisor for the Accountability 2021 project. 2 3 4 5

Early Career

Sarah Knight attended Williams College between 1991 and 1995. After completing her education, Knight started her career as an associate editor for Atheneum Books for Young Readers from October 1995 until July 1997. 6

After leaving her position as associate editor, Knight began working as an intern in the Office of the Public Advocate of New York City from May 1998 until August 1998. According to her LinkedIn profile, Knight worked as the co-editor-in-chief of the New York University School of Law for its Review of Law and Social Change. 7

Knight also worked as an associate for Perkins Coie LLP, an international law firm that represents various companies including start-up ventures and Fortune 500 organizations in addition to Democratic political committees. She worked for the firm from November 2000 until July 2006. 8

After her tenure at Perkins Coie, Knight began working for the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS), a legal organization that is often considered the liberal version of the center-right Federalist Society. The group endorses the left-of-center view of the Constitution as a “living document,” capable of substantial judicial interpretation that critics see as improper legislating from the bench. 9

Knight started as an associate director for lawyer chapters at ACS in August 2007 until February 2011 where she was promoted to the director of lawyer chapters. She worked in this position until September 2011 when she became the vice president of network advancement, a role which she held until November 2014. 10

Open Society Foundations

After leaving ACS, Knight joined the Open Society Foundations (OSF). OSF, formally Open Society Institute, is a private grantmaking foundation created and funded by billionaire financier and liberal philanthropist George Soros. Built on Soros’ anti-capitalist, redistributionist political philosophy, the organization gives away nearly a billion dollars per year to left-wing organizations around the world to advance his vision of an “open society.” 11

Knight began working as a program officer at OSF from November 2014 until November 2021. During this time, she also worked as the director of OSF’s “Democracy Program” from October 2019 until she left the organization. 12

During her time at the Open Society Foundations, Knight wrote  with Laleh Ispahani “Shoring Up a Democracy Under Siege” for the Journal of International Affairs, a peer-reviewed journal published by the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. 13

In the piece, Knight claimed that the United States was experiencing “unprecedented erosion of democratic institutions and norms” due to the Trump administration. She claimed that it was “within the realm of possibility” that President Trump would, if found guilty by Special Counsel Robert Mueller during the Trump-Russia collusion investigation, “fire Mueller and issues blanket pardons for all subjects of the investigation, including a self-pardon.” 14

After the investigation had been completed the office of Special Counsel Mueller issued a report in March 2019, which concluded “the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.” 15

Affiliated Organizations

Knight is named as an ad hoc advisor for the Accountability 2021 project and was a speaker at a workshop hosted by Open Society Foundations and organized by groups including Yale University, City University of New York, and the Scholars Strategy Network, a non-profit association of university academics that networks with journalists and policymakers to use research to influence debate on public policy. 16 17

Knight has also moderated multiple panels for organizations including the Funders Committee for Civic Participation (FCCP), a project of the left-wing pass-through group NEO Philanthropy, and Demand Justice, a left-of-center advocacy group created in early 2018 that aims to influence the political leanings of America’s courts by supporting the appointment of liberal judicial nominees and opposing right-of-center nominees. 18 19 20

References

  1. “Sarah Knight – Principal – Popcorn Strategies, LLC | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-knight-14977a3.
  2. “SCOTUS + The 2018 Elections: Opportunities and Implications for c3 Funders,” Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, accessed January 3, 2022, https://funderscommittee.org/resource/key-takeaways-scotus-the-2018-elections-opportunities-and-implications-for-c3-funders/.
  3. Brent Scher, “Former Clinton Aide Brian Fallon Has New Job,” Washington Free Beacon, April 19, 2018, https://freebeacon.com/politics/former-clinton-aide-brian-fallon-new-job/.
  4. Aaron Klein, “Leftist Dark Money Group Pushes Scheme to Pack Supreme Court with Liberal Justices,” Capital Research Center (Capital Research Center, October 19, 2019), https://capitalresearch.org/article/leftist-dark-money-group-pushes-scheme-to-pack-supreme-court-with-liberal-justices/.
  5. “About Accountability 2021,” Accountability 2021, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.accountability2021.org/about-the-accountability-2021-project/.
  6. “Sarah Knight – Principal – Popcorn Strategies, LLC | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-knight-14977a3.
  7. “Sarah Knight – Principal – Popcorn Strategies, LLC | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-knight-14977a3.
  8. “Sarah Knight – Principal – Popcorn Strategies, LLC | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-knight-14977a3.
  9. “Sarah Knight – Principal – Popcorn Strategies, LLC | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-knight-14977a3.
  10. “Sarah Knight – Principal – Popcorn Strategies, LLC | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-knight-14977a3.
  11. George Soros, “The Capitalist Threat,” The Atlantic (Atlantic Media Company, May 9, 2019), https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1997/02/the-capitalist-threat/376773/.
  12. “Sarah Knight – Principal – Popcorn Strategies, LLC | LinkedIn,” LinkedIn, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-knight-14977a3.
  13. “Shoring up a Democracy under Siege,” JIA SIPA, February 15, 2021, https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/shoring-democracy-under-siege.
  14. “Shoring up a Democracy under Siege,” JIA SIPA, February 15, 2021, https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/shoring-democracy-under-siege.
  15. “Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election,” CNN, accessed January 3, 2022, https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2019/images/04/18/mueller-report-searchable.pdf.
  16. “About Accountability 2021,” Accountability 2021, accessed January 3, 2022, https://www.accountability2021.org/about-the-accountability-2021-project/.
  17. “Purchasing Power?,” Scholars Strategy Network, accessed January 3, 2022, https://scholars.org/page/purchasing-power.
  18. “SCOTUS + The 2018 Elections: Opportunities and Implications for c3 Funders,” Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation, accessed January 3, 2022, https://funderscommittee.org/resource/key-takeaways-scotus-the-2018-elections-opportunities-and-implications-for-c3-funders/.
  19. Brent Scher, “Former Clinton Aide Brian Fallon Has New Job,” Washington Free Beacon, April 19, 2018, https://freebeacon.com/politics/former-clinton-aide-brian-fallon-new-job/.
  20. Aaron Klein, “Leftist Dark Money Group Pushes Scheme to Pack Supreme Court with Liberal Justices,” Capital Research Center (Capital Research Center, October 19, 2019), https://capitalresearch.org/article/leftist-dark-money-group-pushes-scheme-to-pack-supreme-court-with-liberal-justices/.
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