Chesa Boudin (/ˈtʃeɪsə buːˈdiːn/ CHAY-suh boo-DEEN; born August 21, 1980) is an American lawyer. He has served as the 29th district attorney of San Francisco since January 8, 2020. He previously served as deputy public defender of San Francisco. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Boudin was recalled from his office by voters in a special recall election on June 7, 2022.
Boudin was born in New York City to Jewish parents. His parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were Weather Underground members. When Boudin was 14 months old, both were arrested and convicted of murder for their role as getaway car drivers in the Brink's robbery of 1981 in Rockland County, New York. His mother was sentenced to 20 years to life and his father to 75 years to life for the felony murders of two police officers and a security guard.
After his parents were incarcerated, Boudin was raised in Chicago by adoptive parents Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who, like his parents, had been members of the Weather Underground.
Boudin descends from a long left-wing lineage. His great-grand-uncle, Louis B. Boudin, was a Marxist theoretician and his grandfather Leonard Boudin was an attorney who represented controversial clients, such as Fidel Castro.
Before law school, Boudin traveled to Venezuela and served as a translator in the Venezuelan Presidential Palace during the administration of Hugo Chavez.
Boudin translated Understanding the Bolivarian Revolution: Hugo Chávez Speaks with Marta Harnecker into English co-edited Letters from Young Activists: Today's Young Rebels Speak Out, and co-wrote The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions – 100 Answers.
He was funded by George Soros and endorsed for district attorney by Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders.