A federal judge ordered Texas chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on Tuesday to turn over donor lists and travel records in a discovery dispute tied to a lawsuit challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s designation of CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization.
U.S. District Judge Alan D. Albright granted in part motions to compel filed by Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
The ruling requires the CAIR Foundation to produce records identifying certain foreign donors and recipients of funds, as well as communications related to foreign funding.
Albright also ordered the production of records related to travel by CAIR co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad to Egypt, Gaza, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates between 2019 and 2023.
Amy Mek of the RAIR Foundation, which investigates and combats “threats from Islamic supremacists, radical leftists and their allies,” called the ruling “a massive victory for transparency and national security.”
Brandon Hall, a Republican member of the Texas State Board of Education, praised the ruling.
“Your days of masquerading as a ‘Muslim civil rights organization’ are over, CAIR,” he stated. “We will never stop until we push your terrorist organization out of Texas.”
