Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, wrote to Scott Bessent, the U.S. treasury secretary on Tuesday asking the department to investigate the Council on American-Islamic Relations and to revoke its tax-exempt status.
“As a federal court found in one of the largest terrorism financing cases in American history, there is ‘ample evidence to establish’ that CAIR is associated ‘with Hamas,’ including internal documents listing CAIR under the Muslim Brotherhood’s umbrella,” Abbott wrote.
Abbott, who designated the Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terror groups last month, noted that groups listed as foreign terror organizations must have their tax-exempt status revoked.
“One recent report found that CAIR awarded $1,000 cash grants to university students as a reward for disrupting classes and intimidating and harassing fellow students while celebrating Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack,” he wrote.
“Another found that CAIR’s California affiliate took in $7.2 million of taxpayer funds, supposedly to assist in the settlement of Afghan refugees, but used ‘less than 10%,’ leaving millions unaccounted for in official filings,” he said.
“Charity must not become a backdoor to sponsor terrorism, endanger Americans and subvert our democracy,” he added.
