Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, has referred the Council on American-Islamic Relations, California chapter, to the IRS for investigation and “potential revocation of its tax-exempt status.”
In a Jan. 13 letter to the IRS, addressed to Acting Commissioner Scott Bessent and CEO Frank Bisignano, Smith said CAIR-CA has engaged in conduct including “material support for activity resulting in violation of the law” and providing “misleading information to the IRS.”
He wrote that “this conduct, coupled with CAIR’s troubled history, connections to Hamas and recent designation as a terrorist organization by the State of Texas, raises questions regarding whether CAIR-CA meets the standards required to maintain tax-exempt status.”
He cited evidence suggesting that CAIR-CA “institutionally endorsed and materially supported several encampments on college campuses across California,” some of which “resulted in violations of the law.”
Smith also pointed to a UCLA encampment that “resulted in the arrests of more than 200 individuals” and said the agency’s San Diego branch institutionally supported an encampment at the University of California, San Diego that resulted in 64 arrests.
The referral to the IRS also raises questions about CAIR-CA’s handling of federal refugee legal-aid funding, citing reporting that the organization received “more than $7 million in federal refugee legal-aid funding” but “assisted less than 10% of the proposed Afghan refugees” and “sub-granted half of the money to CAIR-Los Angeles, an unregistered entity.”
Smith argued the sub-grant appeared “to be a facade to merely obscure the trace of taxpayer funds and redirect the funding back to CAIR-CA.”
