Elise Stefanik, Tom Cotton push Trump admin to probe CAIR for potential Hamas financial link
Republican lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to investigate the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ sources of funding — including “potential ties” to Hamas.
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday, urging the department to investigate CAIR, citing the organization’s founding and leadership as points of concern.
“This pattern of historic ties to Hamas, recent public rhetoric aligned with Hamas narratives, and support for radical activism, raises serious questions about whether CAIR’s support for Hamas amounts to material support for terrorism,” read the letter, co-signed by both Republican politicians and first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
“We urge the department to immediately investigate whether CAIR maintains financial links to Hamas that constitute violation of U.S. sanctions on Hamas and ensure that none of its assets are being used to advance the objectives of Hamas.”
The letter outlined CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad and co-founder Omar Ahmad’s previous involvement in the Islamic Association for Palestine, which “federal authorities identified as a propaganda front for Hamas.”
It also pointed to their attendance at a 1993 meeting for the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, where it alleged attendees “discussed creating a new front group to support Hamas while concealing its ties,” according to the letter.
CAIR was founded just a year later in June 1994.
The lawmakers mentioned the 2008 “terrorism financing trial” where the Holy Land Foundation of Relief and Development and five of its core leaders were found guilty of “providing material support to Hamas,” according to a press release from the Department of Justice.
Stefanik and Cotton wrote that CAIR was named as “an unindicted co-conspirator” during the trial and that “evidence showed direct financial interactions between CAIR and the now-defunct Hamas-linked charity.”
This allegation, which was never proven in court, was previously highlighted in a bill filed in June 2025 seeking to review if CAIR “meets the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist organization.”
Beyond the organization’s alleged ties, the letter to Bessent also cited the questionable rhetoric used by its leaders following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas War.
The leaders, namely Awad, reportedly referred to the attacks as people “breaking the siege” and framed the war as a “decolonization” effort, according to the letter.
CAIR also juggled financial support for anti-Israel agitators and the campus protests that rocked the country during the spring of 2024.
The letter only cites the organization’s provided legal and financial support for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for his involvement in the institution’s anti-Israel encampment protests.
Amidst Khalil’s months-long detainment, CAIR filed a lawsuit against the Ivy League school to keep his records, and many other students’, out of Congress’ hands.
Cotton and Stefanik assert that CAIR’s “funding sources” would’ve been revealed — if it hadn’t recently settled the lawsuit.
The council has not historically disclosed its donors on its website or tax filings. It is also a tax-exempt organization.
In August, Cotton penned a letter to IRS Commissioner Billy Long cajoling the service to consider stripping CAIR’s tax-exempt status because it “has deep ties to terrorist organizations.”
The Post has reached out to Bessent, CAIR, Cotton and Stefanik for comment.