RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – A pro-Palestinian group based in Virginia wants a Richmond judge to limit what documents it must turn over to Attorney General Jason Miyares as his office investigates its fundraising and allegations that it indirectly supports Hamas.
Miyares is looking into whether the AJP Educational Foundation, Inc., a part of the northern Virginia-based group American Muslims for Palestine, violated the state’s charitable solicitation laws by asking for donations without properly registering with the state.
“In addition, the Attorney General will investigate allegations that the organization may have used funds raised for impermissible purposes under state law, including benefitting or providing support to terrorist organizations,” Miyares’ office said in a news release announcing the probe.
The AG’s office sent AMP a civil investigative demand seeking documents, including all IRS forms filed in the seven years since the group started taking donations in Virginia, and responses about its activities in the state and incorporation status.
An attorney for AMP said the group already handed over financial and other documents the AG’s office demanded for its probe into its fundraising and is now in compliance with the law, sharing a Jan. 11 letter from the state’s charitable and regulatory programs office to AJP that it received its registration statement and the group “is registered through May 15, 2024.”
But AMP — which criticized Miyares’ announcement as “not only defamatory, but dangerous” — believes the AG’s demands for other documents and information go beyond the scope of his authority and wants a Richmond Circuit Court judge to weigh in.
In a petition filed in Richmond court, AMP seeks a judge’s order to narrow the AG’s demand “to appropriate areas of focus within its purview,” specifically documents related to its fundraising activities and compliance with state law.
AMP understands that Miyares must do “the job of the AG,” Christina A. Jump, an attorney for the Muslim Legal Fund of America, told 8News, “but not a fishing exhibition with random allegations.”
In its petition, AMP claims the demand goes far beyond the purpose of Miyares’ investigation and his scope of authority by “improperly” seeking protected and extraneous donor information, details protected by attorney-client privilege, and information related to ongoing litigation “that has no bearing” on the AG’s probe.
Its petition also alleges that the AG’s demand improperly seeks info and documents related to “knowingly using or permitting” the use of funds raised to provide support to “terrorists, terrorist organizations, terrorist activities or family members of terrorists” because the AG “does not have an objective ‘reasonable cause to believe’ that AMP has any information related to any such alleged violation.”
Miyares’ announcement of the investigation cited a federal civil lawsuit that alleges AMP and other groups are disguised “alter egos” of groups that were found liable for “providing material support” to Hamas.
Those groups, the lawsuit claims, shuttered to avoid paying the parents of a man who was killed by Hamas the $156 million they were ordered to. The federal suit, which wants AMP to pay, alleges AMP and others named in the case “provide the same indirect support for Hamas” as the shuttered groups.
Jump, who represents AMP in the federal civil case in Illinois and the Richmond case, said that there’s no foundation for Miyares’ investigation into those alleged indirect ties to Hamas other than “a vague allegation without any connection.”
“Nothing has been proven” in that case, Jump told 8News, adding that AMP has not faced criminal charges from the Department of Justice and that all money it raises comes from and is spent in the United States.
She also noted that Dr. Osama Abuirshaid, executive director for AMP, filed a declaration under the penalty of perjury in the group’s court petition that states AMP has never sent money overseas or supported or funded terrorist groups.
The AG’s office argued in a court filing responding to AMP that its acknowledgment of violating state law by failing to register as a charity in Virginia “proves that reasonable cause exists to issue the CID and provides the Court with the only needed basis to deny AMP’s petition.”
The AG’s office noted AMP’s alleged links with terrorist groups made in the civil lawsuit in Illinois. It also argues that the donor information is not protected under state law, saying those documents will help it ascertain potential donors, observe potential violations and potentially uncover the organization’s motive.
Miyares’ office asserts the AG has broad authority under state law to investigate potential violations of the state’s charitable contribution law tied to terrorism. It also points to potential discrepancies in AMP’s publicly available IRS forms, including inconsistencies and missing info.
“The inconsistent treatment of AMP’s expenses over the multi-year period it has operated in Virginia gives rise to concerns that donated funds are not being used for the solicited purpose,” the AG’s office wrote in its filing.
A spokeswoman for Miyares’ office declined an interview request on the investigation, telling 8News the office doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
AMP, which describes itself as “a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the movement for justice in Palestine by educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage and through grassroots mobilization and advocacy,” says it organizes advocacy efforts, lobbies lawmakers, holds cultural events and more.
“This latest attempt to smear and silence American Muslims who speak up for Palestinian human rights is not only defamatory, but dangerous,” AMP said in a statement.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the U.S.’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization, echoed AMP’s view on Miyares’ investigation announcement, condemning it as “dangerous and defamatory political posturing.”
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization that says it “fights antisemitism, extremism and all forms of hate regardless of ideology or party,” describes AMP as an “anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist organization whose leaders have promoted violence against Israel, the denigration of Zionism and Zionists, and at times, classic antisemitic tropes.”
The ADL lists AMP as one of the primary groups behind anti-Israel rallies in the U.S. after the Oct. 7 attack carried out by Hamas that killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Hamas took some 250 hostages, killed families and a UN envoy report found “reasonable grounds” that Hamas militants committed rape and other sexual attacks on women.
The Oct. 7 attack led to Israel’s war against Hamas, an ongoing conflict that has resulted in over 30,000 Palestinians being killed, per the Gaza Health Ministry, and a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip where millions have been displaced and famine is “imminent.”
The group’s petition alleges the demand “seeks to chill” AMP’s advocacy efforts for Palestinian rights and violates the privacy rights of its supporters and donors. It also claims that since Miyares’ announcement it has faced negative press, its reputation has been damaged and raises concerns of donors being targeted and harassed.
“Extraneous topics, inflammatory language and press conferences do not comprise evidence, nor do they provide a basis for use of State resources in an inquiry beyond the scope of the relevant Virginia statutes,” the filing reads.
AMP’s petition asks the court to ban the AG from compelling it to turn over “documents and information that reveal information related to donors, members, and supporters, or taking any action to implement or enforce his demand for this information.”
It also seeks to do counter-discovery, which Miyares’ office argues should not be allowed under sovereign immunity, to learn the AG’s motive for launching the investigation and to identify the person who helped make the decision.
A hearing in the case was set for March 16, but it was continued to June.
