Stefanik, Cotton urge Trump administration to probe CAIR over ‘potential ties’ to Hamas
By Caitlin McCormack | New York Post | Published Oct. 14, 2025
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.