American Muslims for Palestine ordered to comply with Virginia AG records request

(The Center Square) — A Virginia court has ordered American Muslims for Palestine to comply with records requests from Attorney General Jason Miyares' office attempting to investigate whether the group has ties to terrorists.

The Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation, also known as American Muslims for Palestine, is affiliated with AJP Action, a group that lobbies for Palestinian rights on Capitol Hill. It’s also the parent organization for National Students for Justice in Palestine, which has chapters at all four of the Virginia universities where pro-Palestinian protests resulted in arrests in April and May.

The Virginia Office of the Attorney General issued its Civil Investigative Demand to American Muslims for Palestine in October. It requests financial and other records going back to 2016 to investigate possible violations of Virginia law regarding the solicitation of charitable contributions. The AJP Educational Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.

“We have reason to believe that AMP may have solicited charitable contributions in the Commonwealth without first having been registered with the Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services,” the Demand reads, “employed misrepresentations in connection with the solicitation of charitable contributions, permitted the use of funds raised in a charitable solicitation for purposes other than the solicited purpose, and knowingly used or permitted the use of funds raised by a solicitation of contributions to provide support to terrorists, terrorist organizations, terrorist activities, or family members of terrorists.”

Congress’ Committee on Oversight and Accountability opened an investigation into the National Students for Justice in Palestine group in May.