Virginia judge denies pro-Palestinian group’s bid to limit attorney general’s demand for documents

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – A Richmond judge has ordered a Virginia-based pro-Palestinian group to hand over documents to Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office as part of an investigation into its fundraising and allegations that it indirectly supports Hamas.

Miyares’ office is looking into whether the northern Virginia-based group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) 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 attorney general’s office sent AMP a civil investigative demand (CID) 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.

The AJP Educational Foundation, Inc., a part of AMP, filed a petition seeking to narrow the AG’s demand “to appropriate areas of focus within its purview,” specifically to documents related to its fundraising activities and compliance with state law.

The group’s petition claimed the demand went beyond the purpose of Miyares’ investigation and his office’s scope 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.

On Tuesday, a Richmond Circuit Court judge denied the request.

“Under Virginia law, the Office of the Attorney General has the jurisdiction to investigate possible violations of the Commonwealth’s charitable registration and solicitation laws,” a news release from the AG’s office announcing the court’s decision Tuesday. “In October 2023, the Virginia Office of the Attorney General issued a CID to AMP seeking information regarding its compliance with Virginia’s charitable registration and solicitation laws.

The judge found the AG’s office “had a right to ask about past noncompliance and to seek compliance,” Christina A. Jump, an attorney for the Muslim Legal Fund of America, wrote in an email to 8News.

“We have never disputed the Attorney General’s right to do that — as to compliance with Virginia requirements,” Jump continued. “The Court did not explain its ruling with any further details, and there is no order yet, so we will discuss with the Attorney General’s office’s attorneys what they seek for ‘compliance.’”

Jump told 8News that the AG’s office claimed in court for the first time Tuesday that AMP is not compliant yet, “despite a letter from the Commonwealth in January saying so, and that they now expect AMP to have retroactively filed for past years.” She added that it would’ve “been nice” if Miyares’ office “brought that up to us directly prior to today.”

“Nonetheless, if they want that we can probably do that. If they want all donor records and all transactions for all time, we won’t,” Jump wrote. “Those are protected by the First Amendment, among other laws.”

Jump added that AMP hopes the AG’s office communicates directly with them and clarifies its concerns to get them on the same page.

“And if their concern is really compliance with the Virginia statute, we can do that with the retroactive filings they raised in court today,” Jump wrote. “If they don’t really want compliance, or expect us to ‘comply’ with violations of federally protected rights, then there will be more stages to our legal challenge.”

While she said she doesn’t have a transcript to precisely confirm the words the judge used in the court’s verbal order Tuesday, Jump said the judge focused on how Miyares’ office was allowed to request documents in light of AMP’s failure to file the required paperwork to register as a charitable organization in Virginia.

Jump added that the paperwork was submitted in November 2023, less than 30 days after the AG’s office issued a civil investigative demand “and well before the deadline to respond to it, renewed in May, and now valid through November 2024.”

“The judge also instructed the parties to confer on a written order to submit to the Court and while I have seen the AG’s press release today, I have not seen the upcoming proposed order nor have the parties conferred on the language yet,” Jump wrote.

Miyares’ initial announcement of the investigation, which AMP described as “not only defamatory, but dangerous” in a statement , 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 separate civil 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.

The group’s petition also alleged 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.”

In March , Jump told 8News in an interview 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 then, 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.

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.”

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 in the court case.

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.

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 and amid Israel’s ongoing war effort in Gaza.

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