“Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars since being elected to Congress to a consulting firm led by an anti-Israel activist working on behalf of groups linked to Palestinian terrorist factions, records show.
Tlaib, who often faces criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for her anti-Israel rhetoric and defense of a phrase calling for the destruction of the Jewish state, has delivered more than $435,000 in payments earmarked for “fundraising consulting” since 2020 from her campaign and leadership PAC to Unbought Power, according to Federal Election Commission filings. The Florida-based limited liability corporation is operated by Rasha Mubarak, a close ally of Tlaib’s who recently held key roles for terrorism-tied organizations in the United States.
The routine cash transfers from Rashida Tlaib for Congress and Rooted in Community Leadership PAC to Unbought Power underscore how the congresswoman has aligned herself with activists helping to coordinate operations for entities sharing connections to Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist factions. A joint fundraising committee for members of the Squad, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Cori Bush (D-MO), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and other Democrats, also paid $86,000 to the firm run by Mubarak, who once said she is tired of hearing the “lie” that “Israel has the right to defend herself” against terrorism.
Now, the progressive-left and pro-Palestinian base of the Democratic Party in Tlaib’s home state of Michigan is unhappy with the Biden administration for backing Israel amid its war against Hamas. One veteran Biden-allied Democratic strategist told the Washington Examiner the company the Squad keeps is “disturbing, antisemitic, and anti-American.” But to Republicans, Biden isn’t doing nearly enough to distance himself from anti-Israel activists defending terrorism due to a political calculation he is making for the 2024 election.
“Democrats as a whole have caved to their pro-terror base and abandoned Israel as they seek to help President Joe Biden win Michigan,” Will Reinert, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said.
Between 2023 and 2024, Tlaib’s campaign and leadership PAC have paid $139,000 to Unbought Power, with $43,000 of that sum being sent to Mubarak’s firm just this year.
Mubarak was recently listed as a press contact on the website of the Arizona-based charity Alliance for Global Justice, which has been cut off by payment processors and has lost top donors over a series of Washington Examiner reports on its ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Alliance for Global Justice and its offshoots, including the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, cannot fundraise online and are now instructing the public to mail checks to AFGJ’s address in Tucson, Arizona.
The Tlaib consultant, according to corporate records filed in Virginia, is also president of the advocacy arm of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
The U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights has sponsored the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee, which includes a separate coalition reportedly counting Hamas, the PFLP, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as members. The BDS National Committee shares close ties to AFGJ since a project that has been under the Arizona-based charity called the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel is a founding member of the committee.
On May 9, the Mubarak-led advocacy arm of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights submitted documents to Virginia’s corporation commission indicating it would soon dissolve.
However, the 501(c)(4) nonprofit group has not yet filed a necessary termination report due May 31, meaning it may have to pay a 2024 registration fee, an employee for the corporation commission said.
“I’m assuming maybe they don’t know,” the employee told the Washington Examiner, noting it’s unusual for a group to have not already filed this report.
Mubarak and Alliance for Global Justice did not reply to requests for comment. The Tlaib consultant also worked from 2015 to 2018 as a top staffer for the Florida chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, according to Mubarak’s LinkedIn profile.
CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator of Hamas in a 2009 terrorism financing case, and one of its former top staffers, Ghassan Elashi, was convicted in 2008 for helping to funnel millions of dollars to Hamas.
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The Biden White House has sought to distance itself from CAIR after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel over CAIR’s national director, Nihad Awad, saying he “was happy to see” Palestinians “break the siege” that day.
Tlaib’s campaign did not return a request for comment.
