Ammar Campa-Najjar Refuses to Return Money from CAIR Leaders — Again

Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar is refusing — again — to return donations from leading members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

As Breitbart News has noted:

In 2007-8, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the terror financing trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. That case, in turn, led the FBI to discontinue its work with the organization. In 2009, a federal judge ruled that the government “produced ample evidence to establish” the ties of CAIR with Hamas, the Palestinian terror organization . The United Arab Emirates labeled CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 (a decision that the Obama administration opposed).

Moreover, CAIR also provided legal assistance to the family of the San Bernardino terrorists in 2015, a husband-and-wife who murdered 14 people and wounded 22 at a Christmas party. A CAIR spokesman blamed the attack, in part, on U.S. foreign policy.

Recently, the Islamist Money in Politics (IMIP) project, part of Daniel Pipes’s Middle East Forum, identified Campa-Najjar as the #5 recipient of “Islamist money” in the 2017-8 election cycle, thanks to nearly $9,000 in campaign contributions from senior members of CAIR. On Friday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported — in an article defending Campa-Najjar — that he had received even more, $17,300, from “board members” of CAIR.

Campa-Najjar told the Union-Tribune that he is still refusing to return the funds. He also denies that there is any “CAIR money”:

“I reject the premise,” he said. “There is no CAIR money,” he said, adding that it comes from hard-working doctors and lawyers and others.

“Why would I give back American money that’s legal?”

The Union-Tribune cites the far-left, George Soros-funded organization J Street in Campa-Najjar’s defense, falsely referring to J Street as a “pro-Israeli” group in noting that J Street does not consider CAIR to be extremist.

J Street opposes the Israeli government to such an extreme extent that Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. refuses to meet with it. J Street often takes anti-Israel positions in lobbying Congress — such as promoting the Goldstone Report, which falsely accused Israel of war crimes in Operation Cast Lead, a war to stop Hamas rockets in 2008-9. There is no sense in which J Street’s position can be taken seriously as a reflection of “pro-Israeli” opinion.

In addition to receiving money from CAIR leaders, the Campa-Najjar campaign has also donated to CAIR. It also received a $250.00 donation from a Palestinian ambassador, which the campaign likewise refuses to return.

Campa-Najjar’s paternal grandfather was a Palestinian terrorist who worked closely with Yasser Arafat and was involved with the murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. Campa-Najjar is challenging incumbent Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) in California’s 50th congressional district. Hunter was recently indicted on federal charges of misusing campaign funds, though he says he is innocent and the charges are politically motivated.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.