The Congressional Leadership Fund exposed ties between Abigail Spanberger, the Democrat nominee in Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District, and a radical Islamic school that produced terrorists, as well as her connection to America’s “deep state.”
On Tuesday, Spanbeger’s campaign sent a letter to the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF), which her campaign shared with members of the media, including the New York Times, threatening legal action against CLF over information about the Virginia Democrat, which was obtained through legal channels. CLF obtained this information through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in conjunction with America Rising, a Republican campaign research and rapid response group and through information obtained from the United States Postal Service (USPS) as a result of the request.
Both the New York Times and BuzzFeed News ran articles this week decrying that the CLF obtained her federal security clearance application and other information that might implicate her privacy. However, as the CLF notes in a press release on Tuesday, they redacted any personal information, such as her telephone number and Social Security number.
The CLF amassed a $100 million war chest dedicated to helping Republicans maintain a majority after the November midterm elections.
The FOIA revealed that Spanberger worked at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia, which critics referred to as “Terror High.” In November 2007, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), and ten other senators wrote to the State Department based on a religious freedom commission’s recommendation that the school should shut down.
The Islamic Saudia Academy also had textbooks that said that Allah believed murder was permissible for adulterers and those who convert away from Islam:
Another passage from one Islamic Saudi Academy said that “the Jews conspired against Islam and its people” and said that one Jew, Allah bin Saba, “began spewing his malice and venom against the third Caliph, Uthman.”
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a former valedictorian at the school, was charged with joining al-Qaeda while attending college in Saudi Arabia. The former student was convicted of several charges, including plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
CLF spokesman Courtney Alexander said in a statement on Tuesday regarding Spanberger’s “politically-motivated” threat of legal action against CLF:
It should surprise no one that Ms. Spanberger would want to hide from voters that she worked at a school that produced some of the world’s most dangerous terrorists. CLF follows the letter of the law in examining any candidate’s background and Ms. Spanberger was no different. That she’s threatening legal action, however, should raise serious questions for voters about what else she is trying to hide. For any interested parties, CLF is happy to provide redacted copies of the information Ms. Spanberger is trying to hide from voters in Virginia.
Beyond her connections to “Terror High,” Spanberger has deep-rooted connections with what President Donald Trump has lambasted as the “deep state.” The deep state is typically understood as a large cabal of national security actors, government bureaucrats, and other government actors that work to undermine Trump’s America First agenda and subvert the mandate of the 2016 presidential election.
Spanberger spent eight years in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) investigating international terrorism cases, and she has used her intelligence work to connect with Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District, which expands from the suburbs of Richmond, Virginia, to the outskirts of Washington, DC.
“When I decided to run for Congress, I took stringent measures for my campaign because, as a former C.I.A. operative, I assumed I would be the target of attacks,” she said this week in a letter threatening the CLF. “But I expected those attacks to come from foreign adversaries, not domestic groups associated with members of Congress, like CLF.”
In contrast to Spanberger, who hopes to unseat Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), Brat has fought for President Trump’s America First agenda, including securing America’s southern border and reforming immigration.
In an interview with Breitbart News Tonight, Congressman Brat, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told host Rebecca Mansour that “we shouldn’t be losing any lives” at the hands of illegal immigrants.
Rep. Brat spoke with Mansour about Cristhian Bahena-Rivera, an illegal immigrant, who was arrested for murdering 20-year-old Iowan Mollie Tibbetts.
“In this country, unfortunately, the Rule of Law, itself, and our law enforcement officials and our ICE officials who work on immigration and internal enforcement and all of that are under complete attack right now,” Brat said.
Congressman Brat has worked with House conservatives to pass legislation, such as House Judiciary chairman Bob Goodlatte’s (R-VA) immigration bill, which would fully fund President Trump’s $25 billion border wall, end the diversity visa, terminate chain migration, and enact a merit-based immigration system.
“People need to lay down the law and elect people who want to secure our borders and maintain the Rule of Law and everything that’s made this country great. And if you don’t maintain the borders, you don’t have a country. We shouldn’t be losing any lives in this way,” the Virginia conservative added.