RFK Jr. – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly floated a federal investigation into the Council on American-Islamic Relations and related chapters, arguing HHS will act on fraud allegations and alleged links to designated terrorist orga
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted online that he was calling for federal action—then. in private. CAIR California says HHS reassured it without committing to anything. Days later. the secretary returned to social media with a broader public claim: an investigation involving not just CAIR California. but also CAIR national and CAIR Washington.
For CAIR, the timing felt less like an orderly inquiry than a message designed to land with an audience already primed for suspicion.
CAIR’s national headquarters in Washington. D.C. was shocked when Kennedy announced last month that HHS was demanding federal action on allegations that the Council on American-Islamic Relations. also known as CAIR. and its California and Washington affiliates had misused federal grant funds. Kennedy. described as a right-wing pushmaker who has urged action beyond his day-to-day responsibilities as HHS secretary. wrote on X that “If there is evidence of fraud. abuse. or ties to designated terrorist organizations. we will act.”.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy director, said the organization had never received—and never solicited—federal funding from Health and Human Services.
“Not even a penny,” Mitchell said. “[Kennedy] would know that if he had spent any amount of time doing research before he decided to publicly attack us in this way.”
The dispute sits at the center of a wider political battle over targeting Muslim Americans. with CAIR described by its critics as a threat and by its advocates as a civil rights organization. CAIR has been a thorn in President Donald Trump’s side since his first administration. when the group sued to block Trump’s “Muslim ban.” In Trump’s second term. CAIR national and its local chapters have continued to push back against the administration’s anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim agenda through courts and public statements.
Mitchell and others say the investigation talk appears to track demands from Republican lawmakers. Kennedy’s efforts are described in the material as an attempt to satisfy Republican members of Congress led by Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. who argued—without evidence in the way the dispute is described here—that CAIR and its affiliates were connected to international terrorist organizations and had misused federal funds intended to help settle Afghan refugees.
Roy and his colleagues pressed Kennedy to act, and the escalation that followed left CAIR’s leadership wondering whether it was a real investigation or a political move timed to energize a base ahead of a midterm push.
During election cycles. Saher Selod. director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. said. “we see the ramping-up of this type of anti-Muslim rhetoric.” Selod added that saying CAIR national should be investigated follows “a playbook of trying to motivate a base to come out and vote. ” with Muslims “become the bait in this moment.”.
While CAIR national has never received HHS funding. CAIR California and CAIR Washington operate separately from the national branch and are overseen by their own boards of directors. Both chapters. according to the material. received federal health dollars to provide legal services to Afghan refugees fleeing after the Taliban took power in 2021.
Both CAIR California and CAIR Washington denied wrongdoing and emphasized vetting by their respective states and the federal government before using the contested funds.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR California, said CAIR California “won’t get anything out” of an investigation and framed it as an effort aimed at delegitimization.
“It is merely an attempt to create smear and destruction, to silence … the most important American Muslim voices in the country when it comes to issues dealing with Israeli abuses and the U.S. funding of those abuses.”
The call for action against CAIR arrived amid a broader surge in anti-Muslim attacks tied to political disputes. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in December in designating CAIR as a “foreign terrorist organization.” In Tennessee, Republican Rep. Andy Ogles posted on X that “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”.
The fight is not confined to Republicans, either. The material notes that during last year’s New York City mayoral election, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand had to apologize for comments characterizing now-Mayor Zohran Mamdani. who is Muslim. as supportive of a “global jihad.” Before winning New Jersey’s June primary. Dr. Adam Hamawy faced attacks from some Democratic opponents over a brief 1995 trial testimony he gave for a religious leader convicted of plotting terror attacks. which Hamawy’s campaign described as well-worn Islamophobic tropes.
For Roy. the pressure on Kennedy began earlier in the timeline: Roy. described as the founder of the Islamophobic “Sharia-Free America Caucus. ” had been running his own campaign for Texas attorney general when he sent a letter to Kennedy urging HHS to investigate and suspend CAIR and CAIR California. Roy accused the organizations of long-standing ties to Hamas and documented “misuse of federal grant funds.”.
CAIR California responded with its own letter to Kennedy refuting Roy’s claims as “lies. smears and defamatory statements.” The group said it was selected and vetted by the state of California to provide the services and argued its “use of public funds are fully accounted for. transparent and compliant with its legal obligations.”.
Over a month later, Ayloush described an “amicable” and “reassuring” response from HHS.
In a letter obtained in the material, Paula M. Stannard. the director of the HHS Office for Civil Rights. wrote that she was directed by Kennedy to respond to CAIR California on his behalf. Stannard wrote that “OCR plays a critical part in the effort to ensure that people are able to lead healthy lives free of discriminatory barriers. ” and that “OCR’s policy and enforcement efforts continue to protect all Americans from unlawful discrimination; ensure equal access to health and human services and respect the inherent worth and dignity of every person.”.
The letter, Ayloush said, did not commit to anything. He also said he did not get the sense that the secretary would be joining what he described as the “bashing of Muslim organizations.”
Then, only a few days later, Kennedy posted about an investigation that included CAIR California and also CAIR national and CAIR Washington.
Mitchell pointed to the sequence as evidence of a split between what was conveyed privately and what was presented publicly.
“There’s an interesting divergence between what he said privately to CAIR California in writing, and then what he said on social media,” Mitchell said.
“No subpoenas, no nothing at all, just this shot across the bow in the court of public opinion.”
So far, Mitchell said, all three organizations told the material they have not received any correspondence from HHS. Mitchell added. “To this point. we have not received any communication from him indicating that he’s looking into anything. ” and reiterated: “No subpoenas. no nothing at all. just this shot across the bow in the court of public opinion.”.
Roy, in turn, publicly thanked Kennedy in June for “investigating CAIR’s alleged ties to the groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Imraan Siddiqi. executive director of CAIR Washington. said accusing Muslim Americans of fraud has become a politically convenient line of attack. He pointed to attacks in Washington state on predominantly Somali Muslim childcare workers after conspiracy theories—spread in Minnesota—claimed Somalis were committing child care grant fraud.
“They’ve found a line of attack that some people are responding to or resonates with them,” Siddiqi said, adding that in an era where social media can amplify misinformation, the impact can land with an audience eager to confirm its own biases.
Hatem Baizan, an Ethnic Studies lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, argued that the administration does not need to prove its claims to smear CAIR and its affiliates.
“Facts are immaterial for this current administration,” Baizan said. “The aim is to throw as much dirt as possible, use as many investigative tools as possible with the hope that you have enough delegitimization, enough doubt, to actually get people to distance themselves from CAIR.”
At the center of it all is a simple question: if HHS was planning an investigation, why did CAIR leadership say it never received subpoenas or direct correspondence—only the public impact of a social media post.
RFK Jr. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. HHS CAIR Council on American-Islamic Relations CAIR California CAIR Washington Paula M. Stannard Office for Civil Rights Afghan refugees Chip Roy Sharia-Free America Caucus Ron DeSantis Greg Abbott Andy Ogles