Two Federal Agencies Routed Taxpayer Funds to Organizations Flagged for Terror Links, Reports Show

Two federal agencies directed substantial amounts of taxpayer money to charities and organizations that watchdogs and congressional investigators have linked to terrorism, according to recent reports examining grant records and prior investigations.

The State Department partnered with the international aid group World Vision to distribute roughly $2 billion in global health foreign assistance. An Israeli court in 2022 convicted the operations manager of World Vision’s Gaza affiliate of channeling up to $50 million to Hamas. Separately, a 2019 Senate Finance Committee investigation found that World Vision in 2014 transferred a $125,000 USAID-backed sub-grant to the Islamic Relief Agency, an entity the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in 2004 for providing support to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. The Islamic Relief Agency later admitted in federal court to illegally providing $1.4 million to Iraq in violation of U.S. sanctions and pleaded guilty to related conspiracy and money-laundering charges before shutting down.

The Department of Health and Human Services provided nearly $80 million to 14 organizations identified by the Middle East Forum as having ties to terrorism or extremism. The bulk of the funding moved through refugee resettlement, health, and related grant programs, with approximately 87 percent awarded during the prior administration. The Council on American-Islamic Relations California chapter received the largest share among the groups examined, collecting $42.2 million intended for legal and social services to Afghan refugees. Other recipients included the Islamic Circle of North America Relief, which received $10.6 million, and smaller awards to entities such as a Sacramento chapter of the Muslim American Society and a Northern Virginia mosque that had previously housed two of the September 11 hijackers.

The Middle East Forum’s audit of federal grants data found that five overseas organizations collectively received more than $14 million. Critics of the funding, including the forum’s executive director, argued that routing money intended for vulnerable refugee populations through groups with documented Islamist or extremist connections risked creating pathways for radicalization at public expense. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has long faced scrutiny over historical associations, including its designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in a federal Hamas-support case and past FBI decisions to limit contacts over concerns about its leadership. CAIR’s California chapter stated that all grants it receives are fully reported, audited, and used strictly for their intended purposes, which is why both private and public funders continue to work with the organization.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has opened a debarment investigation into CAIR to determine whether the group should be barred from future federal funding. A senior Trump administration official described World Vision as severely compromised by ties to Islamist terrorists and questioned the decision to entrust it with billions in taxpayer dollars. A State Department spokesman rejected any suggestion that the current administration is permitting diversion of foreign assistance to terrorist-linked entities and noted the administration’s record of holding Hamas and similar organizations accountable.The reports highlight gaps in federal vetting processes that allowed organizations with prior sanctions, court findings, or documented associations to receive significant public funds for humanitarian and health programs. Lawmakers and oversight groups have called for stricter terrorism screening at every level of the grant process, including sub-awards and pass-through entities, to prevent similar allocations in the future. The full extent of any diverted funds and the outcome of ongoing reviews remain under examination.