The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights heard extensive testimony this week at a hearing titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Confronting the Muslim Brotherhood Network in America,” examining allegations about the group’s influence and activities across US institutions. Chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the hearing featured three witnesses: retired FBI special agent Laura Burns, National Jewish Advocacy Center senior litigation counsel Ariela Kleypas, and Center for Security Policy homeland security analyst Kyle Shidler.

Together, the witnesses laid out a case built substantially on evidence from the 2008 prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) — the largest terrorism financing case in US history — arguing that the network exposed in that trial has evolved and persisted rather than being dismantled, and that key organizations named as unindicted co-conspirators, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), remain active today.

The 1993 Philadelphia Meeting

Burns, who spent 23 years with the FBI and served as lead investigator on the Holy Land Foundation case before joining George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, told the subcommittee that support infrastructure for foreign terrorist organizations has existed inside the United States for decades, typically operating under the cover of charity, advocacy, or activism.

She pointed to a 1993 meeting in Philadelphia, lawfully wiretapped by the FBI, at which members of a group called the Palestine Committee — made up of front organizations including the HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR) — discussed plans to support Hamas abroad while infiltrating American universities, media, and politics. According to Burns, attendees described their approach using the phrase “war is deception,” and discussed reshaping US school curricula so that, in their words, children would not grow up “surrendering to the idea of peace with Jews.”

Burns testified that CAIR co-founder Nihad Awad was a participant in the 1993 meeting and remains CAIR’s executive director today. She said that, based on the evidence developed during the HLF investigation, CAIR would still warrant further scrutiny if she were an active agent today, and confirmed under questioning that she believes the underlying conspiracy remains active and that some entities named as unindicted co-conspirators in the HLF case continue operating.

A Memo on Record

Kleypas, a former federal prosecutor now with the National Jewish Advocacy Center, cited a 1991 memorandum seized by the FBI from the home of a Muslim Brotherhood member, which she said described the group’s US strategy as a “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within.” She said the same 1993 Philadelphia meeting discussed the creation of what became CAIR specifically to give the network a “neutral-sounding” public face.

Allegations of Ongoing Ties and School Curricula

Kleypas outlined several examples she said illustrate CAIR’s continued proximity to designated terrorist figures and organizations, including a 2025 event moderated by a CAIR Ohio chapter director that featured a Hamas member, which CAIR characterized as an oversight, and ongoing amplification of CAIR’s messaging by a group founded by the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

She also told the subcommittee that CAIR New Jersey had promoted a curriculum, adopted in some form by nearly 30 public school districts, that frames the September 11 attacks as a consequence of US foreign policy, and that CAIR has pursued relationships with additional districts, including in Chicago and Philadelphia.

Kleypas further testified that CAIR California reported receiving roughly $54 million in federal grant funding and, in 2024 IRS filings, distributed more than $4 million in subgrants to 39 organizations — including funds to a California chapter of the Muslim American Society, which she said federal prosecutors have previously described as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.”

Legal Tactics and the “Successor Organization” Loophole

Kleypas described what she characterized as a pattern of Brotherhood-affiliated groups using litigation to delay or obstruct government investigations, citing an ongoing Texas case over CAIR’s state terrorist designation in which the state has filed multiple motions to compel court-ordered discovery, and a Virginia case in which CAIR affiliate American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) was held in civil contempt for not complying with the state attorney general’s investigatory demands.

She urged Congress to close what she called the “successor organization loophole,” referencing a case in which a $156 million judgment against the Islamic Association for Palestine over the killing of an American teenager was followed, she said, by the organization dissolving and re-forming under a new name within a year.

A Longer Historical Arc

Shidler, of the Center for Security Policy, placed the Holy Land Foundation case alongside other historically significant legal proceedings, including the Alger Hiss espionage case and the 1957 Apalachin raids that first revealed the scope of organized crime in America, arguing that HLF similarly exposed the Muslim Brotherhood’s presence in the US dating to 1962.

He testified that the Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has historically pursued its goals through front groups, influence over religious institutions, and political engagement rather than relying solely on violence, and that HLF trial evidence indicated one in four American mosques were at one point under the influence of the Hamas-linked North American Islamic Trust.

Shidler also testified regarding political alliances, describing what he called a “red-green alliance” between Brotherhood-linked groups and the Democratic Socialists of America, and raised concerns about the Michigan US Senate candidacy of Abdul El-Sayed, citing the candidate’s family and organizational ties as areas of concern. He testified that, in his assessment, the domestic Muslim Brotherhood network is central to the group’s global agenda and represents both a foreign and domestic threat that has grown over time.

Legislative Proposals

Sen. Cruz referenced two legislative proposals during the hearing: the Stop Funders Act, which he said would add rioting to the list of predicate offenses under federal racketeering law, and the Sponsor Act, aimed at holding tax-exempt fiscal sponsors liable for the conduct of organizations they sponsor. Kleypas testified that enforcement of existing laws — including Treasury sanctions, material support statutes, and IRS review of nonprofit status — along with closing the successor-organization loophole, would address much of the conduct described in the hearing.

All three witnesses were asked directly whether they believed the United States “deserved” the September 11 attacks, a reference to remarks by a figure who has campaigned alongside El-Sayed. Each witness rejected the framing. Burns called any suggestion that victims of the attacks deserved to die “shameful”; Kleypas described the broader reframing of 9/11 as a consequence of US foreign policy as “an incredibly dangerous rhetorical tool”; and Shidler said he “concurred” that the statement was horrific.

Cruz noted at the close of the hearing that written questions for the record would be accepted through August 12, with witness responses due back to the committee by August 26.