Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, told Newsmax on Wednesday about efforts to have the Department of Justice investigate a U.S.-based nonprofit linked to a Hamas affiliate who held Israelis hostage in the Gaza Strip.
A letter Tuesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland signed by Smith; Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability; and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, urged the DOJ to investigate The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project for violating federal laws, including laws prohibiting material support for terrorism and the filing of false tax returns.
"We have documented once we started looking into The Palestine Chronicle, we noticed that they had tax filings in at the federal level, saying that they brought in less than $50,000 a year in the tax years of '21, '22, and '23. However, in the state of Washington their tax filings show that it was over that amount," Smith told "The Record With Greta Van Susteren."
"So clearly they're lying on someone's tax returns."
The letter to Garland came on the same day that Almog Meir Jan, 22, an Israeli taken hostage during Iranian-backed Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack and rescued last month, filed a federal lawsuit in Seattle against the People Media Project. Jan claims he was held at the home of Abdallah Aljamal, a Gaza-based journalist and former Hamas spokesman who began writing articles for The Palestine Chronicle in May 2019, according to the complaint viewed by Newsmax.
Smith said his committee previously wrote to the IRS about revoking the People Media Project's tax-exempt status. He said he has not heard back from IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
"The commissioner of the IRS immediately should have revoked their tax-exempt status because it's quite crystal clear that they have been helped funneling terrorists," Smith said. "In fact, their reporter held two of the Israelis hostages and his ties to Hamas [are] quite obvious.
"So the IRS commissioner, I don't know what he's waiting on. I don't know why he has not responded to our letter yet, but he should revoke that tax status of that 501c3 [nonprofit] immediately. But also the Justice Department needs to investigate them for the crimes."
Smith said the behavior is standard for the Biden administration, which has stonewalled efforts by House Republicans in its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and other investigations.
"They feel like they don't have to answer to the American people, and they don't have to answer to members of Congress or members of the United States Senate," Smith said. "We've seen this in the impeachment inquiry investigation that we've been having.
"They have stonewalled every attempt of the investigation. We've had to go in other directions to get the information that we have received in just that area."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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