Rashida Tlaib parts ways with anti-Israel consultant for terrorism-linked groups – Washington Examiner
Rashida Tlaib, a Democratic Representative from Michigan, has severed ties with political consultant Rasha Mubarak, who has been associated with groups linked to terrorism. The decision comes amid scrutiny of Mubarak’s past affiliations and actions, including her involvement with organizations connected to Palestinian terrorist factions. Tlaib’s campaign has previously paid Mubarak’s firm, Unbought Power, over $435,000 for fundraising consulting services. While the reasons for the split remain unclear, it has raised questions about Tlaib’s connections and the implications for her political future, especially given her history of controversial statements regarding Israel and support for pro-Palestinian movements. Political analysts suggest that if Tlaib is distancing herself from figures deemed too radical, it reflects broader pressures within her party.
Rashida Tlaib parts ways with anti-Israel consultant for terrorism-linked groups
EXCLUSIVE — “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has cut ties with a political consultant the Washington Examiner reported this year has a history of working for groups linked to Palestinian terrorist factions.
The reason for the Tlaib campaign’s decision is unclear, and her campaign manager, Carolina Toro-Roman, as well as the consultant, Rasha Mubarak, did not reply to requests for comment. Mubarak, a longtime ally of Tlaib, operates a Florida-based firm called Unbought Power that has raked in over $435,000 in payments earmarked under “fundraising consulting” from Tlaib’s campaign and leadership PAC since 2020, Federal Election Commission filings show.
“Our campaign is no longer working with Rasha Mubarak’s firm Unbought LLC, so if you need any assistance in fundraising or have questions on how to support congresswoman Tlaib, please know I am here to help,” Toro-Roman wrote in an automated email to the Washington Examiner in response to a press inquiry directed to Mubarak’s former Tlaib campaign email. “In solidarity, Carolina and Team Tlaib.”
The development is significant given the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Tlaib’s campaign shuffled to Mubarak and her limited liability corporation registered in St. Petersburg, Florida. Mubarak, who has also consulted for a joint “Squad” fundraising committee, recently held key roles for organizations connected to terrorists, the Washington Examiner reported in May. Mubarak once posted on social media that she was tired of hearing the “lie” that “Israel has the right to defend herself” against terrorism.
She was also arrested in May at Disney World in Orlando, Florida, for disrupting a speech by pro-Israel Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), shouting, “Fetterman, you don’t care about people, your legacy is genocide. … Free Palestine,” according to an affidavit obtained by the Washington Examiner. Mubarak was charged with trespassing and has a pretrial conference hearing scheduled in October, Florida’s Orange County Sheriff’s Office said.
“If you are too radical and damaged for Rashida Tlaib, that says a lot,” said veteran Democratic strategist Jon Reinish, who was involved in successful efforts to oust “Squad” Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
In late May, the Washington Examiner reported on Mubarak’s work on behalf of terrorism-linked groups.
Mubarak has been listed on press releases as a media contact for Alliance for Global Justice, a charity in Arizona that cannot fundraise online and recently lost top progressive donors. Payment processors and grantmakers jumped ship following a Washington Examiner investigation on Alliance for Global Justice’s sponsorship of an Israeli-designated terrorist group behind pro-Hamas protests — including after the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on Israel last year.
The pro-Hamas protest group, the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, has long shared staffers with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, an organization designated as a terrorist group in the United States. Last month, top Samidoun staffer Charlotte Kates was pictured accepting an award in Iran from its government alongside Ziyad Nakhaleh — the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist faction.
“Enough is enough,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said of Democrats such as Tlaib aligning themselves with pro-Hamas activists.
Since entering Congress in 2019, Tlaib has come under fire from Democrats and Republicans for her anti-Israel rhetoric. The Michigan Democrat co-founded a group called Black for Palestine that has pledged “solidarity” with terrorists. She also has been part of a secret pro-Hamas group on Facebook, the platform Tlaib uses to target her campaign ads to readers of the Qatari-backed website Al Jazeera.
Mubarak was also recently the president of the advocacy arm of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, which has reportedly sponsored the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions National Committee. The BDS National Committee includes a separate coalition counting Hamas and other terrorist groups as members. A project of Alliance for Global Justice called the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel has also sponsored the BDS National Committee.
Mubarak’s USCPR group was registered in Virginia but is no longer active, according to corporate records. Mubarak is also no longer listed in FEC records as the treasurer for Tlaib’s leadership PAC, Rooted in Community Leadership. The treasurer is now Democratic consultant Lauren Decot Lee, according to financial disclosures.
Between 2015 and 2018, Mubarak worked for the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The national CAIR group was an unindicted co-conspirator of Hamas in a 2009 terrorism financing case, court records show. Former top CAIR staffer Ghassan Elashi was convicted for funneling millions of dollars to Hamas.
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