The FBI cut off CAIR over its Hamas ties – and DeSantis just called their bluff.
Now the group that funneled money to Hamas-linked terrorists is hiding behind the ACLU, hoping a federal court bails them out before Florida finishes the paperwork.
Once Florida finalizes its regulations, anyone who knowingly supports CAIR faces criminal charges – and the group knows it.
The Evidence DeSantis Is Standing On
This fight did not start in July.
DeSantis issued his first executive order designating CAIR a terrorist organization back in December 2025.
A federal judge temporarily blocked it.
So DeSantis went to the Legislature, got them to pass HB 1471, signed it into law, and on July 1 – the day it took effect – held a press conference in Tampa and named CAIR again.
That is not a man who is going to stop.
The evidence behind the designation is not DeSantis's opinion.
It is the FBI's.
https://twitter.com/RubinReportShow/status/2072391411886875053?s=20
After the Holy Land Foundation trial – the biggest terrorism financing prosecution ever brought in an American courtroom – the Bureau cut off all formal contact with CAIR.
Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of CAIR's Texas chapter, was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 65 years in federal prison for financing terrorism and funneling money to Hamas.
That is not a fringe allegation.
That is a federal conviction, in a federal court, on federal terrorism charges.
Seven CAIR officials have been arrested, convicted, or deported for terrorism-related offenses.
The trial itself produced evidence that CAIR's founders – Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad – were present at a 1993 Philadelphia meeting where Hamas supporters discussed how to disguise their financial support for the terrorist group.
The FBI wiretapped that meeting.
CAIR was identified in court documents as part of the Palestine Committee – the Muslim Brotherhood's fundraising network for Hamas in the United States.
The Holy Land Foundation funneled more than $12 million to Hamas while hiding behind the pretense of charity.
CAIR got its first Washington, D.C. office funded by a grant from that same Foundation.
Why the Delay Is Not a Defeat
Here is what the ACLU and SPLC are not telling you.
Florida's new law requires regulations before the designation becomes final.
State attorneys told the federal court on Monday those regulations are still being written – and no designation will be made until they are.
That is a bureaucratic process – not surrender.
The Cabinet still needs to ratify FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass's recommendation by majority vote.
All three Cabinet members – Attorney General James Uthmeier, CFO Blaise Ingoglia, and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson – are Republicans.
https://twitter.com/bofrench/status/2077125562447872045?s=20
CAIR filed an emergency motion demanding a federal judge immediately block the designation.
Judge Mark Walker denied it, ruling the request required more briefing before the court could act.
Florida is following through.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated CAIR a terrorist organization in November 2025.
Abbott banned the group from purchasing land in Texas and directed the state's Department of Public Safety to open a criminal investigation.
California, meanwhile, handed CAIR-CA more than $41 million in taxpayer money over the past five years.
One state is trying to put CAIR out of business.
Another state is writing them checks.
How October 7 Exposed What CAIR Actually Is
CAIR does not operate like a civil rights organization.
After the October 7 Hamas massacre – where terrorists murdered more than 1,200 Israelis and Americans and took 240 hostages, CAIR's Maryland director called it an "uprising" and labeled the victims "colonizers."
That was not a rogue employee.
That was the director.
The United Arab Emirates – a key American ally in the Middle East – officially designated CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014 over its Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas connections.
https://twitter.com/GOP_is_Gutless/status/2075559819977560382?s=20
Congress has introduced the Designating Hamas Affiliates in America Act, citing the same Holy Land Foundation evidence DeSantis is using, and calling for CAIR's assets to be frozen and its tax-exempt status revoked.
Lara Burns, the FBI's lead investigator on the Holy Land Foundation case – now head of terrorism research at George Washington University – said the trial established that a conspiracy existed among these organizations to support Hamas, and that acts were taken to further it.
She was not speaking in the past tense.
This is the record DeSantis is building into law.
The ACLU will keep filing motions.
The SPLC will keep calling it political.
And DeSantis will keep coming back.
Sources:
- Gateway Pundit, "Florida Gov. DeSantis Designates Terrorist Groups After Judge Pushes Back," July 2026.
- Governor Greg Abbott, "Governor Abbott Designates Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR as Foreign Terrorist Organizations," Office of the Texas Governor, November 18, 2025.
- H.R. 4097, "Designate CAIR as a Terrorist Organization Act," 119th Congress, June 2025.
- Christopher Rufo, "Why Did California Award This Alleged Hamas Front $40 Million?" May 6, 2026.
- Fox 4 News, "Texas CAIR Chapters Sue Governor Abbott, AG Paxton Over 'Terrorist' Designation," November 20, 2025.
- WLRN, "DeSantis: Florida Set to Label Muslim Civil Rights Nonprofit a Terrorist Group Under New Law," July 2, 2026.
