The Florida senator calls for the investigation of a set of far-left activist groups possibly linked to the Chinese Communist Party.
Senators Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham sounded the alarm about a network of far-left activist groups that he says might be linked to the Chinese Communist Party and urged the Justice Department to investigate their alleged foreign ties.
In a letter obtained exclusively by National Review, they urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to provide a briefing on possible ongoing investigations into several “far-left and antisemitic entities” involved in anti-Israel street protests across America. A spokeswoman for DOJ did not respond to an email asking if any such probes are under way.
National-security experts and members of Congress have for months expressed concern that foreign adversaries of the U.S. are exploiting, and possibly providing funding for, the anti-Israel movement that has taken to American streets and college campuses.
Yesterday, in a rare disclosure, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that Iranian-government actors provided financial support for the demonstrations and that Iranian operatives have contacted U.S. organizers, who were unaware that they were engaging foreign entities.
The letter today builds on an effort that began prior to the October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel. Last August, Rubio urged Garland to open Foreign Agents Registration Act probes into nine far-left activist outfits, including Code Pink, a group that gained notoriety for its frequent disruptions of congressional hearings.
The senators requested the investigations on the basis of a report from the New York Times that found that U.S. software billionaire Neville Roy Singham was bankrolling several of these organizations and maintained ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Today’s letter adds nine new groups to the list, all of which are tied to the anti-Israel mobilization. Specifically, Rubio and Graham asked Garland to investigate other groups in Singham’s network that have played a prominent role in anti-Israel demonstrations following the October 7 massacre.
“Mr. Singham has expanded his network to include not only far-left, pro-CCP entities, but also radical, antisemitic entities. One such organization is Shut It Down for Palestine (SID4P), an entity established in October 2023,” the letter stated.
Shut It Down for Palestine is a coalition of several anti-Israel activist outfits, many of which are located in the New York metro area. Rubio and Graham cited a report from the Network Contagion Research Institute that found that several of the key organizations within SID4P receive funds from Singham. That report found that the SID4P movement “represents a significant evolution in networked influence and coordinated direct-action aimed at disrupting critical infrastructure and inflaming protests both across the U.S. and across the globe.”
Rubio and Graham pointed to the involvement of Samidoun, another group that advocates the release of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli custody. Samidoun was present at several key demonstrations, including on the streets surrounding Columbia University in April and May.
The senators cited open-source reporting that indicates that Samidoun is tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the U.S. has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.
Singham, Code Pink, Samidoun, and SID4P did not respond to requests for comment.
Rubio and Graham suggested that the Singham network could be linked to Beijing’s united-front political-influence ecosystem, which seeks to cultivate allies outside of the CCP to do its bidding.
“We must not allow the CCP to succeed in winning the information war it is actively waging against our country. The United States can and should protect legitimate political discourse, but we must not tolerate attempts by our primary adversary to exploit our open system to promote its malign agenda,” they wrote.