Carter Center Sued for Providing Support to Terrorists, Defrauding Taxpayers
Trump admin says case too expensive to prosecute, seeks dismissal.
The Trump administration is seeking the dismissal of a suit alleging the nonprofit helmed by former president Jimmy Carter has used taxpayer funding to provide material support to international terrorist groups, including Hamas.
The Zionist Advocacy Center, which filed the recently unsealed suit in 2015, alleges the Carter Center received more than $30 million in taxpayer grants while violating federal statutes barring it from using the cash to provide material support to terror groups.
The DOJ maintained in its motion to dismiss the case that the core issue represents "a difference of opinion with the Carter Center about how to resolve conflict in the Middle East" and, for that reason, does not violate laws barring material support to terror groups.
"If the United States were to decline to intervene in the case … the United States, as the real party of interest, likely would be required to devote considerable resources to the litigation," the DOJ argued.
Yifa Segal, director of the International Legal Forum, a group involved in the case, told the Free Beacon that DOJ’s legal arguments do not hold water.
"Representatives of the Carter Center have engaged in discussions and meetings with members of Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine"
Due to the publicly available nature of these interactions, the DOJ maintains the activity should not be classified as material support for terrorists.
http:// freebeacon.com/national-security/carter-center-sued-providing-support-terrorists-defrauding-taxpayers/