Republican donors funded doxxing campaign against pro-Palestinian university students
Top Republican Party donors have been contributing money to a far-right organisation that has been doxxing pro-Palestinian college students on US campuses across the country, according to the far-right group's tax return.
Accuracy in Media disclosed on its tax return, for the fiscal year ending 2023, a list of donors who combined gave a total of nearly $2m in donations to the group.
That list includes Republican megadonor Jeff Yass, the Milstein Family Foundation, the family foundation of shipping magnate Richard Uihlein, and the Adolph Coors Foundation.
Another donor was the Informing America Foundation, an organisation that was previously reported to be behind attempts to dox pro-Palestinian university students.
The tax return, reported first by CNBC News, shows that Yass gave one million dollars to Accuracy in Media.
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Accuracy in Media didn't dispute the tax document's authenticity but told CNBC that of the list of donors, Yass had not actually donated money to the group.
“Jeff Yass is not an AIM donor and never has been. I think our accounting firm made a major, major error,” AIM President Adam Guillette told CNBC.
Over the past several months, Accuracy in Media has been engaged in a campaign of doxxing and intimidating students who express pro-Palestinian views on college campuses.
The organisation was founded in 1969 and works to "expose bias in mainstream and social media", according to a statement from its current president. The organisation supported the Vietnam War and defended the use of torture by the administration of former President George Bush.
Days after Israel's war on Gaza began - in response to the 7 October attacks when Palestinian armed groups led by Hamas attacked southern Israel - the group drove a mobile billboard around Harvard University's campus displaying the names and photos of students alongside the word, "antisemites".
The organisation, which describes itself as "investigative journalism and cultural activism", continued to use mobile billboards displaying the names and photos of students across a number of universities, including the University of California-Berkeley, Columbia, Stanford, and the University of Southern California.
Most recently, Accuracy in Media drove around a mobile billboard at the University of Southern California with the name and face of Asna Tabassum, accusing the USC student of being a "leading antisemite". Tabassum had been selected as class valedictorian at USC, however, the school later cancelled her commencement speech.
The university cited security concerns, but the move happened after a wave of online attacks directed at Tabassum because of her pro-Palestinian views.
In Accuracy in Media's tax documents revealed by CNBC, the group also lists "Mow the Lawn Productions", an independent contractor hired by the group for "journalism" services.
It is unclear what the specific services of this group were and what the name of the group derives from. However, "mowing the grass", a metaphor used by Israel to describe the military's strategy of periodically targeting Gaza by launching air strikes.
Republicans have been condemning the ongoing pro-Palestinian university campus demonstrations that have swept the country, with Gaza solidarity encampments having been set up at more than 100 universities over the past month.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton has publicly said that police should have cracked down on the protests from the very beginning.
"We should not have tolerated this for a moment," he said.
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