Disclosure Proves MAS Paid for Ellison's Hajj

by IPT News  •  Jun 16, 2009 at 1:27 pm

http://www.investigativeproject.org/blog/2009/06/disclosure-proves-mas-paid-for-ellisons-hajj

The conflicting, changing stories about who paid for Congressman Keith Ellison's pilgrimage to Mecca for the Hajj last year seems to have been sorted out by the folks at Powerline.

Despite denials from the organization, Ellison's required travel disclosures show the Muslim American Society (MAS) financed the two-week trip last November/December. Federal prosecutors say MAS was created "as the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America."

MAS had issued a firm denial that it, a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt charity, paid for a politician's global travel. As Fox News reported in January:

"Keith Ellison is a member of Congress who knows that congressmen don't take trips sponsored by nonprofits. That would be a breach of congressional ethics," said [Mahdi] Bray, executive director of the MAS Freedom Foundation.

But Ellison's office told FOXNews.com that MAS had indeed paid for the congressman's hajj.

"The trip, funded by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, was fully reviewed and approved in advance by the House Ethics Committee," Ellison's office said in a statement to FOXNews.com.

House Ethics rules allow members to accept travel expenses "only if the trip is one that is sponsored by a private source that does retain a registered lobbyist or agent of a foreign principal."

Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, has spoken at MAS fundraisers and has appeared on Bray's radio talk show.

Related Topics: Muslim American Society (MAS)  |  IPT News