“Truth Over Facts”: Key Deletions in Biden Admin Official Report

The Biden Administration is planning to restart funding for the Palestinian Authority (PA) by sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to the PA which aids terrorist organizations. To make matters worse, in a new State Department report that is sent to Congress yearly mandated by the 1990 Palestine Liberation Organization Commitments Compliance Act, the Biden Administration omitted specific references to the Palestinian government’s involvement with terrorists as well as support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The Biden Administration State Department report was nearly identical to former President Trump’s State Department report. Except for both of these issues – the Palestinians calling for violence and the BDS movement – were included in the Trump Administration’s report. So why were they deleted in the Biden Administration’s report?

ACLJ Senior Counsel Jeff Ballabon joined Sekulow to explain his read on the situation:

"Look, this is part of an overall push by the Biden Administration to undo the gains that took place under the previous Administration – under the Trump Administration. . . . They are sending them [the PA] hundreds of millions of dollars which as we know the PA is using to fund hate [and] terrorists; and now, they are trying to eradicate from the record the fact that this ongoing incitement of violence and payment of terror is going on."

ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs Mike Pompeo commented on if these deletions could be an attempt to give the PA a free pass when it comes to aiding terror:

"It looks like it. I’ve seen the record, the reporting of what they have assertedly done. If they have left this out, it is almost certainly intentional. . . . My sense is that they knew precisely what they were doing. It would appear that it is aimed at not having a factual record when they go to do the kinds of things they want to do to underwrite the Palestinians and to perhaps violate the Taylor Force Act. There are a lot of reasons you would want to leave those facts out when reporting to Congress. I hope that is not the case, but we have seen this for so long. We’ve seen this Administration take a very different approach to issues in the Middle East. . . . This is a very different relationship with Israel, our closest ally, friend, and partner. And their willingness to play footsie with the terrorists in the West Bank, and not hold accountable the folks in the Gaza Strip. This is something we have already seen a lot of evidence from in these first five or six months of this Administration."

ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell gave his insight into what is going on at the State Department:

"Let’s be very clear on what this current State Department under Secretary of State Blinken is doing. After the last year where career Foreign Service Officers have been collecting information about terror acts that the Palestinians have been doing – this information has gone into the draft reports. But the political people at the State Department – the Biden political people – overruled the career officials and removed that information that had been being collected. Now, this is denying facts. This is politicizing the situation. All because they are rushing to try to have some sort of a deal. But I don’t think any deal is ever going to hold. You don’t make any progress diplomatically if you somehow ignore the facts. And that is where I think we are different between the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration. We had to confront uncomfortable facts when it came to trying to move us forward diplomatically. Too many people in Washington, D.C., stick their head in the sand, pretend like a conflict doesn’t exist, and then schedule a big fancy lunch and pretend like they made progress. That is not progress, that is ignoring the facts."

And Ambassador Grenell, as former Acting Director of National Intelligence, and Sec. Pompeo, as former Secretary of State, would know.

We are fighting these issues on multiple fronts. We have already sent a written submission to the United Nations to condemn Hamas and the PA for violating human rights laws. We’ve even filed a lawsuit over the Biden Administration violating the Taylor Force Act and resumed funding to the PA. And just recently, I sent a letter to President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the antisemitic attacks around the country and the world.

We aren’t going to stop there. Our legal team is currently working on another Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get to the bottom of who authorized the deletion of this vital information from the State Department report and why.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with further analysis of the Biden State Department’s deletion of information in its annual report to Congress.