Politics
Election flights and donations: filing asks U.S. authorities to examine AID
According to the report, a filing asks U.S. authorities to examine AID Coalition, including an election-related flight initiative and donation channels. No offense has been established, and the document does not prove travelers received funding. The organization says participants pay their own costs and that it is nonpartisan. Its annual grant total is not proven spending on transporting voters. Excerpt from a public IRS tax return; yellow highlights appear in the source.
· Source: The Mael Review. Excerpt from the 2024 Form 990 as reproduced in the report; public IRS document, with yellow highlights in the source.
According to a report by Daniel Mael, attorney Robert Garson asked U.S. authorities to examine AID Coalition. The organization says its flight initiative does not fund participants and is nonpartisan.
According to the report, on October 25 Robert Garson of GS2Law submitted materials to the IRS Whistleblower Office and the charities unit of the Pennsylvania Attorney General. The filing addresses, among other matters, Fly&Vote, which helps Israelis abroad coordinate travel to Israel around the election. A filing is not a finding by a competent authority.
Mael cites the organization's 2024 tax return. An excerpt from Schedule F reproduced in the report lists $20,412,332 in grantmaking activity in the Middle East and North Africa, and a negative answer to the question about maintaining grant records. Data from the return in ProPublica's database show revenue of approximately $22.6 million in 2024, compared with approximately $6.8 million in 2023. These are annual organization figures, not an amount proven to have been spent flying voters to Israel.
According to the report, the filing also raises questions about a donation channel for a film about lawmaker Naama Lazimi and another for Yalla Tikva, described in the report as a private company. It also describes discrepancies in grant reporting connected with Brothers and Sisters in Arms. The filing's author notes that ordinary explanations, such as transfer timing or exchange rates, may account for the differences and asks authorities to clarify them.
On the initiative's page and in the participation terms reviewed, AID states that participants pay their own travel costs, that the initiative supports no candidate or party, and that participation is not conditional on a political choice. The terms say there is no obligation to vote and no payment or gift in exchange for voting. This is the position published on the organization's website; no direct response to the reported filing was obtained during this review.
The report stresses that no illegality has been established and reports no agency action following the materials. It also says the memorandum does not prove who paid for the tickets or whether any traveler received financial assistance. It presents the application of U.S. nonprofit election-activity rules to foreign elections as an unresolved legal question.
Source: The Mael Review
