US Congressman Offers Assistance to Turkish-American Influence Group

After the Turk­ish Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee (TASC) donat­ed food items to a local non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion, a New Jer­sey Con­gress­man wrote a let­ter to the group, offer­ing his assis­tance should they request it. Accord­ing to the let­ter, tweet­ed by TASC:

June 25, 2021 […] The lives you impact­ed here in the Silk City will know the Turk­ish Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee for the rest of their lives. I am proud to call your orga­ni­za­tion a true friend to the peo­ple of New Jer­sey. Please con­tin­ue your char­i­ta­ble efforts to raise up the less fortunate.

Once again, I applaud you for your help, You have devel­oped a heart­felt move­ment which I per­son­al­ly hope con­tin­ues to grow and flour­ish here in the Silk City. If I can ever be of any assis­tance to your orga­ni­za­tion, please do not hes­i­tate to call on me.

Read the rest here.

As we report­ed in May, Pascrell attend­ed an iftar (Ramadan fast-break­ing cer­e­mo­ny) co-orga­nized by TASC and the Mayor’s Office of Pater­son, NJ. TASC’s cur­rent Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee and Board Mem­bers have donat­ed a total of $5,000 to Pascrell’s cam­paigns since 2005, $4,400 of which was in the past three years. The Turk­ish Amer­i­can Nation­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee (TASC) is strong­ly tied to Turk­ish Pres­i­dent Erdoğan:

• TASC co-chair Halil Mut­lu is Erdoğan’s cousin.

• TASC co-chair Gunay Evinch is a prin­ci­pal of Saltz­man & Evinch, a law firm retained by Turkey and reg­is­tered as a for­eign agent of Turkey in 2020.

• TASC’s for­mer trea­sur­er, Murat Guzel, detailed his US polit­i­cal activ­i­ties in e‑mails to Erdoğan fam­i­ly members.

Pre­vi­ous GIOR report­ing on TASC had included:

• In August, we report­ed that TASC board mem­bers host­ed a meet­ing between “Turk­ish Amer­i­can Lead­ers” and Con­gress­man Jamaal Bowman.

• In August, we also report­ed that TASC lead­ers had been brief­ing Turk­ish min­is­ters and an MP on their activ­i­ties, includ­ing those “which reach out to the US  polit­i­cal lead­ers, media, and public.”

• In July, we report­ed that TASC board mem­bers had donat­ed to New York City May­oral Can­di­date Eric Adams’s campaign.