The United States has made clear in recent weeks that it is playing no games when it comes to Cuba, as evidenced in part by its recent indictment of former Cuban dictator Raúl Castro and five others for two February 1996 plane attacks that killed four people connected to the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue mission – including three American citizens.
With the communist country firmly on President Donald Trump’s radar (see: Trump: ‘We May Stop by Cuba After We’re Finished With’ Iran), it’s unsurprising that America-hating Democratic Socialists like leftist icons Hasan Piker and CodePink co-founder Susan “Medea” Benjamin visited Cuba in March, enjoying accommodations at a five-star hotel in the process, as Legal Insurrection previously reported.
Ostensibly, they were there on the grounds that they were presenting “humanitarian aid” to its suffering people, aid that Piker and Benjamin claim is needed due to the United States’ strict embargo and sanctions against the regime.
But the United States has its doubts about that explanation, which it has made clear by serving subpoenas to both Piker and Benjamin over the trip:
Federal officials have served subpoenas to Marxist political influencer Hasan Piker and CodePink cofounder Susan Medea Benjamin as part of a wider investigation into whether U.S. organizations and leaders violated U.S. laws and sanctions in supporting Cuba’s communist regime, Fox News Digital has learned.
Piker and Benjamin are among those caught in a federal inquiry into whether activists who traveled to Cuba in March violated U.S. sanctions laws through the financing, coordination or delivery of goods to Cuba, including potential contacts with Cuban government personnel or entities on the island. The administrative subpoenas were sent to the pair by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control
The administrative subpoenas — called “Requests for Information,” or RFI — seek financial, logistical and communications information revolving around trips the two widely bragged about making to the island nation in March with delegations of the “Nuestra América Convoy,” or “Our America Convoy,” from a global network of communist sympathizers, activists and influencers who brought supplies to the country’s ruling Communist Party of Cuba, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Asra Nomani, the Fox News investigative reporter who wrote the story, shared more on X:
According to sources, @USTreasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control — or OFAC — is examining whether Hasan Piker, Medea Benjamin and other convoy participants to Cuba coordinated with:- the Communist Party of Cuba — which they allegedly publicly shared evidence doing on social media- Cuban government-linked entities — which they also allegedly publicly shared evidence doing on social media- Restricted hotel properties controlled by the regime — which they also allegedly publicly shared evidence doing on social media
The Fox News report went on to note that “[pro-China tycoon Neville Roy] Singham has pumped $278 million into nonprofit groups that have pushed pro-China, pro-Cuba, anti-U.S. narratives and street protests for almost a decade, since his marriage in February 2017 to CodePink co-founder Jodie Evans, who is also being investigated for her role in the March trip.”
“CodePink received $1.33 million from Singham after he married Evans,” they also reported.
Naturally, both Piker and Benjamin are portraying the move as more supposed evidence that the United States is cruel and heartless:
Someone else who was on that March trip to Cuba was Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (MN-05) daughter, Isra Hirsi. Omar publicly expressed support for the trip and her “brilliant young” daughter’s actions at the time. It’s unclear if the antisemitic congresswoman’s activist daughter was also subpoenaed.
Some on X wondered if Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) should also be subpoenaed, considering her admission in early May that she was communicating with other countries on ways to get oil into Cuba:
Stay tuned.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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