Two nonprofits linked to Marxist tech tycoon Neville Roy Singham have rejected a congressional ultimatum to turn over financial records, accusing lawmakers of using a foreign-influence investigation to target their political views and violate their First Amendment rights.
The People’s Forum Inc., a New York City-based activist hub, and BreakThrough News, a far-left nonprofit media outlet, fired back in letters Tuesday to the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which threatened to haul their leaders — and Singham himself — before Congress to answer questions under oath.
The People’s Forum blasted the latest congressional crackdown as a “MAGA-led witch hunt.”
BreakThrough News and its supporters accuse the committee of targeting the outlet over its coverage of Israel and immigration enforcement, while lawmakers maintain the probe concerns the organizations’ finances and structure.
HOUSE PANEL WARNS SINGHAM-LINKED NONPROFITS: COMPLY WITH SUBPOENAS OR FACE CONGRESS
The showdown comes as the Republican-led committee, headed by Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., investigates whether millions of dollars flowing through Singham’s network of tax-exempt nonprofits are being used to advance Chinese Communist Party interests in the United States.
“This approach is tantamount to holding the staff of BreakThrough News hostage,” attorneys for BreakThrough News wrote in their Oct. 20 response, accusing the committee of threatening seven newsroom employees with depositions unless the outlet abandons its constitutional objections.
The attorneys also challenged the committee’s foreign influence allegations, pointing to its reference to Singham, who lives in Shanghai, alongside foreign principals.
“Mr. Singham is a U.S. citizen,” the attorneys wrote.
The standoff raises the prospect of Singham being personally deposed by congressional investigators after the committee identified him among 21 potential witnesses, including nonprofit executives, activists and journalists associated with the two organizations and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, a Massachusetts-based Marxist think tank that has not publicly released a response to the latest demands.
The People’s Forum similarly condemned the committee’s latest demands in its Oct. 20 response, accusing lawmakers of using the threat of depositions against eight staff members as retaliation for asserting its First Amendment rights.
The committee did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
On their websites, BreakThrough News and The People’s Forum also urged supporters to donate to help fund their legal defenses against the probe.
“This is an escalation of the same MAGA-led witch-hunt,” The People’s Forum wrote in an Oct. 21 statement beneath a black graphic declaring, “We won’t surrender our First Amendment rights.”
Both organizations also accused the committee of repeatedly changing its rationale and ignoring their legal objections but said they remained open to narrower requests.
The responses come as BreakThrough News has also been accused of sympathetically amplifying recent protests and unrest across Europe, including demonstrations in France that descended into violent riots, with protesters torching cars and clashing with police.
The Singham-funded outlet advertised an online discussion, “Europe’s Youth Uprising,” declaring that “a rebellion is sweeping Europe” and portraying the demonstrations as a youth uprising against rising living costs, austerity and military spending, according to a Fox News Digital report.
Ten press freedom and civil liberties organizations, including PEN America, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and the Society of Professional Journalists, have also backed BreakThrough News, accusing the committee of targeting its political views and warning that forcing journalists to testify could threaten press freedom.
“Rep. Smith’s shameless targeting of BreakThrough News for editorial viewpoints that he dislikes shows a complete disregard of the First Amendment,” Seth Stern, chief of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement published by BreakThrough News.
In their Oct. 20 letter, the groups called on the committee to abandon its investigation into the outlet and refrain from issuing further subpoenas.
‘MCCARTHY TRIALS’: HASAN PIKER, FAR-LEFT FIGURES ERUPT OVER SUBPOENAS IN $39M SINGHAM PROBE
The committee alleges that Singham routed money through shell companies and donor-advised funds, obscuring the original source of contributions to the three nonprofits. Singham, an American-born Marxist tech tycoon who now lives in Shanghai, sold his software company, ThoughtWorks, for an estimated $785 million in 2017.
A previous Fox News Digital investigation traced at least $278 million from Singham into six core U.S. nonprofits that served as funding hubs within a broader international network of activist groups, media organizations and think tanks promoting socialist, communist and pro-China causes.
Of that funding, $22.44 million flowed to The People’s Forum, $16.76 million to Tricontinental and $1.098 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc., the parent organization of BreakThrough News.
The three received approximately $40.3 million combined, according to Fox News Digital’s investigation, which the committee cited in its earlier correspondence.
The committee said it is examining whether existing tax laws adequately protect against foreign influence in the nonprofit sector and whether Congress should strengthen those laws.
“Shanghai Singham has poured millions of dollars into these groups to take advantage of America’s nonprofit sector and promote Chinese Communist Party propaganda. That much is public. What these groups are fighting to keep hidden is even more concerning,” Smith said in an Oct. 13 statement.
“Either these organizations turn over the documents, or their leaders will answer the Committee’s questions under oath.”
The committee has not publicly identified evidence showing the organizations are concealing information related to foreign influence. Fox News Digital sought an update from the committee following the Oct. 20 deadline but had not received a response as of publication.