House Republicans Call for Al Jazeera Press Credentials To Be Suspended, Demand Company Register As ‘Foreign Agent’

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Multiple House Republicans called for the suspension of press credentials for Al Jazeera until the outlet registers as a foreign agent.

Reps. Jack Berman (R-MI,), Alex Money (R-WV), and Michael Waltz (R-FL) signed the letter sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Politico reported. The lawmakers acknowledge in the letter that most credentialed journalists for Al Jazeera International and Al Jazeera English are likely legitimate journalists, but without registering, they argue operatives could be implanted through the company’s press access.

“We have no reason to doubt that most of Al Jazeera’s credentialed journalists in the Congressional galleries are legitimate reporters, but that is not the issue,” the trio wrote. Under their plan, Al Jazeera would register an agent for the state of Qatar.

The outlet, the Republicans said, have a “startlingly large presence” on Capitol Hill.

The three wrote:

Credentialed members of the House and Senate galleries enjoy unparalleled access to the U.S. Capitol, as well as to Senators, Members of Congress, and staffers. While this access is necessary for the media to provide accurate reporting to the American public, it is also the kind of access coveted by foreign powers seeking sensitive information from inside Congress. The most recent list of press credentials issued by Congress shows that Al Jazeera’s various subsidiaries (Al Jazeera International, Al Jazeera English, and AJ+) have 136 employees who have been credentialed by Congress. For context, the New York Times has 82 employees with credentials.

Al Jazeera’s startlingly large presence on Capitol Hill takes on a new significance in light of the recent Associated Press investigation, which found that ex-CIA agents working on behalf of Qatar “boasted in internal records of using spycraft to try and gather information on” our colleague, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, related to his sponsoring legislation to designate the Qatar- backed Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.