Jason Miyares, the attorney general of Virginia, announced this week that his office had filed a petition to enforce a judge’s order from last July that a pro-Palestinian advocacy group with alleged ties to Hamas turn over closely guarded financial records that could shed light on its donor network — which has faced growing scrutiny in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks.

Miyares’ office said in a statement on Tuesday that American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a nonprofit group headquartered in Virginia that he has been investigating in a probe of its fundraising operations, “has refused to comply” with a civil investigative demand for documents the group has long shielded from public view.

The petition “seeks AMP’s immediate compliance” with the demand, the statement said, reiterating that Miyares’ team has been requesting records as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that the group “may have used” funds “for impermissible purposes, such as benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”

In a major court ruling last summer, a Richmond judge rejected AMP’s effort to challenge the demand, ordering the group to “produce records” and denying its petition to narrow the focus of the probe, according to a statement from the attorney general’s office after the decision had been made.

But Miyares, a Republican who first launched his investigation shortly after Hamas’ attacks on Israel in October 2023, said that AMP has continued to drag its heels several months later.

“Despite the court denying AMP’s previous efforts to halt my investigation, they continue refusing to comply,” he said in a separate statement posted to social media on Tuesday, while calling the petition “necessary to ensure accountability and uphold the law.”

A spokesperson for his office did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation.

Christina Jump, an attorney for AMP, said that she was unable to comment on the petition because she had “yet to see the referenced enforcement action,” claiming the attorney general’s office had “issued a press release prior to making any effort to contact AMP — or its counsel — about this new step.”

Jump added that AMP had filed a “timely” appeal of the judge’s decision and made “requests for a stay of the enforcement,” accusing the attorney general’s office of attempting to “thwart” the group’s “right to utilize the full legal process,” which she called “both disappointing and premature.”

“We will continue to pursue all legal actions which AMP may rightfully pursue — and its appeal of the underlying decision remains actively pending,” she wrote in an email to Jewish Insider on Wednesday.

Founded in 2006, AMP describes itself as “a grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the movement for justice in Palestine by educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage and through grassroots mobilization and advocacy.”

But in the wake of Oct. 7, the group has faced growing scrutiny over its involvement in anti-Israel protests on college campuses around the country and its financial backing of National Students for Justice in Palestine, members and chapters of which have voiced outspoken support for Hamas.

Top officials at AMP, meanwhile, were also once affiliated with a now-defunct group, the Islamic Association for Palestine, found liable for aiding Hamas.

The attorney general’s investigation is one of several legal challenges now targeting AMP’s records, which critics have long suspected of hiding illicit financial activity.

The group has insisted it has never supported or funded terrorism and that it does not send money overseas. Jump, in her email to JI, said “no court, in any jurisdiction, has ever found that AMP has done anything inappropriate regarding its fundraising. It has not.”

AMP’s fiscal sponsor, AJP Educational Foundation, took in more than $2.2 million in revenue in 2023, according to its most recent tax filings, which do not disclose the group’s donors.

In an interview with JI last September, Miyares — who has largely avoided commenting publicly on the active investigation — said that his office has been “aggressively in the process of using the legal system” to obtain additional records that AMP has fought to withhold.

“We have been relentless in that pursuit, and we will continue to be relentless,” he said. “Our job is to get to the truth.”