Shadow Vetting: How a Discredited Activist and Secret State Probes Targeted Texas Islamic Schools

Main Facts

A series of newly unsealed legal filings in Texas has exposed a highly coordinated, state-funded effort to investigate and exclude Islamic private schools from the state’s newly established school voucher program. The disclosures, stemming from an ongoing civil rights lawsuit, reveal that the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts relied heavily on unverified dossiers provided by a discredited foreign activist to launch sweeping, taxpayer-funded investigations into nearly 50 private educational institutions.

At the center of the controversy is Sam Westrop, a British activist who was previously ordered by a United Kingdom court to pay over $173,000 in libel damages for falsely labeling an Islamic television executive a "convicted terrorist." Despite this legal history, Westrop’s unverified allegations served as a primary catalyst for the Texas Comptroller’s office to delay or block the entry of several Islamic private schools into the state’s taxpayer-funded education voucher system.

The scale of the state’s investigation was far wider than previously acknowledged. Rather than a routine administrative review, the state spent public funds to contract two specialized counterterrorism investigators to dig into the backgrounds of dozens of schools accused of having ties to either radical Islamic organizations or the Chinese Communist Party.

The legal battle escalated after four Islamic private school campuses filed a lawsuit in March, challenging their initial exclusion from the program. While the Comptroller’s office has since quietly admitted all of the investigated schools into the voucher program, the plaintiffs are pushing forward with a class-action lawsuit. They seek a permanent injunction to prevent the state from using ideological and religious litmus tests to discriminate against private schools in the future.

Chronology of Events

The intersection of international libel, conservative state politics, and education policy unfolded over nearly a decade, culminating in the current legal battle in Texas:

[Nearly a Decade Ago] Westrop ordered to pay $173,000+ in libel damages by a UK court.
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[Fall 2023] Westrop shares "research" targeting Texas Islamic schools with the Comptroller.
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[Dec 2023] Acting Comptroller Hancock asks AG Paxton if state can exclude certain schools.
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[Jan 2024] AG Paxton rules Comptroller has authority to exclude schools; Bayaan Academy is approved, then removed hours later.
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[Mar 2024] Four Islamic schools file a lawsuit; Hancock urges Paxton to strip school charters.
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[May 2024] Chief Counsel Murl Miller is deposed for eight hours, revealing the state's reliance on Westrop.
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[June 2024] Legal filings expose the scope of the probe (nearly 50 schools targeted).
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[July 2024] Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock scheduled to step down.

The Libel Judgment and Relocation

Nearly a decade ago, a British court ordered Sam Westrop to pay the equivalent of more than $173,000 in libel damages. Westrop had published an article on his website falsely accusing the founder of a London-based Islamic television channel of being a "convicted terrorist." Court records show Westrop later admitted the underlying evidence was unreliable and retracted the claim. The presiding British judge noted in the ruling that "there simply was no evidence to support the allegation of terrorism."

Years later, Westrop relocated to the United States, eventually securing a position with the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), an influential conservative think tank based in Austin.

The Inception of the Texas Voucher Program

In late 2023, Texas prepared to launch its highly anticipated school voucher program, designed to award eligible families taxpayer dollars for private education or homeschooling. As private schools began submitting applications, Westrop revived his previous methods. He compiled research alleging that several Texas Islamic schools had leadership ties to extremist groups, such as Hamas. By the fall of 2023, Westrop began sharing these dossiers directly with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the agency tasked with administering the program.

State Action and Legal Cover

In December 2023, acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock formally requested a legal opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, asking whether the agency could legally exclude private schools from the voucher program if they had alleged ties to foreign adversaries or had hosted events for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). In January 2024, Attorney General Paxton issued a formal opinion confirming that the Comptroller’s office possessed the full authority to deny taxpayer funds to such entities.

Immediate Exclusions and the March Lawsuit

The impact of Westrop’s back-channel communications was swift. In January 2024, Bayaan Academy, an Islamic private school, was officially approved for the voucher program. However, just two hours after Westrop sent an email containing his "research" to state officials, the Comptroller’s office reversed its decision and removed the academy from the approved list.

In response to their abrupt exclusion and delayed approvals, four Islamic private school campuses filed a federal lawsuit against the state Comptroller in March 2024, alleging religious discrimination and a violation of due process.

The Deposition and Revelations

In May 2024, Murl Miller, the Comptroller’s chief counsel for general litigation, underwent an intensive eight-hour deposition. Miller’s testimony, unsealed in June 2024, contradicted the state’s public narrative and exposed the deep reliance on Westrop and other partisan activist groups to conduct off-the-books vetting of religious schools.

Supporting Data and Investigative Findings

Discrepancy in Public vs. Private Justifications

The newly unsealed deposition of Murl Miller reveals a stark contrast between what the Comptroller’s office told the public and what was occurring behind closed doors:

Taxpayer-Funded Counterterrorism Probes

The deposition revealed that the Comptroller’s office, by its own admission, was "not readily prepared to do investigations and to do deep research into foreign terrorist organizations." To bridge this gap, the agency used taxpayer funds to contract two external counterterrorism researchers:

• Lara Burns: A retired FBI agent currently affiliated with George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.
• Reuben Katz: An independent security researcher.

Burns and Katz were tasked with compiling detailed intelligence dossiers on the targeted schools. This process involved cross-referencing school administrators, board members, and teachers against federal terrorism databases and international watchlists. Ultimately, the investigators found no actionable evidence of terrorist ties, and the Comptroller’s office was forced to admit all of the investigated schools into the program.

Unvetted Sources and Intelligence Channels

The deposition transcript shows that state officials accepted allegations from highly partisan and legally compromised sources without performing basic background checks:

• Sam Westrop: The chief counsel admitted under oath that he did not conduct a basic internet search on Westrop, which would have revealed his prior $173,000 libel judgment for false terrorism accusations.
• The RAIR Foundation: An activist organization dedicated to fighting what it describes as "the threats from Islamic supremacists, radical leftists and their allies."
• A Southeast Texas Homeland Security Task Force: A regional collaborative launched to combat transnational criminal organizations, which was pulled into vetting domestic private schools.

Official Responses

The Plaintiffs and Legal Counsel

Attorneys representing the Islamic schools argue that the state’s subsequent decision to admit the schools does not resolve the underlying constitutional violations. They are urging the court to certify the case as a class-action lawsuit to prevent future ad-hoc exclusions.

"Religious liberty is not a temporary pass issued after a lawsuit," said Eric Hudson, counsel for the plaintiffs. "We’re pressing on so equal treatment is the rule—not an exception granted under pressure."

The Comptroller’s Office

The Comptroller’s office has filed motions to dismiss the class-action certification. State attorneys argue that because the schools have now been admitted into the voucher program, no active controversy remains, rendering the lawsuit moot.

"Plaintiffs received not only the initial approval they sought, but also the continuing ability to participate in the Program on the same footing as all other approved providers and families," the state’s legal team wrote in a June 26 filing.

Internal Disagreements and Resignations

The litigation has also exposed internal friction within the state government. On March 24, acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock sent a letter to Attorney General Ken Paxton, continuing to push for the removal of the Houston Quran Academy from the voucher program, citing alleged ties between the school’s principal, Hamed Ghazali, and the Muslim Brotherhood. Hancock went as far as to ask the Attorney General to strip the school of its corporate charter.

During his deposition, Chief Counsel Murl Miller distanced the legal department from Hancock’s letter:

"There’s a lot of mistakes and misstatements in this particular letter, but again, I’m not the acting comptroller," Miller testified, adding that the legal team had already determined the accusations were inaccurate. "This letter came completely out of the blue, and so this was a surprise to all of us."

Following these events, Hancock announced he would step down from his position as acting comptroller at the end of the month.

Implications

Precedent for School Choice and Public Funding

The legal battle in Texas carries significant implications for the broader "school choice" movement across the United States. As more conservative-led states implement voucher programs that direct taxpayer funds to private and religious institutions, this case raises critical questions about state-level vetting:

1. Arbitrary Gatekeeping: If state agencies can use unverified dossiers from political activists to delay or deny funding, voucher programs could become tools for state-sponsored ideological discrimination.
2. Due Process Concerns: The immediate removal of Bayaan Academy just two hours after an activist’s email suggests a lack of robust administrative due process within state agencies managing public funds.

The Political Climate and Civil Rights

The investigation of these schools occurs against a backdrop of heightened political rhetoric targeting Muslim communities in Texas. At the state Republican Party convention, some members attempted to disqualify Muslims from serving as delegates.

Furthermore, Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a "foreign terrorist organization," a move that was quickly mirrored by Florida’s governor. CAIR has since launched a federal lawsuit against Abbott and Paxton, alleging that the designation was issued without due process and violates federal law.

Legal and Administrative Accountability

The admission by the Comptroller’s chief counsel that the agency is "not prepared" to conduct international counterterrorism investigations—yet chose to hire private contractors to target specific religious institutions—highlights a significant administrative vulnerability. If the court certifies the plaintiffs’ class-action suit, it could establish a legal precedent nationwide, strictly limiting how state governments vet private entities participating in public benefit programs and ensuring that administrative oversight remains neutral, standardized, and free from partisan influence.