Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) has announced he will return donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and refuse future support — citing disagreements with the organization’s alignment with Israel’s current government — while continuing to maintain ties with the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a group long accused of lobbying on behalf of the Iranian regime.
In a post shared Wednesday on X, Moulton stated he is “returning AIPAC donations and refusing to accept any donations or support from them,” emphasizing that his recent FEC filing reflects that decision. He added that he supports Israel’s right to exist but opposes AIPAC’s “direction” in backing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Moulton remarked his stance reflects a desire for a political resolution in Gaza that allows Israelis and Palestinians “to live side by side in peace.”
AIPAC, which represents more than five million pro-Israel Americans, responded on social media several hours later, asserting that Moulton had “abandoned his friends to grab a headline, capitulating to the extremes rather than standing on conviction,” after “years of him repeatedly asking for our endorsement.” The organization said its mission remains focused on strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance as a “strategic relationship that is bigger than any government at any particular time in either country.”
Moulton’s public split with AIPAC comes even as he maintains his relationship with NIAC Action PAC, a group tied to the National Iranian American Council. In October 2022, Moulton thanked NIAC Action PAC for its support, writing on X that the two share “a commitment to promoting democracy, fighting human rights abuses, and standing up for the protesters whose voices are being silenced in Iran.” Nearly three years later, he has not indicated any change in his association with the group.
Breitbart News has previously reported extensively on NIAC’s activities and its connections to Iranian regime interests. Republican senators, including Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Braun (R-IN), and Ted Cruz (R-TX), have called for the Justice Department to investigate NIAC and NIAC Action for potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), alleging the organizations act as unregistered lobbyists for Tehran. NIAC has denied those allegations, dismissing them as “slanderous.”
Founded in 2002, NIAC and its affiliated political arm have promoted policies in line with the Iranian government’s agenda, including the 2015 nuclear deal and opposition to sanctions. NIAC’s founder Trita Parsi has described AIPAC as choosing “war over peace” and “Netanyahu over Obama” during the Iran deal debate. Iranian dissidents in exile have criticized NIAC for “helping the regime survive” and maintained the group does not represent the broader Iranian-American community.
Moulton has paired commentary on Israel and antisemitism with criticism of President Trump. On CNN in April 2025, he acknowledged Harvard “still has work to do” on antisemitism but warned that government dictates over teaching and hiring would be “fundamentally anti-American,” likening such interference to an “authoritarian” approach. On HBO’s Real Time in May 2025, he deemed the shooting of two Israeli Embassy staffers “antisemitic terrorism” and argued that chants for “intifada” and “from the river to the sea” don’t help, and alleged that it “doesn’t help when Trump calls for violence against federal judges.” In December 2023, he also declared Hamas has “the destruction of Israel written into its charter” and that “Hamas has to be eliminated if Israel is ever going to be secure.”
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