The office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded Wednesday to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ lawsuit claiming that DeSantis violated federal law when he designated CAIR a foreign terrorist organization last week.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists,” DeSantis’ communications director, Alex Lanfranconi, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday.

The governor designated CAIR, which bills itself as the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country, a foreign terrorist organization alongside the Muslim Brotherhood. President Donald Trump established a process for designating chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood foreign terrorist organizations in November.

DeSantis’ executive order notes that members of the Islamic Association for Palestine, an organization affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and created to support Hamas in the U.S., founded CAIR in 1994.

It notes that CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror financing case in 2009 and claims that CAIR associates “have been convicted of providing, and conspiring to provide, material support to designated terrorist organizations.” Convictions trace back to the 2009 Holy Land Foundation case.

The executive order directs Florida law enforcement to engage in “all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities in Florida by the terrorist organizations,” and directs cabinet agencies to also act against them.

DeSantis’ order followed a similar order from Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas.

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Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood........

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