The New York Times published an article Tuesday about the influence of American conservatives on Dutch elections, in the process suggesting that the David Horowitz Freedom Center's involvement is illegal. The article also initially attempted to smear Horowitz himself by misquoting him about Islam and Hamas.

The article, by writers Danny Hakim and Christopher F. Schuetze, argued that Dutch freedom fighter Geert Wilders is getting help from American conservatives who are drawn to his "anti-European Union and anti-Islam views."

“I think he’s the Paul Revere of Europe,” the Times quoted Horowitz as saying in an interview. “Geert Wilders is a hero, and I think he’s a hero of the most important battle of our times, the battle to defend free speech.”

"David Horowitz," the article noted, "an American right-wing activist, has contributed roughly $150,000 to Mr. Wilders’s Party for Freedom over two years — of which nearly $120,000 came in 2015, making it the largest individual contribution in the Dutch political system that year, according to recently released records."

The Times suggested that the Dutch compared such "American involvement" to "Russian meddling" in local politics and considered it "an assault on national sovereignty." In fact, it is the European Union itself that is an assault on Dutch sovereignty.

"Mr. Horowitz," the article continued,

who has long sounded alarms on Muslim immigration, first rallied to Mr. Wilders’s side after the Dutch politician was put on trial in 2010 for inciting hatred against Muslims with a film he made that attacked the Quran; he was acquitted the next year. Mr. Wilders was more recently found guilty of incitement after leading an anti-Moroccan chant at a rally, though he avoided a fine.

The Times writers went on to suggest that, although the Freedom Center's financial contributions to Wilders "adhere[d] to Dutch standards, there was some question of whether they comply with American law," since, as a 501(c)(3), the Freedom Center is not allowed to make donations to political organizations. But the Times noted that "Michael Finch, the president of Mr. Horowitz’s foundation, said in an email that 'the funds that were sent to Geert Wilders were to help him in his legal cases' and 'were not political donations.'”

Horowitz lashed out on Twitter about the article:

Horowitz then tweeted, "So the NYT article accuses me of attempting to swing the Dutch elections and blames me for that when I gave money to Wilder's legal defense":

He tweeted again about the Times' initial claim that Horowitz called Islam "a sick death cult." In truth, what Horowitz said in a 2012 speech at the UCLA campus is that the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas is a sick death cult. See the video above for evidence.

The Times scrubbed the article of this misquotation, only later adding the following correction: "An earlier version of this article misstated the group to which David Horowitz was referring in a speech. He used the phrase 'sick death cult' in reference to Hamas, not Islam."

The article went on to note that a Wilders victory in the Dutch election would result in "a foreign policy disaster." "Mr. Horowitz disagrees," the Times wrote, "and portrays the European Union as the disaster."

“To have this Parliament that represents nobody in Brussels making laws for everybody, it’s very anti-democratic,” said Horowitz. “I always thought it was a bad idea.”