New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is expected to name a lawyer who defended an al-Qaida terrorist and a pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University to a top position at City Hall, the New York Post reported Monday.
Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at The City University of New York and a member of Mamdani's transition team for legal affairs, is the leading candidate for chief counsel, the most senior advisory role in the mayor's office, according to the Post, which cited a source close to the transition team.
Kassem, 47, helped defend terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaida member convicted in 2017 for his role in the 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker Limburg off the coast of Yemen.
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He was also among the attorneys who represented Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born leader of a pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is facing deportation proceedings. Khalil's legal fight remains ongoing.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which describes itself as the nation's largest Muslim civil rights group, honored Kassem with an award in September for his work defending Khalil.
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Ken Frydman, a Democrat political operative, told the Post that Kassem's potential appointment "wouldn't sit well with the Jewish community." New York is home to the nation's largest Jewish population.
"Everyone's entitled to legal representation ... even Mahmoud Khalil. But that doesn't mean Ramzi Kassem had to represent him," Frydman said.
Kassem has also participated in anti-Israel protests at Columbia, where he attended law school on a fellowship funded by members of the Soros family, according to records cited by the Post.
In a 1999 letter to the editor of the Columbia Spectator student newspaper, Kassem criticized the naming of a sandwich as an "Israeli wrap," writing that the term was offensive to Muslims and Arabs.
In other columns for the student newspaper, Kassem wrote that Israel's behavior amounted to "a clear case of ethnic cleansing."
In a separate 1998 column, he wrote that Jews had come to the Middle East "with the intention of conquering the land." A two-state solution between Israel and Palestine "is not viable, nor is it desirable," he wrote.
Other sources told the Post they believe Kassem would be a strong choice for the job.
"It is past time that the Corp Counsel's office be given an upgrade and refresh," lawyer Ron Kuby said. "I have no giant objection to the way Corp Counsel has been functioning, but so many people at the top have just been there for too long."
In 2009, Kassem founded a legal clinic at The City University of New York that offers free legal representation to Muslims and other communities in New York.
The nonprofit, Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility, or CLEAR, has received more than $3 million from George Soros' Open Society Foundations, public records showed. CLEAR has also received at least $1 million from MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
In 2022, the Biden administration named Kassem a senior policy adviser on immigration issues.
Neither Kassem nor Mamdani's campaign immediately responded to requests for comment from the Post.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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