Jihad Mamdani Appoints al Qaeda Terrorist Lawyer for Top Role

Twenty five years after 9/11, the conquest is complete.

Councilwoman Vickie Paladino: “Less than 25 years after thousands of New Yorkers were killed on 9/11, the Chief Counsel of New York is going to be an Islamist lawyer who came to this country after 9/11 specifically to defend the very Al Qaeda terrorists we were fighting against.

The fact that our immigration system post 9/11 even allowed him to step foot into the country is a monumental failure.

Disgraceful isn’t a big enough word for what’s happening here. The federal government must get a LOT more involved in New York. We cannot allow these people to go unchecked.”

Less than 25 years after thousands of New Yorkers were killed on 9/11, the Chief Counsel of New York is going to be an Islamist lawyer who came to this country after 9/11 specifically to defend the very Al Qaeda terrorists we were fighting against.

The fact that our immigration… https://t.co/y6R7k2IghV

— Councilwoman Vickie Paladino (@VickieforNYC) December 31, 2025

Zohran Mamdani
Mamdani taps controversial lawyer who defended al Qaeda terrorist for top role: ‘Powerful advocate’

Ramzi Kassem’s record also includes serving as a top advisor for immigration on the WH Domestic Policy Council during Biden admin

By Peter Pinedo, Fox News, December 30, 2025:

NEW: Zohran Mamdani announced the nomination of Ramzi Kassem as Chief Counsel of New York City.

Kassem returned to America from the Middle East in 2001, inspired by 9/11 to defend an Al Qaeda terrorist.

“I found myself pulled in the direction of doing rights work domestically… pic.twitter.com/Duxc04q3b3

— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) December 31, 2025

Zohran Mamdani appoints lawyer who defended al-Qaeda terrorist to top legal role

Socialist New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday that he is appointing controversial lawyer Ramzi Kassem, who defended al Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi in court, as the city’s top attorney.

Mamdani, who will take office on Jan. 1, announced he was appointing Kassem as New York City’s chief counsel, the top legal role in the city. He also shared that he is appointing Steven Banks a self-proclaimed “social justice attorney” as corporation counsel and Helen Arteaga as deputy mayor for health and human services.

Kassem’s record includes serving as a senior policy advisor for immigration on the White House Domestic Policy Council under former President Joe Biden.

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Kassem served as lead counsel in al-Darbi’s defense. In 2014, al-Darbi pled guilty before a U.S. military commission to conspiracy in connection with an al Qaeda terrorist plot to bomb the French oil tanker MV Limburg off the coast of Yemen. One civilian was killed in the attack and several others were injured. He was convicted of the crime in 2017 and was transferred by the Trump administration in 2018 to Saudi Arabia’s custody.

FLASHBACK: INSIDE THE POLITICAL MOVEMENT THAT PUT A SOCIALIST IN CHARGE OF NEW YORK CITY

Ramzi Kassem beside Zohran Mamdani
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (right) announced he was appointing attorney Ramzi Kassem chief counsel on Tuesday. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg; Hiroko Masuike/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

“While it may not make him whole, my hope is that repatriation at least marks the end of injustice for Ahmed,” Kassem said at the time of the transfer, adding he had “16 long and painful years in captivity.”

In 2025, Kassem represented anti-Israel activist and Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil who was arrested by ICE for his alleged role in leading antisemitic demonstrations on campus. Khalil has since been released, though his legal case is ongoing.

Announcing the appointment, Mamdani said, “I will turn to Ramzi for his remarkable experience and his commitment to defending those too often abandoned by our legal system.”

The mayor-elect said that “City Hall will be stronger with him in it, and our work of building a more prosperous city for all will have a powerful advocate.”

Kassem is the founder of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) law clinic, a project that, according to its website, has a mandate “to support Muslim and all other client, communities, and movements in the New York City area and beyond that are targeted by local, state, or federal government agencies under the guise of national security and counterterrorism.”

Kassem’s Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR) has received major gifts from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations and Jeff Bezos’s former wife, MacKenzie Scott.