Mamdani Is About to Prove That His Administration Will Be Worse Than You Thought
Matt Margolis
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is reportedly poised to elevate a deeply controversial figure to one of the most powerful legal posts in his administration. According to the New York Post, Ramzi Kassem—a lawyer who has defended an al Qaeda terrorist and a radical anti-Israel activist at Columbia—is the leading candidate for Chief Counsel.
Kassem is already a part of Mamdani’s inner circle, serving as a legal affairs adviser on the transition team. He also teaches law at the City University of New York, further underscoring the ideological extremism he intends to bring into City Hall.
Kassem, 47, was one of the attorneys who defended Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and earmarked for deportation. However, after 104 days in a detention camp judges ruled he should be released.
In addition to Khalil, Kassem helped to defend terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member who was convicted in 2017 of bombing a French oil tanker, the Limburg, off the coast of Yemen in 2002.
“Kassem’s appointment to corp counsel wouldn’t sit well with the Jewish community,” said Ken Frydman, a Democratic political operative.
“Everyone’s entitled to legal representation…even Mahmoud Khalil. But that doesn’t mean Ramzi Kassem had to represent him,” he added to The Post.Kassem’s history leaves little mystery about where his sympathies lie. Born in Syria, he immersed himself in anti-Israel activism while at Columbia Law School, where records show he attended on a fellowship funded by members of the Soros family’s left-wing activist network.
His hostility toward Israel surfaced early and often in the pages of the Columbia Spectator. In a 1999 letter to the editor, Kassem complained that calling a sandwich an “Israeli wrap” was offensive to Muslims and Arabs. In other columns, he went much further, accusing Israel of engaging in “a clear case of ethnic cleansing.” In a 1998 article, he claimed Jews arrived in the Middle East “with the intention of conquering the land” and dismissed the idea of a two-state solution, writing that it “is not viable, nor is it desirable.”
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