Jewish Lawyer Vs. Al-Qaeda Lawyer: The Mayor’s Troubling Double Standards

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing severe and justified backlash for a glaring double standard for legal representation and his attempts to rebrand 9/11.

The administration’s recent actions have exposed a troubling contradiction in how it views the role of two legal counsels with notorious clientele – holding the clientele of one against him while celebrating the other with a symbolic civic honor.

The controversy began when Mayor Mamdani defended the complete exclusion of Jewish members from his 18-person judicial advisory panel. When pressed on the absence of Jewish representation, the administration pointed to the rejection of retired Appellate Division Justice John Leventhal, claiming he was disqualified solely because he briefly served on the defense team for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. According to The New York Times, the mayor’s office argued it was necessary to avoid any association with the “Epstein world” to preserve public trust.

This decision drew immediate condemnation from legal scholars and bar associations, who noted that punishing an attorney for the crimes of their client is a dangerous overreach. Legal analysis by Bloomberg Law emphasized that visiting the sins of their client upon their counsel violates foundational legal ethics.

Yet, this standard of moral purity vanished just weeks later. During a ceremony marking the upcoming 25^th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Mayor Mamdani signed executive orders establishing an annual day of remembrance. In a highly criticized gesture reported by Fox News, the ceremonial pen used to sign the orders was passed directly to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem. Kassem previously served as the defense attorney for al-Qaeda operatives, including Ahmed al Darbi, an al-Qaeda operative who pleaded guilty to war crimes. In fact, as we understand it, Kassem is a prominent Muslim attorney known primarily for his aggressive defense of convicted terrorists and overseas extremists.

So, a prominent, qualified Jewish jurist is blacklisted from public service for performing his constitutional duty to provide legal defense, while the mayor’s own Muslim chief counsel is handed a sacred legal piece of 9/11 memorabilia despite having defended a convicted al-Qaeda terrorist.

Nor is this a one-off juxtaposition. This standard is deeply tied to Mayor Mamdani’s broader efforts to reshape the narrative surrounding September 11. Thus, he has striven mightily to shift the focus of the anniversary towards a generalized “Day of Remembrance and Service” and to use his platform to center on the post-9/11 experience of specific communities. Critics argue the administration is actively diluting the specific historical tragedy of the terror attacks. Handing a commemorative pen to a former al-Qaeda defense attorney at a 9/11 event is not a minor oversight; it is an insult to the victims’ families and a symptom of an administration that selectively applies moral litmus tests to fit its ideological agenda.

Critics have long noted that Mamdani’s public statements have routinely used passive language, mourning abstract tragedy while avoiding explicit condemnation of Islamic terrorism or directly naming al-Qaeda as the perpetrators.

But to acknowledge the United States as a victim of al-Qaeda on 9/11 requires admitting that there are eternal forces animated by a destructive hatred of Western liberal values. This clashes directly with the worldview shared by Mayor Mamdani and his closest political allies. This is an ideology that views America primarily as an international aggressor or an imperialist oppressor. So, if America is cast as the perpetual villain on the world stage, a day of pure national mourning where the country is unambiguously the victim becomes a narrative that must be corrected.

Elected officials – particularly the governor of New York State, Kathy Hochul – cannot hide from Mamdani’s goal. They have a duty to speak out against what Mayor Mamdani is trying to foist on New Yorkers. Silence is enabling, certainly not leadership. And voters should take due note come November.