MAMDANI'S DANGEROUS LEGAL PICK: NYC'S NEW CHIEF COUNSEL DEFENDED AL-QAEDA TERRORIST AND ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST

Socialist Mayor Appoints Ramzi Kassem to Powerful Post With ZERO City Council Oversight

Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani just made his most dangerous appointment yet.

On Tuesday, the incoming socialist mayor named Ramzi Kassem as New York City's Chief Counsel. The 47-year-old CUNY law professor will become one of the most powerful unelected officials in city government when Mamdani takes office January 1.

And here's what New Yorkers need to understand: This appointment requires ZERO City Council approval.

Kassem will report directly to Mamdani. He'll oversee 10 city agencies including the Business Integrity Commission, Commission on Human Rights, and Office of Labor Relations. He'll handle ethics matters, litigation strategy, and legislation. He'll maintain liaison with the Conflicts of Interest Board and the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

All without a single confirmation hearing. Not one City Council vote. No public accountability whatsoever.

Who exactly is Ramzi Kassem? Let's look at the record Mamdani doesn't want you to examine.

THE AL-QAEDA DEFENSE

Kassem served as lead counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, a Saudi national who pleaded guilty in 2014 to terrorism charges before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay. Al-Darbi admitted to planning, aiding, and abetting the October 2002 suicide bombing of the French oil tanker MV Limburg off the coast of Yemen.

The attack killed one civilian crew member and injured 12 others. The explosion caused 90,000 barrels of crude oil to spill into the Gulf of Aden. Al-Darbi admitted he purchased boats, GPS devices, and a hydraulic crane for the attack. He trained the Yemeni cell members who carried out the bombing.

When al-Darbi was transferred to Saudi custody in 2018, Kassem released a statement saying, "While it may not make him whole, my hope is that repatriation at least marks the end of injustice for Ahmed." He described al-Darbi's 16 years in detention as "long and painful."

Not a word about the Bulgarian sailor who died. Not a word about the injured crew members. Not a word about the massive oil spill.

THE COLUMBIA CAMPUS CASE

In March 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who led pro-Palestinian protests on campus. Khalil served as lead negotiator for the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and was a prominent spokesperson for Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

That group posted on October 8, 2024 that it supported Palestine fighting for "liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance." The Washington Post reported CUAD praised Hamas and Hezbollah leadership in online posts.

Kassem represented Khalil during his 104-day detention in Louisiana. A federal judge eventually ordered Khalil's release on bail in June 2025. The deportation case remains ongoing.

In September 2025, the Council on American-Islamic Relations honored Kassem with a Civil Rights Hero Award for his work on Khalil's case. Both Texas and Florida have designated CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization.

THE INSTITUTIONAL POWER GRAB

Here's what makes this appointment so dangerous: the Chief Counsel position operates completely outside normal oversight mechanisms.

Compare this to Mamdani's other major legal appointment. Steven Banks will serve as Corporation Counsel, heading the city's Law Department. That position requires City Council confirmation. Banks will face a public hearing. Council members will question him. The public will have input.

Kassem faces none of that. Mamdani announced the appointment Tuesday. It's done. Kassem takes office January 1.

The Chief Counsel oversees agencies handling labor relations, business integrity, human rights, and ethics. This isn't some advisory role. It's one of the most powerful legal positions in city government.

And Mamdani is handing it to someone whose client list reads like a national security threat assessment.

THE COLUMBIA YEARS

Kassem's activism didn't start with his law practice. While attending Columbia Law School in the late 1990s on a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, he immersed himself in anti-Israel campus activism.

In 1999, he wrote to the Columbia Spectator complaining that calling a sandwich an "Israeli wrap" was offensive to Muslims and Arabs. In other columns, he accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and claimed Jews came to the Middle East "with the intention of conquering the land." He argued a two-state solution was neither "viable" nor "desirable."

These aren't moderate policy critiques. This is eliminationist rhetoric dressed up as student activism.

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CONNECTION

From 2022 to 2024, Kassem served as Senior Policy Advisor on the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Biden. He led interagency policy processes on immigration court backlogs, immigration legislation and regulations, watchlisting and screening policies, and countering commercial spyware threats.

The same administration that spent four years undermining immigration enforcement just handed Kassem the keys to federal immigration policy. Now Mamdani is putting him in charge of New York City's legal apparatus.

WHAT MAMDANI ISN'T TELLING YOU

At Tuesday's press conference at Elmhurst Hospital, Mamdani framed Kassem's appointment in sanitized language. He praised Kassem's "remarkable experience" and "commitment to defending those too often abandoned by our legal system."

He didn't mention the al-Qaeda terrorist. He didn't mention the CAIR award. He didn't mention the decades of anti-Israel activism.

Mamdani said, "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."

What kind of city are we building when the Chief Counsel's background includes defending terrorists and receiving awards from organizations designated as foreign terrorist groups?

THE PATTERN EMERGES

This appointment isn't happening in isolation. Look at the pattern Mamdani is establishing.

He's keeping NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the only major Adams appointee focused on actual law enforcement. But he's surrounding himself with activists whose careers involve fighting the very institutions they'll now control.

His transition team includes police-abolition theorist Alex Vitale. Former Women's March leader Tamika Mallory, who faced accusations of anti-Semitism and financial mismanagement. And now Ramzi Kassem as Chief Counsel.

Representative Elise Stefanik has already called on CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez to take action regarding Kassem's position at the university. The American Association of University Professors defended Kassem, claiming any discipline would violate academic freedom.

But this isn't about academic freedom. This is about putting someone with this record in one of the most powerful legal positions in American municipal government.

WHAT NEW YORKERS MUST DEMAND

The City Council needs to act immediately. While Corporation Counsel requires confirmation, there's nothing stopping the Council from holding oversight hearings on the Chief Counsel appointment.

Council members should demand answers:

What specific policies will Kassem implement regarding ethics oversight? How will he handle conflicts between City Hall and federal immigration enforcement? What's his position on cooperation with counterterrorism investigations? Will his office advise on matters involving Israel or Middle East policy?

New Yorkers deserve to know if their Chief Counsel can separate his activism from his official duties.

Democratic political operative Ken Frydman told the New York Post: "Everyone's entitled to legal representation, even Mahmoud Khalil. But that doesn't mean Ramzi Kassem had to represent him."

That's the key question. Lawyers choose their clients. Kassem's choices tell us everything about his priorities.

In this video, Kassem explains how 9/11 inspired him to return to America to defend terrorists. He was a fellow for the Paul & Daisy Soros Foundation, which provides resources to, “New Americans, immigrants and children of immigrants.

THE ACCOUNTABILITY GAP

Mamdani told reporters he's "been in touch" with incoming City Council Speaker Julie Menin about the Steven Banks nomination for Corporation Counsel. He said he "looked forward to the process."

But there is no process for Kassem. No hearing. No questions. No public scrutiny.

This is exactly how institutional capture works. Put your people in positions of power. Avoid oversight mechanisms. Build a legal apparatus that answers only to you.

Mamdani founded the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility clinic at CUNY. The CLEAR Project has received major funding from George Soros's Open Society Foundations and MacKenzie Scott.

Now he's positioning himself as the top legal advisor to a mayor who openly campaigns as a democratic socialist. A mayor who defeated Andrew Cuomo by mobilizing the same progressive coalition that Bernie Sanders activated in his presidential runs.

WHAT HAPPENS JANUARY 1

When Mamdani takes the oath at midnight on New Year's Eve, Ramzi Kassem becomes Chief Counsel. No confirmation needed. No public hearing. No City Council vote.

He'll walk into City Hall on January 1 with authority over ethics investigations, litigation strategy, and legal guidance for the mayor's office. He'll supervise 10 city agencies. He'll maintain liaison with the boards that oversee police complaints and conflicts of interest.

And New Yorkers will have zero recourse to challenge this appointment through normal democratic channels.

Mamdani called it a "privilege" and a "duty" to serve New Yorkers. He said, "As the federal government threatens to undermine civil rights and the rule of law, our city will be on the front lines. We will not allow fear, cruelty, or authoritarianism to take root in our city."

But who decides what counts as civil rights? Who determines what the rule of law means? A Chief Counsel who defended an al-Qaeda terrorist? Who received awards from organizations Texas and Florida designated as terrorist groups? Who spent decades advocating eliminationist positions on Israel?

THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING

Neither Kassem nor Mamdani's team responded to media requests for comment on the controversy surrounding this appointment.

The silence tells you everything you need to know.

They know this appointment is indefensible. They know New Yorkers would reject Kassem if they understood his record. So they're rushing him into office before anyone can mount effective opposition.

This is how democracy dies. Not with dramatic confrontations, but with quiet appointments that happen when no one's paying attention. On the Tuesday before New Year's Eve. When most New Yorkers are thinking about holiday plans, not city government.

By January 2, it'll be too late. Kassem will be Chief Counsel. The damage will be done.

DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY NOW

Call your City Council member. Demand oversight hearings on the Chief Counsel appointment. Ask them to investigate Kassem's record before he takes office.

Contact incoming Council Speaker Julie Menin. Tell her the Council must exercise its oversight authority even when confirmation isn't required.

Make noise. Make it loud. Make it impossible for Mamdani to pretend this appointment is business as usual.

Because it's not. This is a direct assault on the institutional safeguards that protect New York City from ideological capture.

Mamdani won the election. He gets to govern. But governing doesn't mean installing people with dangerous records in positions of unchecked power.

New Yorkers deserve better than a Chief Counsel who built his career defending terrorists and campus radicals.

We deserve accountability. We deserve transparency. We deserve a legal team that puts the city's interests first.

Instead, we're getting Ramzi Kassem.

The question is: What are we going to do about it?