Mayor Zohran Mamdani didn’t pick one Jewish person to serve on his judicial screening panel, but he did appoint a lawyer for a domestic terrorist, a Luigi Mangione apologist – and even a former male prostitute.
The social media-loving socialist, a staunch critic of Israel, even reportedly rejected Jewish retired Judge John Leventhal because he had served on the legal team for pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s pal and convicted sex-trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
But Hizzoner didn’t disqualify prison reform activist Soffiyah Elijah from his 18-member Advisory Committe on the Judiciary, despite the fact she’s represented and rubbed elbows with Weather Underground terrorist Marilyn Buck and infamous cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Elijah, founder of the Alliance of Families for Justice, has represented a who’s who of radicals and self-proclaimed “political prisoners” like Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia police Officer Daniel Faulkner.
The activist also reportedly welcomed into her own home Weather Underground member Buck, after she had served more than two decades in prison for her role in a 1981 Brinks armored car robbery that saw a guard and two cops killed.
Elijah worked with Sundiata Acoli, who was put behind bars for the 1973 killing of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster, as well as members of the San Francisco 8, former Black Panthers charged in relation to the killing of San Francisco police Sgt. John Young in 1971.
Mamdani also appointed former New York American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Jared Trujilo, an admitted former sex worker who has lobbied to decriminalize prostitution and called for dismantling the NYPD Vice Squad as part of a an effort to reduce the force’s size, scope and power.
Trujillo, now a professor at CUNY Law School, has also blasted Gov. Kathy Hochul’s move to roll back New York’s controversial cashless bail law, which was enacted in 2019 and blocked judges from setting bail in many cases. Hochul and Democrats had to scale the reforms back after critics blamed the law for a spike in crime as they said many accused criminals were quickly put back on the street only to reoffend.
In March 2022, Trujillo compared Hochul’s rollbacks to the Jim Crow laws enacted after Reconstruction and a year later he called the changes “unconscionable and anti-democratic” and accused the governor of prioritizing “fear over facts.”
A source said Trujillo was recommended to serve on the committee by the law school deans.
Another selectee, Mina Malik,CEO & executive partner at the Cochran law firm who formerly headed the Civilian Complaint Review Board, glowingly described Luis Mangioni after his arrest for allegedly killing UnitedHealthcare executive Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan.
“Luigi Mangione. A 26 y/o high school valedictorian and Ivy League grad from MD specializing in computer science. Smart, committed, tech savvy. Now arrested & remanded in PA. Stay tuned. #LuigiMangione #Suspect #UnitedHealthcare #BrianThompsonAssassination,” she wrote on Dec. 9, 2024.
Three days later, Malik said on X, “Heartbreaking stories about health insurance companies denying medical treatment/tests costing the lives of loved ones. This is why people are angry & upset. Billions of dollars are poured into & made by health insurance companies year after year, and at the end of the day, profit means more than human life. #healthcare #HealthInsurance #insurance #profiteur.”
Police unions blasted the makeup of the panel for lacking a pro-law enforcement, pro-public safety perspective.
“Once again, the mayor is putting his ideology before public safety,” PBA President Patrick Hendry said. “We have zero confidence that a panel stocked with cop-killer defenders and anti-police activists is going to select fair-minded judges who will protect victims and hold criminals accountable.”
Scott Munro, president of the 21,000 member Detectives Endowment Association, noted a lack of pro law enforcement members on the panel.
“Where are the former police officers who became lawyers?” Munro asked. “Where are the one time prosecutors? How many on the mayoral panel ever see what we see daily: citizens who need the service, skill and dedication to keep them safe.”
Groups representing Jewish lawyers were upset that not one Jewish attorney was named to the mayor’s judicial screening panel.
“It’s hypocritical to pick on the Maxwell case when people have other unpopular clients,” Leventhal told the Washington Free Beacon. “The fact that I’m Jewish, it has a stink about it.”
Mamdani’s chief counsel at City Hall, Ramzi Kassem who oversees the judicial advisory committee, has himself represented controversial clients, including several al Qaeda detainees.
He served as defense counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi during military commission proceedings at Guantánamo Bay. Al-Darbi admitted to aiding an al-Qaeda attack on the MV Limburg oil tanker off Yemen, and later cooperated with authorities before being transferred back to Saudi Arabia
Mamdani’s office touted the panel in a news release put out last week, describing them as law professors and three former state judges.
“These members bring a diverse range of legal expertise, and I am confident they will carry out this important responsibility with fairness, independence and integrity,” Mamdani said in a statement.
Kassem said the appointments to the judicial panel “offer a truly representative cross-section of the legal profession in New York City, bringing a wide range of professional experience from all five boroughs.”
