Loading …The incoming administration of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani has made its first definitive statement on the rule of law, not through a policy speech, but through personnel. In a move that has immediately electrified the city’s political ecosystem, Mamdani announced the appointment of Ramzi Kassem – a law professor known for defending detainees at Guantánamo Bay and protestors at Columbia University – as the Chief Counsel to the Mayor.
This appointment is a clear signal that the new City Hall will not view the law as a tool of enforcement, but as a terrain of struggle. By selecting a figure who has built a career challenging the “excesses of the security state,” Mamdani is effectively placing a watchdog of the government inside the government’s highest office.
Discussion
MANDOODOO SHOULD BE CALLED MAMBA THE SNAKE. HOPE HE GETS DRAGGED AWAY & DEPORTED BY ICE B4 HIS INAUGURATION DAY. HE & HIMS ELECTION SRE FRAUD ANYWAY!
Mamdani's picking a guy who defended terrorists for top legal job? This is what you get with democrats, folks. They abolish common sense. Defend America or step aside!! Thank God for Trump, the real deal who puts this country first! MAGA all the way!
I’m torn here; defending even the unpopular is vital in a free nation, but this appointment? It feels like a risky signal in uncertain times. Let’s hope Mamdani's pushing for balanced justice and not undermining our hard-won security measures. Keep an eye on this one, folks.
Do you really think a Muslim socialist/communist has the best interest of any Christian in mind? Balanced justice? Would you want to bet he starts implementing sharia law while in office? With this vote, the residents of New York are too stupid to know the difference.
Leave a Comment
Leave a Comment
The “Powerful Advocate” and the Terrorist
The controversy surrounding Kassem centers on his zealous defense of clients who have waged war against the United States. Most notably, Kassem served as lead defense counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda operative who pleaded guilty to plotting the 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker MV Limburg, an attack that killed one civilian and injured twelve others.
Mamdani framed this record as a virtue, praising Kassem as a “powerful advocate” for those “abandoned by our legal system.”
“My hope is that repatriation at least marks the end of injustice for Ahmed,” Kassem said in 2018, upon al-Darbi’s transfer to Saudi Arabia.
To his supporters, Kassem is a civil rights hero who ensures that even the most reviled defendants receive due process. To his detractors, his rhetoric – framing the transfer of a convicted terrorist as an “end of injustice” – suggests an ideological alignment that goes beyond mere legal representation.
Chief Counsel vs. Corporation Counsel: Why It Matters
It is crucial to distinguish the role Kassem will occupy. He is not being appointed as the Corporation Counsel, who heads the city’s Law Department and represents the city in court (a role going to Steven Banks). Instead, he will serve as Chief Counsel to the Mayor.
This is an advisory role, often operating with less statutory constraint and more direct influence on the Mayor’s policy agenda. While the Corporation Counsel defends the city’s actions, the Chief Counsel shapes the city’s intent. From this perch, Kassem will likely guide the administration’s approach to immigration, policing, and surveillance—areas where he has spent decades fighting against the very agencies he will now help oversee.
The Washington Connection
Critics characterizing this as a purely fringe appointment must contend with Kassem’s resume. He is not an outsider to the halls of power; he served as a senior policy advisor for immigration on the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Biden.
This duality—a lawyer who can navigate the West Wing as comfortably as he navigates a military commission at Gitmo—makes him a uniquely formidable figure. He represents a blend of establishment credentials and radical ideology that is becoming increasingly common in the modern Democratic party.
Dismantling the “Security State” from Within?
Kassem is the founder of the CLEAR project (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility), which is mandated to support communities targeted by government agencies under the guise of national security.
By bringing this philosophy to City Hall, the Mamdani administration is signaling a potential confrontation with the NYPD and federal law enforcement partners. When the Chief Counsel views counterterrorism efforts with deep skepticism, the cooperation between local police and federal agencies—standard since 9/11—may face its most significant stress test yet. The question is no longer whether the new Mayor will “stand up” to the system, but how much of it he intends to dismantle.
Looks like NYC is headed straight down the rabbit hole of chaos with this Mamdani character at the helm. Hiring a lawyer for terrorists shows where their true allegiance lies. Dems out here destroying our cities, one "progressive" hire at a time. Wake up, folks! MAGA forever!