Mamdani taps lawyer who defended al Qaeda terrorist as NYC chief counsel

Socialist New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Tuesday that he has appointed Ramzi Kassem, the controversial lawyer who defended Al Qaeda terrorist Ahmed al-Darbi in court, as the city’s top prosecutor.

Mamdani, who will take office Jan. 1, announced that he has appointed Kassem as New York City’s general counsel, the highest-level legal post in the city. He also shared that he appointed Steven Banks to the position. self-proclaimed a “social justice lawyer” as corporate counsel and Helen Arteaga as the deputy mayor for health and human services.

Kassem’s record includes serving as senior policy adviser on immigration on the White House Domestic Policy Council under former President Joe Biden.

Kassem served as the lead attorney in al-Darbi’s defense. In 2014, al-Darbi pleaded guilty before a US military commission to conspiracy in connection with an al-Qaeda plot to bomb the French oil tanker MV Limburg off the coast of Yemen. One civilian died and many civilians were injured in the attack. He was convicted of this crime in 2017 and transferred to Saudi Arabia’s custody by the Trump administration in 2018.

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“While this may not make him whole, I hope that his repatriation will at least signal an end to injustice for Ahmed,” Kassem said. He said during the transferHe added that he “spent 16 long and painful years in captivity.”

In 2025, Kassem represented anti-Israel activist and Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who was arrested by ICE for allegedly leading anti-Semitic demonstrations on campus. Halil was later released, but his legal case continues.

Announcing the appointment, Mamdani said, “I will be tapping Ramzi for his extraordinary experience and commitment to defending those too often abandoned by our legal system.”

“City Hall will be stronger with his involvement, and he will be a strong advocate for our work to build a more prosperous city for everyone,” the mayor-elect said.

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Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani speaks with members of the media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York on Wednesday, November 5, 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“It is my sincere hope that New Yorkers who have felt on the margins of this city for too long, the homeless veteran struggling to survive, the sick seeking the care they need, the immigrant trying to make ends meet, will now feel that they have leaders in their corner who understand their struggles and care to fight for them,” Mamdani continued. “This is the city I want to build. The prosperity and leadership I plan to offer.”

Kassem thanked Mamdani for the appointment and said he saw it as “a call of duty to serve the city I call home, the city that has embraced me.”

“I grew up in war-torn countries in the Middle East, in authoritarian regimes, and New York City was really my first stable and permanent home,” Kassem said. “This is an opportunity for me to pay that debt. I have been trying to pay this debt since I came to this country, since I immigrated.”

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Pro-Hamas activist and former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil poses for selfies after being released from federal immigration detention in Jena, La., on Friday, June 20, 2025. (Fox News Digital’s Kat Ramirez)

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Kassem is the founder of the legal clinic Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Accountability (CLEAR), a project whose mission is to “support Muslims and all other clients, communities, and movements in the New York City area and beyond who are targeted by local, state, or federal government agencies under the guise of national security and counterterrorism,” according to its website.