Yesterday we learned that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani hasn't named a single Jewish lawyer to his Judicial Appointments Panel, a group that will advise Mamdani on which judges he puts in New York family courts, criminal courts, and interim appointments to civil courts.
As we pointed out, the odds of that happening randomly are infinitesimally small. It was a deliberate choice. The backlash is growing, and Mamdani's latest excuses make it even worse. We'll start with his defense that he's already appointed a dozen judges, "including Jewish ones."
🚨Mamdani, facing qs about the lack of Jewish members on his judicial advisory committee, says he has appointed and reappointed a dozen judges from diverse backgrounds, “including Jewish ones.”
— Jacob N. Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) July 29, 2026
Mamdani appointed three new judges in January. The rest, including the Jewish judges… https://t.co/1b30y1y0XL pic.twitter.com/R0UQSl3Hmv
"In my six months of being the mayor, I've had the privilege of appointing a dozen qualified judges from a range of backgrounds, including Jewish judges," Mamdani said. "And I want to be clear that any suggestion that the composition of the advisory committee was motivated by religion is false."
"When it comes to, in that same letter, there was a point around Mr. Leventhal and his appointment as to why it was not considered, and I want to be very clear that we decided not to move forward with his appointment because of the fact that he served on Ghislaine Maxwell's legal defense team, and collected legal fees as such," Mamdani continued. "And as much as possible, we thought it best to avoid any association between the committee that would be appointing judges and the Epstein world."
He's referring to retired Appellate Division Justice John Leventhal, who is Jewish.
But there's a problem with that. The person who assembled this committee, Ramzi Kasem, worked to defend terrorists interned at Gitmo.
Mamdani notes that a Jewish person was kept off the judicial advisory committee because he was on the Ghislaine Maxwell defense team. Beyond the pale, per the Mayor. But meanwhile the person who assembled the committee, Ramzi Kassem, defended accused al Qaeda Gitmo inmates. https://t.co/S4uW8J6KAI
— Kamel Amin Thaabet (@K_AminThaabet) July 29, 2026
Just to make it clear here: Mamdani would not put Leventhal on his committee, but let that committee be assembled by a man who defended actual terrorists.
The left is working to purge Jews from academia, medicine, mental health, publishing, the arts. Mamdani is just doing his part.
— Nancy Street (@NancyStreet0821) July 30, 2026
This is also true, and it proves the Left's accusations that President Trump and his administration are taking us back to 1933 Germany are pure projection. Purging Jews from society is actually what the Nazis did.
Mamdani probably pretended to entertain Leventhal in the first place exactly because he was on the Ghislaine Maxwell defense team, so Mamdani could then deflect criticism of his blatant antisemitism by equating Jewish lawyers with Epstein at press conferences such as this.
— ROBROCOP2 (@ROBROCOP2) July 30, 2026
Bingo.
Realize the game here. Not only is Mamdani saying, quite clearly, that Jews have no place on his committee but defenders of terrorists do, but he's also sending a clear message that certain people do not deserve a legal defense, and—if you do defend them—your career could be damaged.
No matter how you feel about Ghislaine Maxwell, she was entitled, as we all are, to a vigorous defense. That's the bedrock of our judicial system. But as we saw with President Trump and the attorneys who fought election legal battles on his behalf, the Democrats do not believe all of us deserve a defense or our day in court.
That's alarming.