ICYMI: Third Circuit Nominee Personally Donated To Radical, Anti-Semitic Law School Organization

WASHINGTON – According to responses to questions for the record from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), Adeel Abdullah Mangi, nominated to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, donated thousands of dollars to Rutgers’ Law School Center for Security, Race and Rights and was personally invited to serve on the Center’s board of advisors by the Center’s director, who has consistently promoted anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Mangi’s involvement in the Center and the Center’s ties to extreme and vile anti-Semitic views were the subject of Republicans’ questions at his nomination hearing.

Excerpts from Mangi’s responses to Graham’s questions for the record:

• Mangi personally donated roughly $6,500 to Rutgers’ Law School Center for Security, Race and Rights. (p. 3)

• Mangi’s law firm, Patterson Belknap, has donated approximately $13,000 to the Center. (p. 2–3)

• Mangi was invited to join the Center’s advisory board by Professor Sahar Aziz, the director for the Center, who the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ said “regularly and consistently promoted vile anti-Semitic propaganda.” (p. 4)

• In response to a question about the Center hosting a “Pro-Hamas” event while Mangi was on the Board he said, “unrelated to my role on the advisory board, I do recall being told by a colleague at my law firm about a lecture by Professor Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University, who wrote a book with the title [The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017]” (p. 7)

• Mangi otherwise purports to be completely unaware of any events held by the Center, despite being on its advisory board, and despite he and his law firm having donated nearly $20,000 to the Center. (p. 3–20). Mangi further claims to have been unaware of these events despite having conducted due diligence on the Center both before joining the board of advisors and while sitting on the board of advisors. (p. 4, 16).

• On the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and while Mangi was on the Board of Advisors, the Center sponsored an event titled “Whose Narrative? 20 Years since September 11, 2001.” Rep. Gottheimer (D-NJ) condemned the Center by name for hosting this event stating “[a]t an event marking the twentieth anniversary of September 11, Rutgers’ Center for Security, Race and Rights held an event with several controversial speakers, including those who have ties to terrorist organizations. It is unconscionable that a day meant to reflect on the deadliest attack on United States soil was used to provide a platform to those affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad — a foreign terrorist organization designated by the United States.” Mangi claims to have been unaware of this event. (p. 8).
• “Palestinian Islamic Jihad” – affiliated with one of the speakers at the 9/11 event – has victimized innumerable Jews, Muslims, and Christians across the Middle East.

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