Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned this week about a far-left judge that President Joe Biden is trying to give a lifetime appointment to as a federal judge, saying that law enforcement officials across the country object to the extremist being appointed to U.S. Circuit Judge for the Third Circuit.
The president first nominated Adeel Mangi, a Muslim who was born in Pakistan, in November before Senate Republicans grilled him over his work for a group accused of featuring speakers who backed anti-Semitic and anti-American activism. Mangi was a member of an advisory board for the Center for Security, Race, and Rights at Rutgers Law School from 2019 to 2023. Republican senators were appalled after finding that the center co-sponsored a symposium on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that featured a panelist who pled guilty to providing support for Islamic jihadists and another panelist who publicly called for an intifada in the U.S.
“I’ve spoken repeatedly about President Biden’s attempt to give life tenure on the federal bench to an activist tied to an extremist group that unabashedly celebrates terrorism,” McConnell said from the Senate floor. “I’ve already made absolutely clear that the Senate should not confirm the nomination of Adeel Mangi to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.”
“But Mr. Mangi’s alarming record doesn’t stop at ties to terrorist sympathizers. It turns out he also has a history of support for anti-police activism. In fact, he serves on the advisory board of a group of apologists for convicted cop killers,” he continued. “The so-called Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ) was founded in part by a woman who pled guilty to the murder of a police officer and whose name has graced a fellowship they fund. With Mr. Mangi on their advisory board, the AFJ celebrated her and other cop killers as, listen to this, ‘freedom fighters.’”
“Take, for example, the Executive Director of AFJ. She was counsel of record on a brief to spring from prison a notorious cop killer whom she later compared favorably to Che Guevara,” McConnell said. “Honoring criminals and punishing law enforcement is the exact opposite of justice. One county police association in New York highlighted this irony by pointing out that, ‘Mr. Mangi’s heroes executed our heroes who were protecting and serving the community.’”
McConnell highlighted numerous law enforcement groups that have expressed opposition to Mangi serving as a federal judge because he “is willing to make common cause with an organization that excuses the most heinous form of lawbreaking.”
“As the National Association of Police Organizations put it, ‘It is one thing to stand up for the rights of those shunned or mistreated by society. It is a far different thing to exalt unrepentant killers who were convicted following legal trials in courts of law. Mr. Mangi is smart enough to know the difference, and he’s made his choice,’” McConnell said. “The National Sheriffs’ Association said that Mangi’s connection with AFJ, ‘raises concerns about a potential bias against victims and law enforcement, which could impact his decision-making as a lifetime appointed judge.’”
“A state law enforcement group in New Jersey put it this way: ‘We can respect a lawyer who represents criminal defendants to the best of their ability. But we can’t respect, and can never support, a lawyer who so blatantly promotes the opinion that the police are criminals, and the cop killers are the victims. He has disqualified himself as an impartial decider of facts where police are involved,” he added. “As far away as Arizona, the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association wrote, ‘Mr. Mangi’s conscious work with [the AFJ] shows an anti-victim and anti-police bias that would certainly cloud his decision-making as a judge.’”
McConnell said that the last thing that the U.S. needed was “another federal judge who thinks criminals are the real victims – especially ones with the blood of police on their hands.”
“American communities have been suffering for years under a coordinated left-wing campaign to coddle criminals and neuter our criminal justice system. District attorneys in deep blue cities have put politics over prosecution and turned repeated violent offenders loose in the streets,” he concluded. “And the Biden Administration continues to encourage this sort of bad behavior. It’s time to acknowledge who are the criminals, and who are the heroes. And it’s certainly time to refuse a lifetime appointment to the judiciary to anyone who cannot tell the difference.”
WATCH:
Watch @LeaderMcConnell tear into antisemitic and anti-police judicial nominee Adeel Mangi:
“I’ve spoken repeatedly about President Biden’s attempt to give life tenure on the federal bench to an activist tied to an extremist group that unabashedly celebrates terrorism. I’ve… pic.twitter.com/YdzCfCfwtE
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) March 6, 2024
The White House is in full blown panic mode over radical judicial nominee Adeel Mangi’s nomination.
They’re mobilizing left-wing groups to save Mangi after he’s been exposed for his ties to antisemitic & anti-police groups.
He should never be confirmed.pic.twitter.com/aceV80wFz9 https://t.co/rr6fCmxalP
— Carrie Severino (@JCNSeverino) March 6, 2024