New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing backlash after a ceremonial pen used to sign executive orders commemorating the victims of the September 11 attacks was handed to his chief legal counsel, Ramzi Kassem, an attorney who previously represented an al-Qaeda terrorist.

Following the signing ceremony, Mamdani handed the pen to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and asked her to pass it over. The pen was then given to Kassem.

Kassem previously served as defense counsel for Ahmed al-Darbi, an al-Qaeda terrorist convicted in connection with the deadly 2002 bombing of the French oil tanker Limburg. Al-Darbi also has a family connection to the 9/11 attacks: his sister was married to Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the five terrorists who hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 and crashed it into the Pentagon.

The gesture drew condemnation from relatives of 9/11 victims and local officials. Dennis Vurckio, whose brother Michael, an FDNY firefighter, was killed in the North Tower, questioned how anyone could defend a person seeking to harm Americans or other innocent people.

The controversy came as Mamdani signed executive orders honoring those murdered on September 11 and addressing the city’s preparedness against terror threats.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)