New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan received a donation from an attorney who was once banned from Guantanamo Bay after a member of his legal team distributed anti-American propaganda to accused terrorists held at the base.
Martin Flumenbaum, a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, contributed $1,000 to the Hassan campaign in December, according to FEC records. Flumenbaum was one of the senior attorneys that the firm sent to defend enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay.
The firm came under fire in 2006 after one of its clients was discovered with an anti-American Amnesty International pamphlet that portrayed U.S. forces torturing and abusing Muslims. Another of the firm’s attorneys gave the accused terrorist the pamphlet, shielding it from the base’s typical screening process by claiming the pamphlet was court related.
Major Gen. Jay Hood called the firm’s actions a "serious breach of security." The firm’s attorneys were temporarily banned from the base, but were later allowed back after filing suit. The firm eventually secured the freedom of several prisoners in 2007, including two who returned to terrorism.
Firm client Majeed Abdullah al Joudi is a confirmed recidivist, according to the Pentagon. Another, Yousef Al Shehri, was killed in a 2009 shootout with Saudi authorities after being discovered in a car with suicide explosive belts, hand grenades, and automatic weapons.
Hassan, a Democratic candidate for Senate, and her Republican opponent, incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte, have both received thousands of dollars from firms that have represented suspected terrorists at military tribunals. Many of those donors come from large firms and were not directly connected to the legal defense.
Debra Burlingame, who lost her brother in the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, said that attorneys should be free to contribute to any candidate they want to, but that Paul, Weiss attorneys behaved in a "shameful" manner.
"I don’t want to label an entire law firm based on the actions of one renegade, but they were quite shameful," said Burlingame, who founded the political group 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America. "Using their status as officers of the court to smuggle jihadi propaganda, anti-U.S. military propaganda (which used the real names of active duty servicemen) to detainees is outrageous."
Guantanamo Bay has become a major issue in the New Hampshire Senate race as President Obama pushes to close the detention facility before his second term expires. Ayotte, who has sponsored legislation to keep the facility open, has criticized Hassan for refusing to speak out on the issue. Hassan initially said she was open to closing the base, but flip-flopped on the issue by saying she opposed Obama’s plan.
Burlingame said that Ayotte has been "a strong leader" in the War on Terror, especially with regard to the detention of enemy combatants.
"Kelly Ayotte has been a strong leader on this in the Judiciary Committee. She gets it. She understands the dynamic," she said.
Jennifer Horn, the chair of the New Hampshire GOP, called on Hassan to return Flumenbaum’s donation.
"It's abhorrent that Governor Hassan took money from a lawyer who helped free Gitmo terrorists that then returned to the battlefield - especially now that former Gitmo detainees are confirmed to have killed Americans," Horn said in a statement. "President Obama's plan to close Guantanamo is fundamentally flawed and dangerous, and now there's proof that releasing these terrorists is a direct threat to our troops."
The Hassan campaign did not return a request for comment, and has not said if it would return the donation.
Paul, Weiss is an active player in Democratic politics and has longstanding ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Senior members of the firm hosted a $2,700 per ticket fundraiser for the Clinton campaign in November.