President Joe Biden’s latest judicial nominee, whom the White House is hailing as "historic" due to his Muslim faith, serves on the advisory board of a left-wing group with extensive ties to convicted cop killers, the Washington Free Beacon has found.
Adeel Abdullah Mangi, whom Biden tapped to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, is an advisory board member of Alliance of Families for Justice. The organization, which works to end "mass incarceration," was formed in 2016 with Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin as a founding director. Boudin pleaded guilty to the murder of two police officers and a security guard during an armored truck robbery in 1981. The FBI named Weather Underground a domestic terrorist organization following a string of bombings and robberies in the 1970s and ‘80s.
The Alliance of Families for Justice, where Mangi has served since 2019, organized an event in 2021 to urge the release of six Black Panther and Black Liberation Army members serving life in prison for murdering police officers. The Alliance referred to the cop killers—including Black Panther members Mumia Abu-Jamal, H. Rap Brown, and others—as "freedom fighters" and claimed they were illegally targeted by the FBI.
Mangi’s affiliation with the radical group could spell trouble for his nomination, which Senate Democrats cheered as a "historic" "milestone" during his confirmation hearing Wednesday. Mangi, who works in private practice, would be the first Muslim to serve on the federal appeals court.
His position on the Alliance of Families for Justice board could also present a conflict of interest, which was not discussed at Wednesday's hearing. The Third Circuit has heard appeals brought by Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of murdering a Philadelphia police officer in 1981. The court overturned Abu-Jamal’s death sentence in 2011.
The Alliance of Families for Justice is not the only radical group on Mangi’s resume. He served until this year on the advisory board for Rutgers Law School’s Center for Race, Security, and Rights, an anti-Israel organization that supports boycotts against Israel and recently blamed Israel’s "settler colonialism" for provoking Hamas terrorists' Oct. 7 attack. The Center hosted an event on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that featured Sami al-Arian, a former professor convicted of raising money for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group.
Mangi denounced the Hamas attack and downplayed his position at the center during his confirmation hearing, saying he was unaware of the 9/11 anniversary event.
"I never heard of that event until today," Mangi said.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), who grilled Mangi during the hearing, said his affiliation with radical groups shows "Joe Biden’s presidency is riddled with radical and unqualified judicial nominees."
"Adeel Mangi is no exception," he told the Free Beacon. "Now the real question is, does Joe Biden agree with Adeel Mangi’s comments?"
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
While Mangi was not asked Wednesday about his affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice, he would have a harder time pleading ignorance about the group’s affinity for domestic terrorist cop killers.
Boudin, the mother of former San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin, became a national figure thanks to the notoriety of the Weather Underground and the Brinks truck robbery murders for which she was convicted. She pleaded guilty to felony murder for the killing of two Nyack, N.Y., police officers and a security guard. Her 2003 parole drew widespread national attention.
The Alliance of Families for Justice has campaigned to release one of Boudin’s accomplices, Mutulu Shakur. In 2021, the group organized an event to urge the release of Shakur and five other black nationalists convicted of murdering police officers: Sundiata Acoli, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Russell Maroon Shoatz, H. Rap Brown, and Kamau Sadiki.
Acoli, a member of the Black Liberation Army, a black nationalist militant group, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1974 murder of a New Jersey state trooper. Shoatz, a member of the Black Panther party and Black Liberation Army, served a life sentence for the 1970 murder of a Philadelphia police officer. H. Rap Brown, a prominent Black Panther party leader, was sentenced to life in prison for the 2000 murder of a Georgia sheriff’s deputy.
The Alliance of Families for Justice filed an amicus brief on behalf of Acoli last year, seeking his release from prison because of his health issues.
The Alliance of Families for Justice has touted other left-wing activists during Mangi’s tenure and embraced radical positions on the criminal justice system. Marxist activist Angela Davis, a former FBI "Most Wanted" fugitive, was the keynote speaker this year for the Alliance of Families for Justice’s inaugural lecture series in honor of Boudin.
The organization has hosted events in support of the "prison abolition movement," which seeks to shut down all prisons.
Mangi and the Alliance of Families for Justice did not respond to requests for comment.