New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing intense criticism for presenting a ceremonial pen used to sign 9/11-related executive orders to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, during a City Hall event on September 4. Kassem previously represented high-profile Islamic terrorist suspects before his work with the mayor’s office.
The presentation came after Mamdani signed two executive orders. The first established September 11 as an official citywide Day of Remembrance and Service, which directed a moment of silence and coordinated service activities. The second addressed government preparedness and continuity of operations during emergencies, which updated measures last revised in 2007.
Officials present included Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and other administration leaders. Kassem was listed among those acknowledged at the start of the event.
After the signing, Mamdani handed the pen to Tisch and asked her to pass it along. Tisch then gave it to Kassem, who had entered the Blue Room toward the end of the press conference, approximately 15 minutes late. Video from the event shows Kassem receiving the pen.
The mayor’s office later stated that Kassem and his team had drafted both executive orders as part of his official duties. Kassem did not issue a public comment on the presentation.
POLL: Should Ilhan Omar Be Deported If Found Guilty Of Immigration Fraud?
🚨 NOW: Ugandan Mayor Mamdani is facing major backlash from victims’ families after he signed a 9/11 executive order and gave the honorary pen to a lawyer who REPRESENTED an AL-QAEDA TERRORIST connected to the Pentagon attack — NYP
The enemy is inside the gates.
The pen was… pic.twitter.com/AnfVXamkfM
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 5, 2026
Kassem, 48, is a professor at CUNY School of Law. He previously directed clinics providing legal representation to Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities and to individuals detained in U.S. national-security cases.
In 2008, he began representing Ahmed al-Darbi and served as lead civilian defense counsel. Al-Darbi, a Saudi national born in 1975, was captured in Azerbaijan in June 2002, held at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and transferred to Guantanamo Bay later that year. He remained there until May 2018.
Al-Darbi pleaded guilty in 2014 before a U.S. military commission to charges including conspiracy, terrorism, attacking civilian objects, and aiding the enemy. The charges related to planning and support for an al-Qaeda plot to attack oil tankers. That plot included the October 2002 bombing of the French-flagged MV Limburg off Yemen, which killed one crew member and injured others.
Al-Darbi was already in U.S. custody when the Limburg attack occurred. Under a plea agreement he provided extensive testimony and interviews to U.S. authorities. He was transferred to Saudi custody in 2018 to serve the remainder of his sentence in a rehabilitation program.
Al-Darbi is the brother-in-law of Khalid al-Mihdhar.
Al-Mihdhar was one of the five hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which struck the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. U.S. officials publicly identified the family connection when charges against al-Darbi were announced in 2007. Kassem has also represented other Guantanamo detainees and, more recently, Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil.
The pen presentation drew public comments from some 9/11 family members and elected officials.
“It was calculated,” retired detective and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice Michael Alazar told the New York Post. “It happened during a ceremony meant to be about the victims, and no one else. 9/11 families didn’t come to City Hall to watch Mamdani spotlight someone whose work intersects with the very ideology that took their loved ones. Commissioner Jessica Tisch was reduced to a prop rather than acknowledging her role as the leader of the NYPD.”
Dennis Warchola, whose brother Michael was a firefighter who died on 9/11, slammed the move as inappropriate. “It’s bulls***,” Warchola told The Post. “How can you defend a guy like that who wants to do Americans or any innocent person harm?”
