Cortez Masto said she won't support Mangi
Biden Resists Pulling Controversial Judicial Nominee Adeel Mangi Despite Democrat Defectors
By Julia Johnson
The White House is not taking any cues from Republicans who have advised President Biden to withdraw a controversial judicial nomination.
Instead, it's digging in its heels to lobby Democratic senators to support Adeel Mangi for the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
A White House official updated Fox News Digital on the status of Mangi's nomination, which has been scrutinized over his ties to two groups, one accused of antisemitism and another that has supported "cop killers," as Republican critics have alleged.
Biden is not considering withdrawing the judicial nomination despite a call from Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham, R-SC.
Mangi served on the board of advisers for the Rutgers University Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR) from 2019 to 2023. The center has been accused by Republicans of antisemitism due to its sponsored events and speakers. One such event was held on the 20th anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and featured controversial speakers like Hatem Bazian, who in 2004 called for an "intifada," according to video from an anti-war protest in San Francisco, and Sami Al-Arian.
In 2006, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to "conspiring to provide services to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," according to the Justice Department .
Noura Erakat, who had previously been advertised as a panelist for a separate event alongside Hamas commander Ghazi Hamad, was also hosted at a CSRR event.
The Alliance of Families for Justice (AFJ), whose founding board member, Kathy Boudin, pleaded guilty to the felony murder of two police officers in 1981 after they died following an armored truck robbery, features Mangi as a current advisory board member. The robbery was carried out by Boudin's group, the Weather Underground Organization, which was recognized as a domestic terrorist organization by the FBI .
Neither the CSRR nor AFJ provided comments to Fox News Digital.
As pressure has been applied by Republican lawmakers and an ad campaign from Judicial Crisis Network targets vulnerable Senate Democrats, Biden's nominee has begun to lose support from his party. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev, and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev, have come out publicly against Mangi, citing his AFJ affiliation.
Sen Joe Manchin, D-W Va, has also complicated the nomination by claiming he won't support anyone who can't garner at least one Republican supporter.
"The opposition to Adeel Mangi — in and outside the Senate — is growing by the day," a spokesperson for the Senate Judiciary Republicans told Fox News Digital in a statement.
"It’s clear the math is not there for the White House," the statement added, calling Biden's decision not to withdraw Mangi's nomination "puzzling indeed."
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates pushed back in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"President Biden is proud to have chosen Adeel Mangi," he said, calling Mangi "an extraordinarily qualified nominee" and noting he "would make history on the bench" as the first Muslim in such a position.
"The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved Mr Mangi’s nomination, and the rest of the Senate should side with what makes America the greatest nation on Earth and support him, not cave to vicious, undignified attempts to drag America into the past," Bates added.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Shuwanza Goff, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs Ali Nouri, White House Counsel Ed Siskel, and White House senior counsel in charge of nominations Phil Brest, continue to press senators to support Mangi, who would be the first Muslim federal appellate court judge, a White House official revealed…
"The White House has not put up an aggressive defense of Mangi, which is really sending my message that he should withdraw [on] his own," said Bonjean, who also ran communications for the Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch. "Unless the Biden administration changes its strategy, the Mangi nomination is dead in the water."
Mangi did not provide comment to Fox News Digital.
