Mamdani taps controversial lawyer who defended al Qaeda terrorist for top role: 'Powerful advocate'

Announcing the appointment, Mamdani said, "I will turn to Ramzi for his remarkable experience and his commitment to defending those too often abandoned by our legal system."

The mayor-elect said that "City Hall will be stronger with him in it, and our work of building a more prosperous city for all will have a powerful advocate."

"My sincere hope is that New Yorkers who have long felt on the margins of this city, the homeless veteran straining to survive, the patient searching for the care that they need, an immigrant trying to get by will feel that they now have leaders in their corner who understand their struggles and care to fight for them," Mamdani went on, adding, "That is the city I want to build. The prosperity I intend to deliver and the leadership that has too long been lacking."

Kassem thanked Mamdani for the appointment, saying he considers it a "call of duty to serve the city that I've called home, the city that embraced me."

"I grew up in war-torn countries in the Middle East, authoritarian regimes, and New York City was really my first stable and permanent home," said Kassem. "This is an opportunity for me to repay that debt. I've been trying to repay that debt ever since I came to this country, ever since I immigrated."

Kassem is the founder of the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) law clinic, a project that, according to its website, has a mandate "to support Muslim and all other client, communities, and movements in the New York City area and beyond that are targeted by local, state, or federal government agencies under the guise of national security and counterterrorism."