New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sparked outrage from 9/11 families and lawmakers after handing a ceremonial pen from the signing of 9/11-related executive orders to his chief counsel, a lawyer who once represented a convicted al Qaeda operative with direct family ties to one of the hijackers.
Mamdani signed two executive orders Friday, one designating September 11 a citywide day of remembrance and service, and a second strengthening the city's anti-terrorism efforts ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks. After the signing, he handed the ceremonial pen to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch and asked her to pass it to Ramzi Kassem, his chief counsel. Kassem previously represented Ahmed al-Darbi, a Guantánamo Bay detainee who pleaded guilty to war-crime charges tied to al Qaeda plots against commercial ships, including the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen's coast.
Al-Darbi's sister was married to Khalid al-Mihdhar, one of the hijackers aboard American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, killing 184 people. That family connection between a convicted al Qaeda operative and a 9/11 hijacker makes Kassem's role in the ceremony, and Mamdani's decision to single him out, difficult to dismiss as routine.
City Hall told the New York Post that Kassem attended the ceremony because he and his team drafted both executive orders as part of his duties as chief counsel. But the Post reported that Kassem arrived 15 minutes late to the press conference and slipped in at the end, yet Mamdani still singled him out to receive the symbolic pen. Mamdani's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Kassem's legal career extends well beyond al-Darbi. He founded a legal clinic at the City University of New York that provides free representation to Muslims. He also represented Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University, after Khalil was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
None of that background is secret. Mamdani chose Kassem as his chief counsel with full knowledge of the man's client history. The question 9/11 families and critics are now asking is why the mayor would turn a solemn remembrance ceremony into a moment that spotlighted someone whose professional record intersects with the network responsible for the worst terrorist attack on American soil.
Retired detective Michael Alcazar put it bluntly. As he told the New York Post:
"It was calculated."
Alcazar added that 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."
The mayor's pattern of dodging accountability on controversial decisions has made the silence from his office even more conspicuous. No explanation, no apology, no acknowledgment that the gesture landed as an insult to thousands of grieving families.
City Council Member Joann Ariola called the act "breathtakingly tone-deaf and disrespectful."
"It shows exactly where his loyalties truly lie."
The backlash did not stay local. Republican senators rallied behind a petition organized by Giovanni Galante, a 9/11 family member who lost his wife Grace in the attacks. The petition, which Fox News reported has gathered more than 82,000 signatures, calls for Mamdani to be barred from the 25th-anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero. It cites eight specific concerns, including Mamdani's alleged failure to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," associations with extremist individuals, and his refusal to call for Hamas to lay down its weapons.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., did not hold back:
"At the end of the day, those families should have the say who's going to show up and honor the memory of their own families."
Sheehy also accused Mamdani of having "platformed Islamic extremism" and said the mayor "openly supports Hamas, as does his wife."
Despite the petition, the bipartisan criticism, and the growing list of public condemnations, Mamdani confirmed he still plans to attend the September commemoration. That decision fits a broader pattern. This is an administration that has repeatedly avoided oversight and public questioning when its choices draw heat.
The pen handoff drew immediate condemnation on social media. Podcaster Benny Johnson posted on X, as Fox News reported:
"This is a slap in the face to victims ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11."
Former New York state Senate candidate Maria Danzilo wrote on X:
"I sincerely hope the rest of the country understands just how hard it is to be in New York City with this mayor, and especially as we're approaching this most serious and solemn day for NYC: 9/11."
Another user on X called it a "deliberate gesture by Mamdani that undermines 9/11 yet again with impunity." That word, deliberate, captures the core of the criticism. This was not a slip. Mamdani signed the orders, picked up the pen, and chose to route it through the NYPD commissioner to a lawyer whose most prominent former client pleaded guilty to al Qaeda war crimes.
Mamdani's administration has shown a consistent willingness to claim credit it hasn't earned and avoid blame when its decisions backfire. The pen ceremony fits that mold, a performance designed for one audience that offended the people the event was supposed to honor.
The 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks is weeks away. More than 82,000 people have signed a petition asking that the mayor of New York City not attend the ceremony at Ground Zero. Republican senators have publicly backed the effort. A retired NYPD detective called the pen gesture calculated. A sitting city council member questioned the mayor's loyalties.
And Mamdani's response has been silence, followed by confirmation that he will show up anyway. It is a posture familiar to anyone who has watched this administration spend taxpayer money on ideological projects while brushing off public objections.
The families who lost mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, and children on September 11, 2001, did not ask for much. They asked for a ceremony that honored the dead without insulting them. Mamdani could not manage even that.