American Muslim judicial nominee Adeel Mangi has been targeted by a controversial Islamophobic ad campaign launched by an influential right-wing lobbying group.
Mangi is the first Muslim appeals court judge in the US.
The campaign, launched by the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), accuses Mangi of being a “radical” and an “anti-Semite”, as well as having ties to terrorists.
It said he has advised an organization that teaches students “to hate Israel, to hate America and to support global terrorism.”
The ads have also used video footage of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, overlaid with a headline about Mangi.
Earlier, Republicans made similar attacks on Mangi in his December hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
They demanded that Mangi share his personal views on the 9/11 attack.
In support of Mangi, the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the US publicly criticized the senators for how they have behaved against Mangi.
The JCN has not given any evidence of Mangi being an anti-Semite.
Emily Hampsten, a spokesperson for Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said it’s “obvious” that the JCN’s ads are part of a broader, coordinated effort by conservative groups to tank Mangi’s nomination.
The Judicial Crisis Network allocates substantial sums of money, including millions of dollars in dark money, to advance its agenda of promoting Republican judicial nominees while opposing Democratic nominees at the federal level, according to a report by the Democratic Policy and Communication Committee.
