Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has abandoned hopes of confirming Third Circuit Appeals Court nominee Adeel Mangi, whom some Senate Democrats opposed over links to anti-police groups uncovered by the Washington Free Beacon.
Schumer struck a deal Thursday with Republicans to abandon floor votes for Mangi and three other appellate court nominees in exchange for easing the process to confirm a dozen Biden district court nominees.
"The trade was four circuit nominees—all lacking the votes to get confirmed—for more than triple the number of additional judges moving forward," a Schumer spokesman said in a statement.
Though Schumer is presenting the deal as a win for Democrats, it gives President-elect Donald Trump the authority to fill highly coveted appellate court spots when he takes office next year. In addition to Mangi, Schumer sacrificed Fourth Circuit nominee Ryan Park, Sixth Circuit nominee Karla Campbell, and First Circuit nominee Julia Lipez, who came under scrutiny for once declaring that a child sex predator "had a lot of good in him."
Mangi, a partner at the New Jersey law firm Patterson Belknap, was considered the most controversial nominee of the batch, given his positions on the boards of anti-police and anti-Israel groups.
At his confirmation hearing in December, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) hammered Mangi over his board position with the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights, an anti-Israel think tank that blamed the Israeli government for the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and has accused the Jewish state of "genocide" in Gaza. The center drew bipartisan condemnation in 2021 after it hosted convicted terrorism financier Sami al-Arian at a 9/11 anniversary event.
But it was Mangi’s board position with the New York-based Alliance of Families for Justice, brought to light by the Free Beacon, that may have ultimately doomed his nomination.
During Mangi’s tenure, the Alliance of Families for Justice referred to six of the country’s most notorious cop killers as "freedom fighters" and called for their release from prison, the Free Beacon reported. Mangi served on the board with domestic terrorists Kathy Boudin and Susan Rosenberg. Boudin, a former member of the terrorist group Weather Underground, was convicted of murdering two police officers during an armored truck robbery in 1981. Rosenberg, also a former Weather Underground member, was linked to the same armored truck robbery, as well as to a women-led communist group that bombed the U.S. Senate offices in 1983.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D., Nev.) opposed Mangi over his affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice. "Mr. Mangi’s affiliation with the Alliance of Families for Justice is deeply concerning," Cortez Masto said on March 20. "My concern is with respect to the organization that supports individuals who kill police officers."
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D., Nev.) and Joe Manchin (I., W.Va.) also said in March that they opposed Mangi’s nomination.
"Democrats have finally acknowledged the reality that Senator Graham has been talking about for months. Adeel Mangi is simply too radical to be confirmed to a lifetime seat on the bench," said Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans.
"We’ve known for months that he didn’t have the votes to be confirmed. We’re glad Senator Schumer and President Biden conceded—at long last—that Mr. Mangi’s ties and financial support to a radical organization that consistently promoted anti-Semitic rhetoric and anti-law enforcement organizations are not befitting of a federal judge."
The White House and Schumer’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
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