OPINION:
At an April 4 proceeding in the District of Columbia, U.S. District Court Chief Judge James E. Boasberg, the closest the Democrats have at the moment to obsessed Trump antagonist Jack Smith, showed leniency for a devoted fan of mass murderer Hamas.
How Zaid Mohammed Mahdawi ended up before Judge Boasberg, who heard the Trump Justice Department ask for a 30-day prison sentence and gave him only 10 days, is a peek inside the anti-Israel movement raging across our nation.
The Obama-appointed Judge Boasberg is a big Washington player right now. He is unhappy with how President Trump is arresting and deporting hardened terrorist criminals ushered into our country by President Biden.
The judge was personally hurt that the Trump team ignored his order to turn around a plane of deported terrorists and bring them back. He is making noises like he is going to jail Trump people. This is something special council Jack Smith tried hard to do but got bushwhacked by American voters.
On July 24, anti-Israel forces descended on Washington to protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address that day to a joint session of Congress.
A rowdy pro-Palestine pro-Hamas group, the Answer Coalition, got the National Park Service’s permission to stage a protest at Columbus Circle and its 1912 Christopher Columbus statue and fountain firmly planted a few steps from Union Station with a Capitol view.
Mr. Mahdawi, a 26-year-old Richmond-area resident, joined the mob. He and his friends quickly went crazy. The Park Police revoked the permit on the spot because the protesters lacked self-policing marshals as they promised. There was a reason the permit holder did not return an officer’s phone call. That would interfere with their riot. They began attacking police, destroying American flags and defacing explorer Columbus’ eternal home. Anti-Israeli mobsters often reveal their twin hatreds: Jews and America.
Mr. Mahdawi became a graffiti star. He climbed the monument, stood above the crowd on a ledge and spray-painted it with giant letters: “HAMAS IS COMIN.”
Hamas is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Mr. Mahdawi was telling us that the savages who slaughtered more than 1,200 Jews in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, were coming for Americans. On TV, Hamas pitchmen promised more events like Oct. 7.
Outraged Republicans watching the anti-American vandalism went to the site that night, rallied in Columbus’ approving shadow, replaced some flags and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
“Earlier today, pro-Hamas protesters took down the American flags at Union Station, burned them and raised Palestinian flags. Tonight, we righted their wrong. American flags are once again flying over Union Station. We will not let the terrorist mob win,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Mr. Mahdawi relishes his role as Hamas publicist, chalking up two arrests before July 24.
On Dec. 8, 2023, Virginia Commonwealth University police took him into custody for single-handedly disrupting a speech on campus. Police asked him to leave multiple times. He refused. Mr. Mahdawi “told the police that he would have to be forcibly removed from the property,” states a sentencing memo filed April 3 by the Trump Justice Department. “Mr. Mahdawi was escorted out by police but resisted leaving; indeed, he attempted to kick a door to prevent his removal.”
He was convicted of trespassing in May 2024 and fined two months before his Columbus Circle performance.
On April 7, 2024, Mr. Mahdawi led a group blocking traffic with bicycles and vehicles. Richmond police asked him to disperse. He refused and was charged with unlawful assembly and obstruction of justice. The city gave him a break by declining to prosecute on July 22, two days before his trip to the District.
“It seems clear that the slaps on the wrist he previously received proved insufficient to dissuade Mr. Mahdawi from engaging in further criminal behavior,” said the April 3 memo signed by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan M. Horan.
Mr. Biden’s U.S. attorney for the District, Matthew M. Graves, who spearheaded the long, methodical prosecution of Jan. 6 Trump supporters, reached the Mahdawi guilty plea deal in December before resigning. One misdemeanor count of destruction of property with a one-year maximum prison sentence. Mr. Graves recommended a cap of 30 days.
The Trump Justice Department locked into the Graves agreement and recommended the full 30. Judge Boasberg opted for 10.
On Dec. 10, the House Natural Resources subcommittee on oversight and investigations held a hearing titled: “Desecrating Old Glory: Investigating How the Pro-Hamas Protests Turned National Park Service Land into a Violent Disgrace.”
Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman, full committee chairman, said the National Park Service issued a permit to Answer Coalition a day before the Columbus Circle violence.
“The Answer Coalition was one of the major organizations involved with launching the Shut It Down for Palestine movement, which has disrupted life on college campuses and targeted infrastructure in major cities across the United States over the last year,” he said.
Subcommittee Chair Paul Gosar said communist China was funding the Answer Coalition.
“Hamas and other dangerous terrorist groups benefit from their close relationships with these organizations and their ability to spread Hamas’ message across the United States,” he said. “It baffles me that with the troubling history of disorder and violence, the National Park Service would still grant the Answer Coalition a public gathering permit for July 24th.”
Charles Cuvelier, associate director of Visitor and Resource Protection at the National Park Service, said it was his agency’s idea to provide the Answer Coalition Columbus Circle after the group’s first choice was booked.
“There was no actionable intelligence related to the permitted event to deny a permit or otherwise adjudicate it,” he said. “It did begin in good order, sir, but for those reasons in the early planning stages, there was no reason to deny them a permit.”
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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