House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday declined to condemn New Jersey Democratic congressional nominee Adam Hamawy, despite being shown trial transcripts showing Mr. Hamawy testified as a defense witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” who was convicted in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Mr. Jeffries, New York Democrat, congratulated Mr. Hamawy on X after his primary victory in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District last week, but he evaded talking about him when he appeared Sunday on Fox News.
“I haven’t spoken to him. He’s going to have to speak for himself and address these allegations,” Mr. Jeffries said. “And I certainly haven’t read the transcript that you just presented to me.”
Mr. Jeffries lauded Mr. Hamawy last Tuesday on X: “Congratulations to Mr. @HamawyForNJ on a hard-fought victory tonight.”
“Welcome to the growing House Democratic Doctors’ Caucus! Together there is much work to do to lower the high cost of living and fix our broken healthcare system.”
Mr. Hamawy, a plastic surgeon practicing near Princeton, initially met Abdel-Rahman at a New Jersey middle school forum in 1991 and started accompanying him to events thereafter, ultimately testifying as a character witness at his 1995 seditious conspiracy trial.
Under cross-examination by prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Mr. Hamawy acknowledged that Abdel-Rahman “always talked about” jihad.
Their relationship deepened over time — all the way to a road trip to Detroit, where Mr. Hamawy served as the sheikh’s translator at a press conference in which Abdel-Rahman denied any role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Investigators say Mr. Hamawy was also untruthful on the stand. When defense attorney Lynne Stewart asked him to describe a 1991 Detroit conference headlined by Abdel-Rahman, Mr. Hamawy called it an economics event — but the recovered conference transcript shows it was a gathering of jihadist leaders at which Abdel-Rahman’s listed topic was “The Best Way of Supporting Jihad” and his opening sentence declared jihad “the pinnacle of Islam.”
Investigators have also reported that Mr. Hamawy subsequently worked with the Benevolence International Foundation, an organization later shut down after it was discovered to be an al Qaeda front, The Newark Star Ledger reported.
Mr. Hamawy’s campaign has said the scrutiny against him is just “guilt-by-association” and his detractors are shaming him unfairly. They pointed to his over 20 years of military service as a lieutenant colonel, including a combat tour during which he saved the life of Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Illinois Democrat, and hundreds of other American troops in Iraq.
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