New York City attorneys Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman were arrested for tossing a Molotov cocktail into a parked police car in Brooklyn on May 30, 2020, during the riots that swept the country following the death of George Floyd, which had occurred five days earlier.
Reuters reported that Rahman “threw a gasoline-filled bottle” into the police car and “fled in a minivan driven by Mattis.”
Upon their arrest, police officers “found a lighter, a Bud Light beer bottle filled with toilet paper and a gasoline tank” in Mattis’ car, according to WNBC. “Prosecutors allege the lawyers planned to distribute and throw other Molotov cocktails.”
The WNBC piece noted that at the time of their arrests, “While other lawyers condemned their conduct, some objected to the severity of the charges, arguing that the case was improperly being handled as if it were an act of domestic terrorism. When the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn asked that the lawyers be detained without bail, 56 former federal prosecutors sent a legal brief to the court criticizing the government’s handling of the case.”
Perhaps the effectiveness of this action served as the impetus for 51 former U.S. intelligence officials who, several months later, signed an op-ed stating their belief that the Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation, arguably swaying the presidential election.
At any rate, the pair faced domestic terrorism charges, which could have sent them to prison for decades.
In commentary on the pair’s plea deal, George Washington University School of Law professor Jonathan Turley pointed out: “Prosecutors presented evidence that the two attorneys were trying to distribute Molotov cocktails and suggested that Mattis did not appear rational.”
Nevertheless, in October 2021, Mattis and Rahman pleaded guilty to charges of unlawfully possessing Molotov cocktails in U.S. District Court.
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Last Thursday, the pair withdrew their October guilty pleas and agreed to a new plea deal. Appearing before U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan, they pleaded guilty to conspiracy, a charge that will significantly reduce their sentences from decades to as little as 18 to 24 months.
Under the new agreement, the defendants will be permanently disbarred and will each pay “$30,137 in restitution to New York City,” as per Reuters.
As per his LinkedIn profile, Mattis was a corporate lawyer with Pryor Cashman. (He was suspended from the firm after his arrest.) He graduated from New York University School of Law in 2016 and from Princeton University in 2010. Rahman, a former human rights attorney, graduated from Fordham University School of Law.
The two lawyers were facing domestic terrorism charges and the possibility of 30 years in jail. This week, the Biden Administration agreed to a massive reduction of the charges in a plea agreement that will likely result only in a couple years of jail time.https://t.co/dLCKAWqzqv
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) June 5, 2022
Reuters positions the new plea deal as a contrast between the tough-on-crime policies of former President Donald Trump’s administration and President Joe Biden’s “pledge to reform the criminal justice system and address systemic racism.”
A more accurate portrayal of this travesty would be as additional evidence of the two-tier system of justice the Democratic Party has spent the past decade trying to establish.
We need only consider the plight of the Jan. 6 protesters who still languish inside Washington, D.C., jail cells vs. the plea deal offered to Mattis and Rahman.
Tuesday night’s recall of far-left San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in one of America’s most liberal cities should serve as a no-confidence vote for the Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies. Crime rates across the country have soared as a direct result of their “reform” efforts. The fact that liberals now recognize this speaks volumes.
San Francisco voters sent a powerful message to Democrats this week. The crime wave in the U.S. has become too big to ignore.
Hopefully, they will hear it.
