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A former Obama administration intelligence official secured the release of a jailed lawyer who was arrested after allegedly trying to firebomb a New York City police car.
Salmah Rizvi, who worked in both the State and Defense Departments under former President Obama, reportedly guaranteed the $250,000 bail set for Urooj Rahman, telling the court Wednesday that she is her “best friend.”
“Urooj Rahman is my best friend and I am an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C.,” Rizvi said Monday at Rahman’s arraignment, adding, “I earn $255,000 a year,” according to a transcript obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Rahman, a Fordham University School of Law graduate, was arrested Saturday along with Colinford Mattis, a graduate of Princeton University and New York University law school, “while allegedly in possession of explosive device components shortly after Rahman hurled a Molotov cocktail at an NYPD vehicle,” according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Two Brooklyn lawyers face federal charges for allegedly tossing Molotov cocktail at NYPD vehicle https://t.co/UC8flWk1Ng
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) June 1, 2020
Surveillance cameras outside of the 88th Precinct in Fort Greene caught the failed attack on the empty police cruiser and photos soon surfaced of Rahman in a van holding a Molotov cocktail.
Urooj Rahman prepares to toss a Molotov cocktail out of the passenger-side window of a van early Saturday, May 30, outside the 88th Precinct stationhouse in Brooklyn but the Molotov cocktail failed to ignite.
She is a a corporate lawyer & member of Community Board 5 in East NY. pic.twitter.com/4QnxaplDf1
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) June 1, 2020
The two were repeat donors to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Despite the objections of prosecutors, Rahman was released to home confinement with a GPS monitor and ordered to surrender all travel documents.
Rizvi will be held financially liable if her BFF disobeys the court’s orders. U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie agreed to grant the 31-year-old bail because of the “willingness of family and friends to sign on as suretors,” but if convicted, Rahman could face up to 20 years in prison.
“We don’t believe this is the time to be releasing a bomb-thrower like the defendant into the community,” federal prosecutor Ian Richardson said.
According to Rizvi’s bio at the Islamic Scholarship Fund, during her stint in the Obama administration, her “high-value work would often inform the President’s Daily Briefs.” Her law school scholarship was sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group known for its anti-Israel views.
For a time, Rizvi, who was born in Indonesia, was also working for Al-Haq “as a Center for Human Rights and Global Justice Fellow, writing legal briefs and advocating for Palestinian freedoms and human rights.” The organization challenges the “legal status of Israel as an occupying power.”
Rizvi was also the recipient of a scholarship by the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, which was launched by left-wing billionaire George Soros’ late brother.
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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