{"id":21095,"date":"2026-07-29T16:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21095"},"modified":"2026-07-29T16:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:17:23","slug":"ali-najmi-is-too-sleazy-and-conflicted-to-be-mamdanis-chief-judge-picker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21095","title":{"rendered":"Ali Najmi is too sleazy and conflicted to be Mamdani&#8217;s chief judge-picker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F07%2Fnewly-appointed-ali-najmi-chair-118155854.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ali Najmi is suing the city over the Central Park carriage crash \u2014 a clear conflict of interest with his work as the head of <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/11\/us-news\/mamdani-legal-advisor-boasts-anti-israel-mayor-is-the-real-political-leader-of-gen-z-jews-in-new-york\/\">Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s judicial-nominations board.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Yes, Romanch Mahajan\u2019s family has every right to an attorney in their case over their 18-year-old son\u2019s fatal fall from a runaway Central Park horse carriage.<\/p>\n<p>But being their lawyer renders Najmi unfit as <em>any <\/em>kind of city official, certainly one involved in choosing future judges.<\/p>\n<p>Actually, his other conflicts should have kept him out of that role in the first place.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not simply that he maintains his own private practice, specializing in criminal defense, civil rights and election law; he is also \u201cof counsel\u201d with Liakas Law \u2014 a firm <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/04\/us-news\/top-mamdani-aide-wholl-help-pick-nyc-judges-is-special-adviser-to-law-firm-accused-of-massive-fraud\/\">under federal investigation for allegedly operating as a fraudulent enterprise<\/a> that exploits immigrants and the vulnerable through a scheme of sham lawsuits and padded medical bills.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a policy issue, too: The ambulance-chasing Najmi benefits from Scaffold Law cases \u2014 which drive insurance premiums sky-high and ballooning housing construction costs by as much as 10%, undermining the mayor\u2019s affordable-housing agenda.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--author inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--underline subsection-heading--underline--indent-30 \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Post Editorial Board<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Najmi had earlier served as Mamdani\u2019s campaign lawyer; we understand why he might trust him \u2014 but also wonder if he\u2019s one of the reasons the Mayor\u2019s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/28\/us-news\/mamdani-shuns-jews-from-important-judicial-advisory-committee\/\">has not a single Jewish member<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Given how very many New York lawyers are Jews \u2014 including plenty of radicals who\u2019d enthusiastically support the mayor\u2019s agenda \u2014 it\u2019s impossible not to think this was intentional discrimination.<\/p>\n<div class=\"single__inline-module inline-module inline-module--newsletter aligncenter inline-module--nypostbusinessunit aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-newsletter\" data-source-unit=\"Inline Newsletter Module Post Opinion\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__title-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__unsubmitted-title-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>City Hall says it did consider retired Appellate Division Justice John Leventhal for the committee, but he \u201cdid not pass our vetting process\u201d because he \u201cserved on [Ghislaine] Maxwell\u2019s legal team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Huh? If Team Mamdani is going to start holding lawyers\u2019 past clients against them, they\u2019d be unable to hire practically <em>any <\/em>criminal-defense lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>Heck, Najmi runs that committee <em>and <\/em>is a top Mamdani political adviser, despite plenty of questionable clients.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re no fans of <em>anyone <\/em>in the mayor\u2019s inner circle, but (setting ideology aside) Najmi has to be most questionable.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ali Najmi is suing the city over the Central Park carriage crash \u2014 a clear conflict of interest with his work as the head of Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s judicial-nominations board.\u00a0 Yes, Romanch Mahajan\u2019s family has every right to an attorney in their case over their 18-year-old son\u2019s fatal fall from a runaway Central Park horse&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/newly-appointed-ali-najmi-chair-118155854.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}