[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S2655]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Nomination of Adeel Abdullah Mangi

  Mr. President, now on another matter, I have spoken repeatedly about 
Adeel Mangi, the nominee to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals: both 
his shocking ties to anti-police and anti-Israel radicals and 
Democrats' increasingly frantic efforts to whitewash them.
  Nineteen different law enforcement groups have written in opposition 
to this nominee. As the senior Senator from Nevada noted:

       Mr. Mangi's affiliation with the Alliance of Families for 
     Justice is deeply concerning. This organization has . . . 
     advocated for the release of individuals convicted of killing 
     police officers.

  No wonder law enforcement is aggravated.
  But rather than confronting this blue wall of opposition honestly, 
some of our Democratic colleagues have taken to weaving conspiracy 
theories.
  The junior Senator from Rhode Island came to the floor recently to 
explain that this is all part of a vast scheme orchestrated by a lawyer 
named Leonard Leo. Apparently, Mr. Leo not only controls police unions 
from Hawaii to New York, but his reach is so insidious that the Zionist 
Organization of America is apparently taking orders from a Roman 
Catholic. With shadowy influence like that, it is no wonder my friend 
from Rhode Island is terrified of Mr. Leo. Perhaps we should cut to the 
chase and ask Mr. Leo who killed JFK or where he has been hiding Elvis 
all these years.
  Well, there is one thing even my friend from Rhode Island would have 
to admit that Mr. Leo does not control, and that is Adeel Mangi's 
Senate judiciary questionnaire. To see Mr. Mangi's radical 
associations, one must look no further than that document. They are 
right there on the page.
  Of course, both in his questionnaire and in his hearing, Mr. Mangi 
hid the full extent of his relationship with the anti-Semitic director 
of the terror-endorsing Rutgers center. He also hid the full extent of 
his paid work for causes Democrats find truly odious, like 
pharmaceutical innovation and fossil fuel consumption.
  If there is any covert operation at work here, it is Mr. Mangi's, and 
our Democratic colleagues would be wise to figure out what else he is 
hiding. Indeed, the situation for this nomination has become so dire 
that Mr. Mangi took the almost unprecedented step of writing to the 
junior Senator from New Jersey to disclaim any real knowledge of an 
organization on whose advisory board he sits. Mr. Mangi tried to 
justify his association with cop-killing domestic terrorists by 
claiming ignorance of the full extent of AFJ's radicalism. It is the 
same see-no-evil excuse he attempted for his moral and financial 
support for the anti-Semitic center at Rutgers. Is this the defense of 
an aspiring appellate judge--that he was ignorant and careless?
  My colleague from Rhode Island says Mr. Mangi is ``as well trained 
and intelligent as any candidate who has ever come before the Judiciary 
Committee.'' My legal training is well behind me, but I am quite sure 
that it included basic due diligence. He may have ``the dignity and 
decorum of an Oxford don,'' but an Oxford don knows to check his 
sources.
  There are only two explanations: Either Mr. Mangi is so careless that 
he repeatedly neglected to conduct the simplest due diligence before 
joining advisory boards of radical groups or he joined these groups 
intentionally. Either one makes him unfit for this lifetime 
appointment.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.