'Disgusting': Dark Money Group Unveils Wildly Islamophobic Ads Against Biden Court Pick

WASHINGTON ― An influential conservative group this week launched a blatantly Islamophobic and misleading ad campaign targeting one of President Joe Biden’s Muslim judicial nominees, Adeel Mangi.

The Judicial Crisis Network, a right-wing judicial advocacy group known for its steady stream of anonymous funding and a previous multimillion-dollar campaign aimed at smearing then-Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, unveiled digital ads on Tuesday that attempt to pressure Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) to oppose Mangi’s confirmation. Both Democrats are up for reelection in November.

JCN’s attacks on Mangi, a 23-year civil litigator based in New Jersey who is on track to be the nation’s first Muslim appeals court judge, are as deceptive as they are ugly. The group’s ads accuse Mangi of being a “radical” and an “antisemite,” and of advisingan organization that teaches students “to hate Israel, to hate America and to support global terrorism.”

The ads even use video footage of the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, overlaid with a headline about Mangi.

“Tell Jon Tester to vote no on giving antisemite Adeel Mangi a lifetime position on our courts,” says the narrator in the ad, as dramatic music plays in the background.

You can see the Tester ad for yourself here:

What the ads don’t mention is what happened after Republicans made similarly ugly attacks on Mangi in his December hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

During that hearing, GOP Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.) berated Mangi and inappropriately demanded he share his personal views on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in