Rep. Michael Lawler is calling for a congressional investigation into Adam Hamawy, the Democratic primary winner in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, over his documented ties to convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
Hamawy, a veteran combat plastic surgeon, won a 12-way Democratic primary Tuesday for the Central Jersey seat vacated by former Rep. Mikie Sherrill. He now faces Republican candidate Gregg Mele in November in a district that has not sent a Republican to Congress this century.
Lawler, a New York Republican who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Middle East Subcommittee, confirmed to Fox News Digital that he will push for a “full investigation” if Hamawy wins the general election.
“Adam Hamawy was a defense witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Blind Sheikh behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and a year earlier volunteered in Bosnia with an organization the U.S. Treasury designated a financier of terrorism and the 9/11 Commission tied to Osama bin Laden’s network,” Lawler said. “He has never answered for any of it.”
Lawler added that Hamawy’s record makes him unfit to serve in Congress and to access the classified national security information that comes with the role. “If he’s elected in November, I’ll push for a full investigation because the American people deserve the truth,” he said.
Andrew McCarthy, the former federal prosecutor who led the government’s case against Abdel-Rahman, confirmed Wednesday that Hamawy testified voluntarily at the 1995 trial.
“He didn’t have to come unless he wanted to,” McCarthy said on Fox News. “It wasn’t like I subpoenaed him. It wasn’t like the government brought him in as a hostile witness. He volunteered to testify for this guy. He knew exactly who he was.”
McCarthy also noted that Hamawy greeted Abdel-Rahman from the witness stand with “Salaam Alaykum,” suggesting personal familiarity with the convicted terrorist.
On cross-examination, Hamawy testified that he did not recall a conversation about assassinating Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, which McCarthy called “not very persuasive.”
The Hamawy campaign has previously pushed back on the criticism, arguing Hamawy was serving in the military when the events took place. Hamawy has also accused critics of Islamophobia, telling the New Jersey Monitor, “Any Muslim is going to be called a terrorist at some point, and these tropes are outdated and worn.”
Not all skeptics are Republicans. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from North Jersey, told Jewish Insider he has “serious questions and deep concerns” about Hamawy’s “associations with terrorist organizations and leaders who have attacked America.”
Hamawy was endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and supported by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. He defeated 11 other candidates Tuesday, including Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, who had raised the terrorism ties during the primary.
Abdel-Rahman died in a North Carolina federal prison in 2017, where he was serving a life sentence for seditious conspiracy related to the 1993 World Trade Center attack, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000.
