NJ Dem Frontrunner Won’t Disavow Convicted Terrorist He Previously Defended
Dr. Adam Hamawy, a Princeton plastic surgeon and the Democratic frontrunner in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District primary (June 12, 2026), was a defense witness at the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman— the “Blind Sheikh” — who was convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and multiple plots to murder Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
When confronted by media in May 2026, Hamawy declined to disavow his former association with Abdel-Rahman, calling the convicted terrorist “a leader of the community” and describing him as “a blind old man” who only talked about “innocuous things.” His own testimony at the 1995 federal trial described Abdel-Rahman as someone who “always talked about” the need for Muslims to conduct jihad against the enemies of Islam.
- 1995federal trialHamawy testified as a defense witness for Omar Abdel-Rahman, convicted terrorist and 1993 WTC bombing plotter
- NJ-12districtNew Jersey's 12th Congressional District — open seat, heavily Democratic, primary June 12, 2026
- 2026won't disavowHamawy calls convicted terrorist 'a leader of the community' and refuses to specifically condemn him when pressed
Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the “Blind Sheikh,” was an Egyptian cleric who entered the United States in 1990 despite being on State Department watch lists for his ties to Islamic extremist groups. His followers carried out the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing — a truck bomb detonated in the parking garage of the North Tower that killed six people, injured more than a thousand, and was intended to collapse the towers. The plot also included an earlier role for Abdel-Rahman: he had provided the religious authority — a fatwa — justifying the 1981 assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat by an Egyptian Islamic Jihad operative.
Convicted of: Seditious conspiracy; solicitation to murder Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; conspiracy to murder Mubarak; solicitation to attack a U.S. military installation; conspiracy to conduct bombings, including the 1993 WTC attack.
Sentence: Life in federal prison without parole.
Died: February 18, 2017, in federal custody at Butner Federal Medical Center, North Carolina.
Trial: United States v. Rahman et al., Southern District of New York, 1995. One of the largest federal terrorism prosecutions in U.S. history at the time.
Abdel-Rahman met Adam Hamawy in 1991 — after the cleric had already been charged in Egypt for his role in the Sadat assassination. By that time, Abdel-Rahman was operating out of a mosque in Jersey City, New Jersey, and had become a figure in New Jersey Muslim communities. Hamawy, then a young man in his twenties, began accompanying Abdel-Rahman to mosques and provided him with translation services.
When Abdel-Rahman’s defense attorneys put Hamawy on the stand in 1995, he was approximately 26 years old and a medical student. The defense offered his testimony to rebut a prosecution witness who testified that, during a trip to Detroit, Abdel-Rahman had urged that witness to point a rifle at Mubarak’s chest and kill him. Hamawy testified he recalled no such specific statement. But under cross-examination and direct questioning, the record shows he acknowledged the following:
“Of course that's what [he] always talked about.”
Adam Hamawy · testimony referencing Abdel-Rahman's constant discussions of jihad against enemies of Islam · United States v. Rahman, SDNY, 1995
Per trial reporting documented in the Washington Free Beacon’s 2026 investigation, Hamawy testified that he recalled Abdel-Rahman characterizing the United States and Israel as “enemies of Islam” and speaking of the need for Muslims to conduct jihad against the enemies of Islam. He also acknowledged accompanying Abdel-Rahman on a 13-hour road trip from Jersey City to an Islamic conference in Michigan — a trip that also included FBI informant Emad Salem.
Hamawy also visited Abdel-Rahman at his home before the trial began and provided him with translation services. The relationship was not incidental. By Hamawy’s own account — on the record, under oath — he was a regular presence in the Blind Sheikh’s orbit for years.
When the Washington Free Beacon published its investigative piece on Hamawy’s ties to Abdel-Rahman, and local media followed up with a direct confrontation, Hamawy did not disavow his former mentor. He did the opposite. According to Insider NJ, which recorded a video interview with the candidate, Hamawy described Abdel-Rahman in the following terms:
“A leader of the community… an old man that is disabled… who only spoke about innocuous things.”
Dr. Adam Hamawy (D) · interview with Insider NJ · May 2026 · describing convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman
When pressed to specifically condemn the Blind Sheikh, Hamawy declined. He offered instead: “I condemn all extremism and all violence of any kind.” He did not name Abdel-Rahman in that condemnation. He did not acknowledge the convictions. He did not address the fact that his own sworn testimony from 1995 directly contradicts his claim that the sheikh only talked about “innocuous things.”
When his campaign handler tried to shut down the questioning, Hamawy was, per Insider NJ, “in a chatty mood.” He added: “As a Muslim, they’re always going to find something to attack. I’m used to this all my life.”
NJ Dem frontrunner Adam Hamawy was a defense witness for the 'Blind Sheikh' — convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman — and now calls him 'a leader of the community.' He's currently leading the NJ-12 Democratic primary. He refuses to specifically disavow Abdel-Rahman when pressed.
Open seat: Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) is retiring after 2026. She held this seat since 2015.
District lean: Heavily Democratic. The district spans Trenton, Somerville, and the Plainfields. No Republican has won this seat since 1994.
Primary date: June 12, 2026. 13 Democrats are competing.
Hamawy’s position: Described as the frontrunner and leading fundraiser among the 13 candidates. He has received the endorsement of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
Hamawy’s background: Plastic surgeon in Princeton, NJ. Army veteran. Born in New Jersey to Egyptian-American parents. He met Abdel-Rahman as a young man in the early 1990s and has described the relationship as one of community connection, not ideology.
The endorsement from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is notable context. Omar has previously drawn controversy for comments about Israel and U.S. foreign policy that critics characterized as sympathetic to Islamist framing. Her backing of Hamawy — in a race where his ties to a convicted terrorism plotter are now a central news story — is not incidental.
The core factual problem for Hamawy is not that he knew Abdel-Rahman in his twenties. The core problem is that what he says about that relationship in 2026 directly contradicts what he said under oath in 1995.
1995 (sworn testimony, SDNY): Recalled Abdel-Rahman characterizing the U.S. and Israel as “enemies of Islam” and speaking of the need for Muslims to conduct jihad against those enemies. “Of course that’s what [he] always talked about.”
2026 (media interview): Abdel-Rahman was “an old man that is disabled” who spoke only of “innocuous things.”
The gap: Either Hamawy’s 1995 testimony was false — which would be perjury — or his 2026 characterization of Abdel-Rahman as a harmless community elder is false. Both things cannot be true.
Hamawy’s campaign has framed the coverage as religiously motivated. “As a Muslim, they’re always going to find something to attack,” he said. He characterized the scrutiny as “wealthy Republicans” trying to shield Trump by distracting with attacks on him. He has not addressed the specific contradiction between his 1995 testimony and his 2026 statements.
House Republicans and national conservative outlets have drawn attention to Hamawy’s ties since the Washington Free Beacon’s initial reporting. Fox News Digital ran a piece documenting that the connections are “drawing GOP fire.” Given that NJ-12 has not elected a Republican since 1994, the immediate electoral stakes of the controversy are within the Democratic primary — where Hamawy’s thirteen opponents now have documented opposition research handed to them.
No Democratic Party official at the state or national level has called on Hamawy to specifically disavow Abdel-Rahman or to address the contradiction between his 1995 sworn testimony and his 2026 media statements, as of publication.
A man who testified in federal court that a convicted terrorism plotter “always talked about” the need for jihad against America is now the Democratic frontrunner for a congressional seat. When media asked him to disavow that man in 2026, he called him “a leader of the community” and walked away. His own words — under oath in 1995 — are in the federal trial record. Both sets of statements cannot be true. He has not explained the contradiction. The Democratic Party has not asked him to.