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Firebombing Attorney Begs for Light Sentence, Citing Inebriation and ‘Unprocessed Trauma’ [BLM supporting lawyer who bombed empty police car claims that the real victim is herself]
Washington Free Beacon ^ | September 29, 2022 | Josh Christenson

Posted on 09/29/2022 10:25:17 AM PDT by grundle

Urooj Rahman was 'quite drunk' during George Floyd riots, court filings show

A left-wing lawyer who pleaded guilty to firebombing a police cruiser is asking for a commutation of her sentence, pointing to the fact that she was inebriated at the time of the offense and coping with "unprocessed trauma," according to court filings.

Attorneys for Urooj Rahman argue the self-described human-rights activist was "numb, disassociated, and inebriated" when she threw a Molotov cocktail into a New York City police car during the George Floyd riots in May 2020. Lawyers say Rahman was also reeling from her many "abusive partnership relationships" and processing "early trauma" from being taunted as a Muslim after 9/11.

On the night of May 29, 2020, Rahman "became quite drunk" after drinking vodka on "an empty stomach" with fellow lawyer and later getaway driver Colinford Mattis. Rahman’s attorneys say the pair’s decision to firebomb an NYPD cruiser was an "aberrational" act meant to protect others from future police violence.

"Tossing the Molotov cocktail was a way of expressing anger at those police officers around the country for whom Black lives did not matter," Rahman’s attorneys wrote in a September memo to U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan. "It was an act of protest intended to avoid exposing others to harm."

Rahman’s attorneys have requested she be released on "time served," saying "her conduct that night was a marked deviation from her otherwise exemplary life."

The request for a special dispensation builds on a sweetheart deal already reached by Justice Department prosecutors in the case. In June, Rahman and Mattis entered into a second plea agreement that broke their potential 10-year sentences down to a maximum of 5 years. Prosecutors want Judge Cogan to go even lower, arguing for just 18 to 24 months based on the "history and personal characteristics of the defendants."

Rahman and Mattis each confessed to counts of conspiracy to commit arson and to making and possessing an unregistered destructive device, dodging a previous domestic terrorism sentencing enhancement. The two had pleaded guilty in October 2021 to one count of possessing or making a destructive device, which could have earned them each 10 years in prison.

Since their arrest, Rahman and Mattis have won the sympathy of national media and liberal elites. New York magazine, NPR, and other outlets have run favorable profiles of the two. Rahman has remained under house arrest with electronic monitoring since June 2020, when a former Obama administration intelligence official helped post her $250,000 bail.

Their defenders have said the Trump administration wished to make a political example of the pair, bringing federal charges for a crime that is usually dealt with by local authorities. Rahman’s attorneys in their memo argue the defendant has received harsher treatment compared with another federal case involving an NYPD van firebombed in July 2020. Rahman’s attorneys also say their client’s "commitment to social justice" should earn her a more lenient sentence.

But prosecutors who first took up the case emphasized Rahman and Mattis had a higher obligation to uphold the rule of law. The two "abdicated their responsibilities as attorneys" when they chose to not only throw but make and distribute the Molotov cocktails. A witness testified that Rahman passed the explosives out earlier to rioters. Prosecutors also revealed text messages between Rahman and Mattis showing they planned the attack.

"Bring it to their neck," Mattis texted Rahman before sharing the location of police headquarters. "Molotovs rollin’," Rahman responded. "I hope they burn everything down. Need to burn all police stations down and probably the courts too."

Rahman also gave a video interview before distributing the explosives. "This shit won’t ever stop unless we fuckin’ take it all down," she said. "The only way they hear us is through violence."

Rahman and Mattis say they have each been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, for which they have received psychiatric care. Both have also been treated for alcoholism.

A clinical psychologist who analyzed Rahman at the behest of her attorneys said the defendant "[b]eneath her surface functionality is gravely compromised." Rahman, she says, has two therapists, regularly attends meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, and is prescribed an array of psychiatric medications.

A graduate of Fordham University’s law school, Rahman was a public interest lawyer with Bronx Legal Services. Mattis, a graduate of Princeton and New York University Law School, was an associate at Pryor Cashman, a midsize corporate law firm.

Rahman was due at a sentencing in a Brooklyn federal court on Thursday but successfully petitioned for the hearing to be moved to November 9.


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1 posted on 09/29/2022 10:25:17 AM PDT by grundle
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To: grundle

The turd isn’t even an American. Deport the biotch. Americans don’t need her crap.


2 posted on 09/29/2022 10:26:51 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Josef Bidenov is out to take out your children. Keep them protected from Bidenov goons.)
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To: grundle

America.

3 posted on 09/29/2022 10:27:20 AM PDT by proust (All posts made under this handle are, for the intents and purposes of the author, considered satire.)
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To: grundle

Yah... She slept in that day and had bad hair too.


4 posted on 09/29/2022 10:27:59 AM PDT by Bayard
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To: grundle

Okay then, so as long as you have a good enough excuse you can commit violence and not be punished? Is that really what is being argued here? If you can claim you were drunk and it’s an aberrational act that you wouldn’t have done when sober , then that excuses everything?


5 posted on 09/29/2022 10:28:16 AM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
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To: grundle

In Texas, and most sane states, intoxication is NEVER a defense to prosecution. In fact, it often ENHANCES the criminal culpability.


6 posted on 09/29/2022 10:28:32 AM PDT by fwdude (Racism is not dead, but it is on life support - kept alive by politicians….” — Thomas Sowell)
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To: grundle

What’s good for the JSixer Partiers is good for these two morons. Give them the max. They are a waste of skin.


7 posted on 09/29/2022 10:30:43 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Josef Bidenov is out to take out your children. Keep them protected from Bidenov goons.)
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To: grundle
In June, Rahman and Mattis entered into a second plea agreement that broke their potential 10-year sentences down to a maximum of 5 years. Prosecutors want Judge Cogan to go even lower, arguing for just 18 to 24 months based on the "history and personal characteristics of the defendants."

5 years is too light, sheesh.

8 posted on 09/29/2022 10:31:34 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: grundle

Maybe even get SS disability income due to PTSD. What a country huh?


9 posted on 09/29/2022 10:40:10 AM PDT by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: Dilbert San Diego

I wonder if she was sober when she bought the materials for, and assembled the Molotov cocktails.


10 posted on 09/29/2022 10:40:27 AM PDT by gundog ( It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: 1Old Pro

The only reason they’re being punished at all is that federal funds partially financed the cop cars.


11 posted on 09/29/2022 10:41:47 AM PDT by gundog ( It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: grundle

12 posted on 09/29/2022 10:42:23 AM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: grundle
Better photo of the hag:

Guilty!!

13 posted on 09/29/2022 10:42:34 AM PDT by Menehune56 ("Let them hate so long as they fear" (Oderint Dum Metuant), Lucius Accius (170 BC - 86 BC))
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To: grundle

Violent Insurrectionist


14 posted on 09/29/2022 10:43:33 AM PDT by AppyPappy (Biden told Al Roker "America is back". Unfortunately, he meant back to the 1970's)
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To: grundle
Their legal strategy is known as "throw everything against a wall, and see what sticks."

At the bare minimum, their ability to practice law should be quashed.

15 posted on 09/29/2022 10:47:03 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
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To: Night Hides Not

Deport her back to whatever Sh!thole country she came from. Leave orders, should she ever try to reenter the US, Lock Her Up for 50yrs.


16 posted on 09/29/2022 10:50:16 AM PDT by OHPatriot (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: grundle
Since when is "I was drunk" an excuse for committing a crime?

Judge: "You were driving 90 miles an hour in a 30 mile an hour zone and smashed into eight parked cars. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Defendant: "It's not my fault, your honor, I was drunk."
17 posted on 09/29/2022 10:53:13 AM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: grundle

Sentence her to do free pro bono legal work for the Jan. 6 defendants.


18 posted on 09/29/2022 11:02:41 AM PDT by Demiurge2 (Define your terms!)
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To: grundle

BURN her...


19 posted on 09/29/2022 11:07:41 AM PDT by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: Menehune56

Throw her in jail and throw away the key!


20 posted on 09/29/2022 11:21:11 AM PDT by Machavelli (True God)
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