Legal News

Obama Advisor, Schiff Hardin Associate, Resigns Over Ties to Imam

By Dan Slater

Shame on us for not bringing you this news yesterday. But then again, campaign news, at least when it’s lawyer-related, strikes us as evergreen.

Here’s what you need to know: On July 26, Mazen Asbahi, an associate at Schiff Hardin in Chicago, was appointed the national coordinator for Muslim Affairs for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. “We need Muslim Americans to get excited about the Campaign, and there’s a lot to get excited about!” Asbahi wrote in a statement when he was appointed.

Then, last week, an Internet newsletter called the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Report, raised a connection between Asbahi and Jamal Said, the imam at a fundamentalist-controlled mosque in Illinois. In 2000, Asbahi briefly served on the board of Allied Assets Advisors Fund, a Delaware-registered trust whose other board members at the time included Said. Last year, the DOJ named Said an unindicted co-conspirator in the racketeering trial of several alleged Hamas fund-raisers, which ended in a mistrial. He has also been identified as a leading member of the group in news reports going back to 1993.

The WSJ then submitted questions to the Obama campaign asking for information about Asbahi’s background, specifically his involvement in the Islamic investment fund and various Islamic groups. Then, on Monday, after just a week in his new role, Asbahi tendered his resignation from the Obama campaign. Here’s the WSJ story on Asbahi’s resignation.

“I served on that board for only a few weeks before resigning as soon as I became aware of public allegations against another member of the board,” Asbahi said in his resignation letter, referring to his time on the board of Allied Assets Advisors Fund. “Since concerns have been raised about that brief time, I am stepping down. . . to avoid distracting from Barack Obama’s message of change.”

Ben LaBolt, an Obama spokesman, said the campaign is in the process of searching for a new national Arab American and Muslim American outreach coordinator.

Photo: Schiff Hardin

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 07, 2008 (boomark / email).