A lawyer and former intelligence official under the Obama administration guaranteed the $250,000 bail of a New York City attorney arrested for allegedly tossing a Molotov cocktail into an NYPD vehicle early Saturday morning during a protest decrying the police killing of George Floyd.
Attorney Salmah Rizvi agreed to guarantee the large sum explaining to a court that she and Urooj Rahman, the lawyer accused of the fire bombing, were best friends.
Rizvi said that she was an associate at Ropes & Gray in Washington, DC, earning enough to cover the amount so Rahman can stay out of jail.
‘Urooj Rahman is my best friend and I am an associate at the law firm Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C.,’ Rizvi told the court. ‘I earn $255,000 a year.’
Attorney Salmah Rizvi (pictured) guaranteed $250,000 bail for Urooj Rahman, a lawyer arrested for allegedly tossing a Molotov cocktail into an NYPD vehicle early Saturday morning during a protest decrying the police killing of George Floyd
Attorney Salmah Rizvi agreed to guarantee the large sum explaining to a court that she and Urooj Rahman, the lawyer accused of the fire bombing, were best friends. Rahman is pictured in surveillance footage taken of her allegedly holding a Molotov cocktail
The guarantee makes Rizvi liable for the hefty sum if Rahman fails to comply with the requirements of the court, The Washington Beacon reports.
Rizvi had worked as a lead linguist and analyst for the Defense and State Departments when President Barack Obama was still in office, according to her page at the Islamic Scholarship Fund, or ISF. The organization works to raise the profile of American Muslims in media and politics.
Rizvi, who was raised as a Shia Muslim, speaks Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi, and has expertise in international security and diplomacy, according to the ISF. ‘Her high-value work would often inform the President’s Daily Briefs,’ the organization says of the lawyer’s time with the Obama administration.
Her friend Rahman, a 31-year-old Brooklyn lawyer, had been charged in the alleged firebombing alongside a second attorney, Colinford Mattis.
The 32-year-old is a corporate attorney with Pryor Cashman. Both were charged with allegedly throwing the bomb into an empty police cruiser that was parked outside the 88th Precinct station house in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, cops say.
Police say Rahman tossed a bottle filled with gasoline through a broken window into the cruiser just before 1am Saturday but the Molotov cocktail failed to ignite. Rahman then jumped into a van that Mattis was driving and together they sped away from the scene according to the New York Daily News.
Rizvi had worked as a lead linguist and analyst for the Defense and State Departments when President Barack Obama was still in office, according to her page at the Islamic Scholarship Fund, or ISF. Obama is pictured speaking at a virtual town hall this week
The bomb attempt was caught on video surveillance cameras outside the precinct located on DeKalb Avenue. Police chased and stopped the duo’s van on Willoughby Street and found the makings of another Molotov cocktail in the backseat and a gasoline container.
Both Rahman and Mattis were arrested and charged with attempting to damage or destroy law-enforcement vehicles. Neither had been arrested before.
They face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in jail. ‘No rational human being can ever believe that hurling firebombs at police officers and vehicles is justified,’ Brooklyn US Attorney Richard Donaghue said at the time the lawyers were arrested.
Both Urooj Rahman and Colinford Mattis were arrested and charged with attempting to damage or destroy law-enforcement vehicles. Neither had been arrested before. The two are pictured after their arrest
Rahman’s social media shows she graduated from Fordham University in New York. The super of Rahman’s building in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn described her as ‘an angel’ who recently lost her legal job.
‘I can’t believe it. I’m stunned. This kid? She’s an angel,’ George Raleigh said.
Mattis lives in East New York and graduated from Princeton University and New York University law school in 2016, according to his Linkedin page.
Mattis lives in East New York and graduated from Princeton University and New York University law school in 2016, according to his Linkedin page
He’s an associate with Pryor Cashman, a corporate law firm in Times Square where he specializes in start-ups, and is a member of Community Board 5 in East New York.
As of Sunday evening his profile on the law firm’s website was deleted.
‘This is shocking news to me. The allegation does surprise me because that doesn’t sound like him,’ Andre Mitchell, president of Community Board 5, said to the Daily News.
Rizvi is part of the litigation & enforcement practice group at Ropes & Gray. She also is has a civil rights and human rights practice, which she operates on a pro bono basis, according her profile on the firm’s website. The practice focuses on on prison reform, LGBTQ equality, and immigration.
Rizvi is part of the litigation & enforcement practice group at Ropes & Gray. She also is has a civil rights and human rights practice, which she operates on a pro bono basis, according her profile on the firm’s website
A spokesperson for the firm did not immediately respond when DailyMail.com reached out.
The lawyer, according to Fox News, received a scholarship backed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, a radical anti-Israel group.
The incident allegedly involving Rahman did not appear to be directly linked to a similar Molotov cocktail attack on NYPD officers in Brooklyn on Friday night around 10.30pm where two upstate New York women threw a bomb into a cruiser carrying four NYPD officers.
Samantha Shader, 27, of Catskill New York is now facing federal charge of attempting to damage of destroy law-enforcement vehicles for allegedly throwing the Molotov cocktail into the cop car in Prospect Heights Friday evening.
The device failed to ignite because she used tissue paper in her makeshift bomb, which burned out before reaching the explosives inside.