Former Obama adviser pleads 'not guilty' to hate crime

By 
 November 25, 2023

One of the Obama administration's advisors just pled not guilty to hate crime and stalking charges. 

The advisor, according to The Hill, is Stuart Seldowitz.

Seldowitz was a member of the Obama administration State Department. He, at one point, was also former President Barrack Obama's national security advisor.

Now, however, he is facing a hate crime charge.

The allegations

The 64-year-old Seldowitz was arrested on Wednesday after videos of him went viral on social media. CNN reports:

A former Obama-era National Security Council official was arrested Wednesday after a series of videos shared widely on social media showed him using hate-laden, Islamophobic language against an employee working inside a New York City food cart, police said.

The videos were recorded by a vendor from inside the food cart. CNN reports that, in the videos, "Seldowitz mocks Islam, taunts the man about his citizenship status, accuses him of supporting Hamas, and references the ongoing Israel-Hamas war."

In one video, for example, Seldowitz accuses the vendor of supporting the "killing [of] little children." After the vendor says, "You kill children, not me," Seldowitz replies, "If we killed 4,000 Palestinian children, you know what? It wasn’t enough!"

BizPacReview provides another example. In a separate video, Seldowitz, according to the outlet, tells the vendor:

People who use the Quran as a toilet. Does it bother you? Does it bother you? Tell me the truth? You don’t speak English? That’s too bad. That’s why you’re selling food in in a food cart, because you’re ignorant, but you should learn English. It’ll help you when they deport you back to Egypt. I’ll send your picture to my friends in immigration. The Mukhabarat in Egypt will get your parents. Does your father like his fingernails? He’ll take them out one by one

These are just two examples of many. Seldowitz has confirmed that he is the man in the videos.

Arrested and charged

On Wednesday, Seldowitz was arrested. He was charged with two counts of fourth-degree hate crime/stalking and one count of second-degree aggravated harassment.

On Thursday, Seldowitz pled "not guilty" to the charges.

Seldowitz has been released from jail. He did not have to post any bail.

Seldowitz's attorney, Scott Bookstein, has put out a statement, saying, "He’s a peace-loving person, devoid of hate from Muslims or anyone else."

Bookstein continued, "I want the court, the prosecution, the media, and the public to know that the allegations attributed to my client are 100% antithetical to who Stuart Seldowitz is — what his core beliefs are."

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