Former Obama official reaches deal to avoid hate crime charge
President Barack Obama's former National Security Council chief was arrested late last year after viral videos showed him harassing a New York City street cart vendor.
Despite initially being charged with a hate crime, Stuart Seldowitz reached a deal this week to get that and other charges dropped.
Seldowitz must undergo anti-bias training
That's according to the New York Post, which reported that the 64-year-old agreed on Wednesday to participate in a 26-week anti-bias training program administered by Queens Counseling for Change.
If he completes the training while also avoiding additional arrests or contact with the victim then the Manhattan District Attorney will drop the charges that Seldowitz faces.
They include aggravated harassment, hate crime stalking, stalking with intent to cause fear and stalking at employment.
Seldowitz's case came about after multiple videos were posted in November on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.
Former official threatened to have victim's family tortured
The videos show Seldowitz confronting halal cart vendor Mohamed Hussein on multiple days. In one clip he can be heard asking, "Did you rape your daughter like [the Prophet] Mohammed did?"
This man wearing a green jacket was berating and harassing a halal cart vendor off 83rd and 2nd Ave in NYC. Does anyone know who this man is? Planning to report to the authorities. pic.twitter.com/GwklyXpsPH
— Layla 🪬 (@itslaylas) November 21, 2023
In another, he says, "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."
Seldowitz also mocked Hussein's ability to speak English and suggested that is too "ignorant" to do anything except sell food for a living.
Victim's boss initially thought Seldowitz was homeless
"How do you ask a little 24-year-old if he ever raped his daughter? He's [Seldowitz] an ex-government official, he worked for the Obama administration, he’s not a nobody," Moustafa remarked.
"How does an ex-government official speak about religion and hatred with that much hatred?" he asked. "A normal person wouldn’t do that, but a guy with power and ranking shouldn’t be talking like that to a 24-year-old who keeps begging him to walk away."