An embattled former Obama administration appointee — who was part of a group of attorneys accused of being terrorist sympathizers for defending “enemy combatants” — has been hired for a post at the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn, officials confirmed today.
Tali Farhadian was one of several private attorneys who created a rift between Republicans last spring when the Obama Administration assigned them to posts within the Justice Department.
Although Farhadian was handling unrelated matters in Attorney General Eric Holder’s office, a political watchdog group accused Obama of overloading the agency with officials sympathetic to enemy combatants.
Their appointments even prompted Liz Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, to dub them the “al Qaeda Seven.”
Those siding with Cheney included prominent neo-conservative William Kristol. Other Republicans, including Sen. Lindsay Graham (SC) and former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr, engaged in a vigorous debate to defend the attorneys, saying the Constitution mandates that all defendants receive legal counsel.
Farhadian, 35, served as counsel to Holder until her departure in June. Before joining Holder’s office, Farhadian worked on a team at a law firm that wrote legal briefs for two organizations, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First, which were representing Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri. The Qatari student, who had been designated an enemy combatant, was to stand trial later on fraud charges in Illinois.
Jessica Smith, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, defended Farhadian’s actions as a private attorney.
“One of the hallmarks of our nation’s legal system is that attorneys provide faithful representation to all sorts of clients,” Smith said.
Justice Department officials in Washington have declined to describe what Farhadian’s duties were when she worked in Holder’s office, where she served as a political appointee.
The agency also declined to say what post she is assuming in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn.
Farhadian is a Rhodes scholar who served from 2004 to 2006 as a law clerk to US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, a Republican.
She completed her undergraduate and law degrees at Yale and also received a master’s in oriental studies from Oxford University in England.