Some lawmakers are warning that the past terrorist ties of Adam Hamawy, the Democratic nominee in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District expected to be elected to the House in November, could pose a national security risk and that he should be barred from serving on sensitive committees working on national security issues.

Hamawy was an associate of convicted terrorist mastermind Omar Abdel-Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh, and testified in Abdel-Rahman’s defense when he was on trial for his involvement in a series of terrorist attacks in New York City. Hamawy also volunteered for the Benevolence International Foundation, a charity operating in Bosnia that was later shuttered as an al-Qaida front.

He also volunteered at the European Hospital in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas, denying when he returned that there was any terrorist activity at the hospital or any tunnels underneath it. Israel killed Hamas leader Mohammed Sinwar in a tunnel system under the hospital.

Members of Congress are exempt from usual security clearance vetting procedures applied to other federal officials, and all members are able to access certain House-wide classified briefings.

But members serving on several key committees touching on national security and foreign policy, such as the Foreign Affairs, Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, have more regular access to a much wider range of classified briefings and information. Caucus leadership is responsible for assigning committee posts.

Some of Hamawy’s potential future colleagues — largely Republicans — say that Hamawy should be barred from those committee postings if he’s elected. As a military veteran and having focused much of his campaign on foreign policy issues, Hamawy would ordinarily be a likely candidate for such committee assignments.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), the former chair of the Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security committees and a former U.S. attorney focused on counterterrorism and national security, told Jewish Insider that Hamawy “should be barred from any national security committee.”

“The Blind Sheikh, Ramsey Youssef, the ‘93 World Trade Center bombing — the original plot was to hit 12 Jewish synagogues simultaneously, symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel,” McCaul said, “and so anybody that’s tied to that should never be elected to Congress, and if he is, I think should never serve on a national security committee — because then you get access to classified information.”

In a statement to JI, a campaign spokesperson said, “Hamawy’s entire career and life have been defined by his patriotism and deep love of this country,” and emphasized that he was in the military during the time of the Blind Sheikh trial.

“As a witness, he performed his civic and legal duty to testify truthfully under oath and contribute to the system of laws and justice he defended while serving our country in the Army,” the statement, similar to ones the campaign has provided in the past, continued. “At the time, the man in question was one of very few religious figures in what was then a very small Muslim community in New Jersey — he saw him speak in religious settings in his early 20s. Dr. Hamawy condemns that man’s violent rhetoric and actions, and all violence, hatred, and terrorism — and he will always. Dr. Hamawy had no contact with this person after they were arrested.”

The campaign also dismissed reporting on his relationship with the Blind Sheikh as “bad-faith, guilt-by-association attacks” started by a “designated hate [group].”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said that Hamawy’s eligibility for national security posts “obviously … has to be a conversation we’ll have to have once we get past the general election.”

He also referenced his concerns about state Rep. Chris Rabb, a Democratic nominee in Philadelphia, and said that Democrats should hold Rabb to the same standard as former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) — after she shared “false flag” theories about the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting — for sharing a false flag conspiracy theory about the mass shooting at a Hanukkah gathering at Sydney’s Bondi Beach last December.

Rabb has disavowed and condemned the Bondi Beach post shared by his Instagram account, attributing it to a campaign contractor who has since been dismissed.

“We want to win elections, we want to win the House, we want to win the Senate,” Moskowitz said. “But expanding the tent to the point where we’re taking people in that don’t really share our values, I think, is a long-term mistake.”

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told reporters he has “significant concerns when you have somebody who affirmatively testified for the defense in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and volunteered for an organization that was a front for al-Qaida.”

He said that Hamawy’s past “raises significant questions that, frankly, I think he has not adequately addressed,” and that if Hamawy is elected, “there needs to be an investigation into his ties to these incidents and organizations, and that’s something that I don’t think people should take likely.”

Lawler stopped short of saying that Hamawy should be disqualified from service on any national security committee, saying again that there should be a “thorough investigation” and that he “certainly would have significant concerns about him serving on any committee, let alone in Congress.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) said on X that “there is no way [Hamawy] can have a security clearance. National security risk.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who congratulated Hamawy on Tuesday evening for his victory — as he traditionally does for Democratic House nominees around the country — told The Free Press on Wednesday that he hasn’t yet had a conversation with Hamawy about his past affiliations, but planned to speak to him some time on Wednesday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on X, “Not even ties to terrorists are too extreme for the modern day Democrat Party.”