WASHINGTON An influential conservative group this week launched a blatantly Islamophobic and misleading ad campaign targeting one of President Joe Bidens Muslim judicial nominees, Adeel Mangi.

The Judicial Crisis Network, a right-wing judicial advocacy group known for its steady stream of anonymous funding and a previous multimillion-dollar campaign aimed at smearing then-Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, unveiled digital ads on Tuesday that attempt to pressure Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) to oppose Mangis confirmation. Both Democrats are up for reelection in November.

JCNs attacks on Mangi, a 23-year civil litigator based in New Jersey who is on track to be the nations first Muslim appeals court judge, are as deceptive as they are ugly. The groups ads accuse Mangi of being a radical and an antisemite, and of advising an organization that teaches students to hate Israel, to hate America and to support global terrorism.

The ads even use video footage of the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack, overlaid with a headline about Mangi.

Tell Jon Tester to vote no on giving antisemite Adeel Mangi a lifetime position on our courts, says the narrator in the ad, as dramatic music plays in the background.

You can see the Tester ad for yourself here:

What the ads dont mention is what happened after Republicans made similarly ugly attacks on Mangi in his December hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

During that hearing, GOP Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Josh Hawley (Mo.) berated Mangi and inappropriately demanded he share his personal views on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel and the Israeli-Hamas conflict in general.

Mangi sharply rejected their false claims about his record and views. He denounced all terrorism. He repeatedly said he didnt know anything about a 2021 anti-Zionist event co-sponsored by Rutgers Law Schools Center for Security, Race and Rights or its controversial speakers. (Mangi was on an advisory board for the center from 1999 to 2023; it met once a year and was solely focused on presenting ideas for academic research at the law school.)

Republicans also questioned Mangi about donations he and his law firm, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, made to this center, saying it showed they supported its antisemitic activities. Mangi said his donations were all intended to support the law schools academic research to oppose bigotry and discrimination and to advance religious liberty. His law firm donated money for law fellowships, he said, and he had no role in those decisions.

Meanwhile, Democrats scolded Republicans for their open hostility toward Mangi. Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told them theyd reached a new low and even apologized to Mangi on behalf of the committee. The largest national Muslim civil rights organization later publicly denounced the GOP senators for their treatment of Mangi. So did the Anti-Defamation League, the leading national group focused on combating antisemitism.

ADL is compelled to speak out about the inappropriate and prejudicial treatment of Adeel Abdullah Mangi, the ADL said in a January statement .

Just as associating Jewish Americans with certain views or beliefs regarding Israeli government actions would be deemed antisemitic, berating the first American Muslim federal appellate judicial nominee with endless questions that appear to have been motivated by bias towards his religion is profoundly wrong, said the organization. This was an attempt to create controversy where one did not exist.

Most notably, more than a dozen major Jewish groups have since endorsed Mangis nomination and praised his record of defending religious freedom.

Having ethical and unbiased judges is ingrained in our Jewish teachings in which we are taught that judges need to be people of strength through good deeds, the National Council of Jewish Women, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action and others said in a joint letter to senators. It is clear to us that Adeel A. Mangi is a person of strength and good deeds, as evidenced by his career, devotion to his community, and commitment to religious freedom and civil rights.

On Friday, still another prominent Jewish leader stood up to defend Mangi. Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the leader of the group that funded the 2017 lawsuit against organizers of the deadly neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, condemned JCNs ads.

The attacks that Adeel Mangi has faced from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and now from outside groups are a sickening example of politicians fueling Islamophobic bigotry by weaponizing false smears of antisemitism, Spitalnick said in a statement. These smears do nothing to further the safety and security of Jews, or anyone else, in this country theyre only an attempt to drive dangerous wedges between our community and others at a moment when solidarity has never been more urgent.

These are cynical attacks, she added, and we wont stand silently by when cynical politicians stoke division in our name.