WASHINGTON, DC - A shocking expose published by the Washington Free Beacon shows that the top criminal prosecutor in the Biden administration Department of Justice is an unhinged radical who led a group that defended killers of police officers.
According to tax filings, Nicole M Argentieri, acting assistant attorney general in the DOJ's criminal division, served on the board of directors of the Legal Aid Society of New York between January 2019 and May 2022. That organization called for defunding police during her tenure and pushed to release cop killers from prison, according to records reviewed by the Free Beacon.
In their parole cases, the Legal Aid Society represented two Black Liberation Army members, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim. The pair were responsible for killing two NYPD officers in May 1971 and murdering a San Francisco police officer inside a police precinct in August of the same year. They were granted parole despite objections from the victims’ families and former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Republican lawmakers slammed Argentieri’s ties to the anti-police organization, questioning her ability to serve as the country’s top criminal prosecutor. This role works closely with the FBI and other federal, state, and local law enforcement officers. One of those lawmakers is Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“Argentieri being selected to run the Criminal Division in an acting capacity is a slap in the face to every brave law enforcement officer,” Cruz, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told the Free Beacon. Cruz said her appointment highlights “the Biden administration’s policies of putting criminals ahead of law-abiding citizens.”
The outlet notes that it wasn’t clear if Argentieri was cognizant of the Legal Aid Society’s representation of radical clients or its anti-cop stance. However, the group describes its board members as providing “crucial guidance that strengthens our work.” Therefore, it would be hard to believe that Argentieri wasn’t aware of the group’s work. The Free Beacon reached out to the Legal Aid Society for comment, however, none was received. Likewise, the Department of Justice didn’t respond to requests for comment.
In her role, Argentieri is responsible for oversight of over 1,400 federal prosecutors and employees and took over the position after the departure of Kenneth Polite. Prior to being appointed as directors at the FBI, both James Comey and Robert Mueller served in the same role. The position requires Senate confirmation; however, Biden hasn’t yet nominated anyone for that role, and it isn’t clear if Argentieri is under consideration for the permanent post.
Cruz, for one, is opposed to her being nominated for the permanent role.
The Texas senator said, “It would add insult to injury if Joe Biden were to nominate [Argentieri] to fill the role permanently.”
Argentieri worked at the Legal Aid Society at the same time as Biden’s current nominee for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Adeel Mangi, whom Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said this week is unfit for that role due to his work with the Legal Aid Society and the Alliance of Families for Justice, another far-left anti-police group.
Mangi serves on the advisory board of the latter, which has hailed six convicted cop killers as “freedom fighters.” The founding board member of that group is Kathy Boudin, a member of the Weather Underground, which was convicted of murdering two police officers in 1981.
Argentieri worked at a private law firm, O’Melveny & Myers, in its white-collar defense and corporate investigations practice while she served on the Legal Aid Society Board. According to the organization’s annual report for 2021, Argentieri donated between $1,000 and $4,999 to the organization.
That law firm represented defendants arrested during the Black Lives Matter riots during the summer of 2020 through pro-bono services to the Legal Aid Society. The firm also served on the organization’s “Cop Accountability Project.”
The initiative was allegedly designed to “hold police accountable,” however its supervising attorney, Jennvine Wong, was a defund the police zealot. For example, in 2020, she criticized police reform proposals “that fail to defund the police and significantly reduce the size of the [New York City Police] department.” The Legal Aid Society also supported marches to defund the NYPD in June 2020 and May 2021.
In January 2019, the Legal AId Society took on the case of Herman Bell, who was up for parole for the murders of NYPD officer Joseph Piagentini and his partner Waverly Jones on May 21, 1971, who were assassinated after they responded to a fake 911 call at a Harlem housing project.
Diane Piagentini, Joseph Piagentini's widow, sought to have Bell’s parole rescinded. Legal Aid Lawyers dismissed her “private wishes,” as they called it, and claimed those concerns were overridden by the “public interest” in having a convicted cop killer released from prison.
In 2020, they took up the case of the other cop killer, Jalil Muntaqim, arguing he should be freed from jail due to the COVID-19 illness. Legal Aid lawyers claimed he was “being left to die” in jail. He was subsequently released in August 2020.
Both cop killers were released from jail despite pleas from police groups and then-Mayor Bill De Blasio to keep them locked up. De Blasio said both thugs murdered two police officers in cold blood “for no other reason than the uniforms on their backs and the shields on their chests.”
“Cop-killers deserve the death penalty,” Sen. Cruz complained, “but the radicals leading the Biden administration would rather let them out to kill again.”
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