Judge Zia Faruqui is facing backlash after he apologized to White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooter Cole Tomas Allen, for the treatment he got in jail.
Allen has been accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump. Faruqui was apologizing for the ‘legally deficient’ treatment he got, which included being placed on suicide watch, being separated from other inmates, and being denied access to a Bible.
“Whatever you’ve been through, I apologize,” he said, adding, “Right now, it’s not working. It’s insufficient. I think it’s legally deficient.”
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Faruqui’s statement drew backlash from many online. Jeanine Pirro, United States attorney for the District of Columbia, wrote on X “Welcome to Washington, DC, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Faruqui believes a defendant armed to the teeth and attempting to assassinate the president is entitled to preferential treatment in his confinement compared to every other defendant.”
Another commented “The judiciary is a problem.” Yet another said “DC judges are an absolute JOKE.” Now, Trump’s staunch ally and far-right influencer Laura Loomer has also jumped into the fray. With anger mounting, here’s all you need to know about Judge Zia Faruqui.
Zia Faruqui: 5 things on judge who apologized to Cole Allen
- Faruqui attended Georgetown University and then Georgetown Law.
- He was appointed United States Magistrate Judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on September 14, 2020.
- Prior to this, Faruqui was a litigation associate for Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in Washington. His focus was government investigations and commercial litigation.
- He also served for twelve years as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Offices in St. Louis and Washington. Among cases Faruqui dealt with, were terrorist use of cryptocurrency, North Korean weapons proliferation, darknet child exploitation, among others things.
- Faruqui also reportedly represent Department of Justice internationally on financial crimes, cryptocurrency, and national security issues.
Judge Zia Faruqui family
While Faruqui is relatively private about his family, he put out a post on UN International Migrants Day five years back, which noted he was married.
“My mom, dad, mother-in-law, father-in-law, and Dr. Wife all immigrated to the United States! I admire them for the leap of faith they took. That’s more courage than I have!,” he wrote. Faruqui further added that his uncle had reached the US first.
Faruqui is an uncle himself now, and posted a year back about his nephew Zain Kundi, who the judge said had eyes set on the Georgetown University Law Center, for studies.
Faruqui compared Allen’s treatment with that of people who took part in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. As per the judge, defendants in those cases were treated more fairly despite displaying what he said was comparable conduct. “I’m fascinated and disturbed,” he said.
Many of the defendants in the Capitol riot case, who Trump has since pardoned, had also objected to their treatment, while lodged in the same Washington jail, Reportedly, they too were kept in a separate unit from other inmates.
Faruqui then passed his orders to a lawyer for the jail to alert him by Tuesday morning when a final decision would be made regarding the terms of Allen’s confinement.
(With Reuters inputs)
