Two high powered attorneys were arrested last week for trying to firebomb an occupied police vehicle with a Molotov cocktail. They were locked up and placed on bail for $250,000 each. US Attorneys in the Eastern District of New York was not satisfied, thinking bail was set so low, so they filed an appeal with the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 2nd District and won. Federal marshal’s escorted Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman back to jail.
Attorneys Colinford Mattis and Urooj Rahman charged in Molotov cocktail attack on @NYPDnews are now back in federal custody after the U.S. Court of Appeals reversed bail decision by the District Court.
— US Attorney EDNY (@EDNYnews) June 5, 2020
Breitbart News reported Monday: “The two attorneys, Colinford Mattis, 32, and Urooj Rahman, 31, reportedly hurled a Molotov cocktail at a police vehicle in the 88th Precinct in Fort Greene Saturday as tensions escalated in the area.”
Mattis works in New York for the Pryor Cashman corporate law firm, and was suspended without pay after news of his arrest. He had already been furloughed since April due to the coronavirus pandemic. Rahman is a human rights lawyer.
They were released on $250,000 bond. Rahman’s bail was posted by fellow attorney Salmah Rizvi, who worked in President Barack Obama’s administration as an intelligence official, providing information for Obama’s daily briefing.
Prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York were dissatisfied with the suspects’ release and filed an appeal.
Mattis graduated from Princeton University and New York University Law School. Rahman graduated from Fordham Law School. She threw a beer bottle with a lit fuse into a damaged police car, setting the console alight; no one was injured.
“The pair also passed out Molotov cocktails Friday night to crowds who were clashing with police so others could cause more destruction, prosecutors said. Authorities said they later found additional incendiary devices in their car,” Fox News reported.
They were taken into federal custody by U.S. Marshals after the appeals court ruling.