Hate Crime Attacker Offered 6-Month Plea Deal: Legal Analysis

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg reportedly offered a plea deal of 6 months in jail to Waseem Awawdeh, who allegedly attacked Joseph Borgen at a pro-Israel rally in Times Square in May 2021. The attacker was partly charged with assault as a hate crime. Bragg’s office defended the plea deal saying the attacker did not initiate the attack and left before it was over. NTD spoke to Gerard Filitti, senior counsel of The Lawfare Project, who said that the DA’s reasoning is wrong. Filitti said, “What matters is that the attack took place, and what matters is that the victim was targeted specifically because he was Jewish, hence the hate crime enhancement.”