The Squad has officially outdone itself. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ro Khanna — along with Senator Bernie Sanders — have thrown their endorsements behind Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon running for Congress in New Jersey's 12th Congressional District. Sounds normal enough, until you find out the guy took a 13-hour road trip with the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and later showed up in court to testify on his behalf.

But sure, tell us more about how "democracy is on the ballot."

Here's what we're dealing with. Hamawy is one of 12 Democrats fighting for the nomination in a June 2 primary to replace retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. He's the frontrunner. He's got the big endorsements. And according to a bombshell report from Blaze News — backed by deep-dive reporting from Jewish Insider and the Washington Free Beacon — his résumé includes a cozy history with convicted terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, better known as the "Blind Sheikh."

Abdel-Rahman was the Islamist cleric convicted in 1995 of plotting a campaign of terrorist attacks against New York City landmarks, including the United Nations. He was the spiritual godfather behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He died in federal prison. And Adam Hamawy was his buddy.

Their relationship wasn't a handshake at a fundraiser. In 1991, Hamawy took a 13-hour van ride with the Blind Sheikh from New Jersey to Detroit. After the 1993 WTC bombing, Hamawy visited Abdel-Rahman again — this time to serve as his translator at a press conference where the cleric denied involvement in the attack. Then, at Abdel-Rahman's 1995 terrorism trial, Hamawy showed up as a defense witness. He testified on behalf of the man who wanted to blow up New York.

His excuse? He called it "a civic duty."

Right. Civic duty. Like jury duty, but for helping terrorists.

But wait — there's more. According to a 1996 interview Hamawy gave to the Newark Star-Ledger, he volunteered for five weeks in the summer of 1994 with the Benevolence International Foundation in Bosnia — spending 10 days in Sarajevo and the rest in Zenica. Sounds charitable, except the Benevolence International Foundation was later shut down as an al-Qaeda front. The 9/11 Commission Report identified the organization as part of an "impressive array of offices" that "covertly provided financial and other support for terrorist activities" linked to Osama bin Laden. Bosnian authorities raided the group's offices in 2002.

So to recap: our congressional frontrunner carpooled with a convicted terrorist, translated for him after a bombing, testified to keep him out of prison, and then went to work for an organization the 9/11 Commission flagged as a bin Laden support network.

And the Squad said, "That's our guy."

Hamawy's response to all of this has been predictably dismissive. He's called the scrutiny "guilt-by-association attacks on Muslim and Arab candidates" and waved it off as old news. "Any Muslim is going to be called a terrorist at some point, and these tropes are outdated and worn," he said. He also claimed his relationship with Abdel-Rahman was minimal and that critics are "kind of taking it out of context."

Out of context. The man testified at a terrorism trial. What context makes that look good?

At least one of his Democratic rivals isn't buying the deflection. Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, who is also running in the 12th District primary, called Hamawy a "radical extremist." When a fellow Democrat is hanging that label around your neck, you know the oppo file is thick.

Let's be clear about what's happening here. This isn't some fringe candidate polling at 2% that nobody has heard of. Hamawy is the leading fundraiser in this race. He has endorsements from Bernie Sanders, AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ro Khanna. These are sitting members of Congress vouching for a man whose pre-politics highlight reel includes translating for a terrorist and volunteering for an al-Qaeda front.

We keep hearing that the Squad is the future of the Democratic Party. If that's true, then the party's recruiting pipeline now apparently runs through al-Qaeda's Rolodex. These people don't just tolerate radicals — they endorse them, fundraise for them, and try to send them to Washington.

New Jersey's 12th District primary is June 2. Voters there should know exactly who the Squad is asking them to send to Congress — and exactly whose defense table he once sat behind.