Legal Ethics

Lawyer Plays Double Agent, Allegedly Spying On Muslim Colleagues

He's surrendered his law license.

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Human hand passing the folderLawyer Romin Iqbal resigned from the Ohio bar earlier this week. Iqbal worked for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for 15 years, including a stint as executive director of the Ohio chapter, but since 2008, he was reportedly spying on members of the organization.

According to an internal investigation by CAIR, Iqbal funneled confidential meeting recordings, emails, and strategic plans to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). CAIR has called IPT a hate group. The Islamophobia Network says IPT uses “unsubstantiated threats that portray Muslims as dangerous to accrue funding” and that founder Steve Emerson has a reputation “for fabricating evidence to substantiate his ravings about Muslim extremism.”

Iqbal’s resignation from the bar was not unanimously accepted by the Ohio Supreme Court. Justice Pat Fischer dissented, because when a disciplinary case is pending against an attorney and they resign from the bar, those records are sealed. As reported by the ABA Journal, Fischer is concerned about that lack of transparency:

“Iqbal broke the trust and confidentiality of the organization he was working for, and by working directly contrary to that organization’s interests, he opened himself up to disciplinary charges,” Fischer wrote. “For transparency purposes and for the protection of the public, I would not accept Iqbal’s application for retirement or resignation with disciplinary action pending.”

Amina Barhumi, the current executive director of the Ohio chapter of CAIR, said Iqbal’s resignation “begins to provide some sort of closure for the community.”

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.

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