Is this Congressional Candidate a U.S. Citizen?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Feb. 9, 2024) — Earlier on Friday, law clerk, legal analyst and commentator Paul Ingrassia expressed on his Substack concern that congressional candidate Mazi Melesa Pilip, who is seeking to replace the expelled George Santos (R) in New York State’s third district in a special election Tuesday, may not be a U.S. citizen or a registered Republican voter.

Article I of the U.S. Constitution requires all members of Congress to be “a citizen of the United States” for seven years for the House of Representatives and nine years for the Senate, each with a state residency requirement.

Chosen by the Nassau County Republican Party in December to replace Santos, Pilip will face Democrat Tom Suozzi, who previously held the seat for three consecutive terms, leaving to launch an unsuccessful 2022 primary campaign for New York governor. The two participated in the only debate prior to the election on Thursday night.

The winner will serve the remaining approximately 11 months of Santos’s term and face another election on November 5, 2024.

According to Wikipedia, New York’s third congressional district “is the wealthiest congressional district in New York, and in 2022, was the fourth-wealthiest nationally.^[6] From January 2023 to December 2023, of the 14 districts covering New York City, it was also one of only two districts (along with New York’s 11th) represented by a Republican.”

The district was previously represented by Peter King and voted overwhelmingly for Republican Lee Zeldin over Democrat Kathy Hochul in November 2022 in the gubernatorial race.

In a post with numerous hyperlinks supporting his position, Ingrassia wrote:

…if the [Republican] Party is attempting to protect its majority, it has picked the worst possible candidate to run for Santos’ vacated seat,” Ingrassia wrote.

Mazi Melesa Pilip, a current Nassau County legislature [sic], was handpicked by Joe Cairo, Nassau County’s anti-Trump GOP Chairman, to fill the seat vacated by Santos.  There are serious questions about Pilip’s background, who previously served in the Israeli Defense Force, before emigrating to the United States and presumably becoming a naturalized citizen.

For one, she is not a Republican, but a registered Democrat.  She was – and, based on all the available information, still is — enrolled as a Democrat.  Pilip has retained this party affiliation since at least 2012, according to Politico.

On Friday the Associated Press reported, “Although elected on the Republican and Conservative party lines, public records indicate she remains a registered Democrat. On the campaign trail, she has declined to say whether she voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.”

According to NY1, “Pilip is also a registered Democrat, though she holds office as a Republican and has adopted traditional Republican positions on issues like taxes and public safety.”

On Thursday CNN reported Pilip has “pledged to change” her voter registration “after the election.”

In a February 3 “X” post to which Ingrassia linked in his article, citizen journalist and former congressional candidate Laura Loomer wrote, in part:

What part of “Mazi Pilip is registered as a Democrat, which means she will be giving the Dems another seat in Congress if she wins” do you not understand?

Do you Understand the seat is allocated based off of the candidate’s registration? These are election laws.

I showed you @maziforcongress’s own election documents which prove she has lied to voters, she is not a Republican, and is instead a registered Democrat and always has been.

So in other words, if she wins, a Democrat seat is gained in Congress. If she loses, then @Tom_Suozzi gets in and since he’s a Democrat, the Dems gain another seat in Congress.

Pilip was elected to the Nassau County legislature in 2021 and re-elected in November 2023, serving the county’s tenth district. ”Born in Ethiopia, Pilip was evacuated to Israel with her family when she was 12 during Operation Solomon in 1991, in which Israel covertly transported more than 14,000 Jews in 36 hours,” reported Forward on November 29, 2021. “Pilip said moving from a poor village to a modern society was ‘very challenging.’ But she said government assistance, her years at boarding school with immigrants of other backgrounds, and her time in the army helped her assimilate into Israeli society.”

According to the biography on her campaign website, Pilip was born in Ethiopia and transported to Israel “at the age of 12” during Operation Solomon as one of thousands of persecuted Jews in the African nation. 

“Years later she would graduate with a bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Haifa and a master’s in diplomacy and security from Tel Aviv University,” Forward reported. ”In college she met her future husband, Adalbert Pilip, who was born in Ukraine, raised in the U.S., and who came to Israel for medical school. The couple moved to the U.S. in 2005. He is now a cardiologist in Smithtown, New York.”

As Operation Solomon took place in late May 1991, if Pilip was 12 at the time, she would have been born in 1978 or 1979.

“If Pilip — a migrant from Israel? Africa? somewhere else? — is too uncomfortable to reveal even the year she was born to her constituents, how on earth can we know that she is an American citizen, which is a constitutional requirement under Article I to serve in Congress?” Ingrassia, who declared 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley constitutionally ineligible for the presidency last month, continued.  “The burden of proof is squarely on her – it is difficult to find another congressional candidate whose birth year, let alone birth date, is unknown. The patent lack of transparency raises all sorts of doubts about her background, not just her party affiliation and voting record, but citizenship status and overall loyalties to the United States. How can a candidate pledge to faithfully support and defend the Constitution of the United States and satisfy her oath when she may not even be a citizen?”

The former Trump-administration intern and unabashed supporter is further troubled at Pilip’s pledge not to vote for Donald Trump if he is convicted of any of the 91 felony counts with which he has been charged in four highly-controversial cases from as many jurisdictions. ”Interview after interview, Pilip manifestly fails to grasp the most basic ideas of American law and how the justice system is supposed to work,” Ingrassia opined. “Her gross ignorance would be easily explained if she actually turned out to not be a US citizen. If not that, the more nefarious explanation for her ignorance would be that Pilip is operating as a pawn or plant for the DC establishment that otherwise seeks to derail MAGA and sabotage President Trump once and for all.”

After reading Ingrassia’s post, this writer contacted Pilip through her website with the following:

There are some concerns that Mazi Pilip is not a naturalized U.S. citizen or registered Republican voter.  As a journalist, I am seeking the truth.  Would Ms. Pilip be willing to release her naturalization documents, date of birth and proof that she is a registered Republican voter if in fact that is the case?

https://paulingrassia.substack.com/p/mazi-pilip-the-darling-candidate?publication_id=373604&post_id=141509235&isFreemail=true&r=cjt3t

Thank you.

Sharon Rondeau, Editor
The Post & Email
www.thepostemail.com

The Post & Email will report if and when a response is received.

Editor’s Note: Although The Post & Email had noted Ingrassia’s biographical sketch on his “X” and Substack accounts had stated he clerked at the McBride Law Firm, as a result of an assiduous commenter’s question Saturday morning we rechecked the bio and found the reference to have been removed. Ingrassia’s LinkedIn account now indicates he completed the clerkship last month.