Michigan’s El-Sayed Told Women He Didn’t Want To Work With ‘Anyone Over 40,’ According to Embarrassing Discrimination Lawsuit

The Senate candidate, who is not a defendant in the suit, allegedly bragged about using leftover Columbia University grant money to buy ‘very high-end furniture’

By Alana Goodman

The left-wing Democratic candidate for Michigan’s open Senate seat, Abdul El-Sayed, told an older female colleague that he didn’t want to work with “anyone over 40” as he prepared to assume a prestigious role at New York City’s Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, according to a 2019 age and gender discrimination lawsuit brought by former employees against the institution.

El-Sayed, who declared at the launch of a “Women for Abdul” campaign initiative in mid-March that “incredible women raised me” and “incredible women guide me today,” must now contend with the inconvenient lawsuit, which is ongoing in both federal and New York state court and is now in the discovery process.

The lawsuit does not name El-Sayed as a defendant, but he is a central villain in the complaint. Eight former female employees at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai allege that, when their department, Mount Sinai Global Health, was reorganized into the Arnhold Institute for Global Health (AIGH) in 2015, new boss Prabhjot Singh demoted them and pushed them out of their roles. They claim Singh sought to fill leadership positions with “overwhelmingly young men” in his social circle—including his first hire, El-Sayed, who worked with Singh at Columbia University.