Zainab N. Ahmad (born 1980) is an American prosecutor with the United States Department of Justice who specializes in investigating and prosecuting terrorism. She served as an Assistant United States Attorney of the Eastern District of New York until 2017, successfully prosecuting several high-profile terrorism cases. In 2017, she was reassigned to the Special Counsel for the United States Department of Justice team. Early life, education, and clerkships Born in New York City to parents who had emigrated from Punjab, Pakistan, Ahmad "grew up in suburban Nassau County, Long Island, with her father and stepmother", also spending time living with her mother in Manhattan, and spending summers in Pakistan and England. She initially planned to study hospital administration, majoring in health policy at the New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell University, but after the September 11 attacks, she changed course. After receiving her B.A. from Cornell in 2002, she attended Columbia Law School, receiving her J.D. in 2005. She was a law clerk for Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and for Judge Reena Raggi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Prosecutorial career Ahmad became a prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice in 2008, initially prosecuting gang activity in Brooklyn and Staten Island, but quickly moving to the prosecution of terrorists. In April 2013, she was appointed to the position of a deputy chief of the national security and cybercrime section in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Between 2009 and 2017, Ahmad prosecuted thirteen people charged with terrorism, winning every case. The New Yorker related: Terrorists prosecuted by Ahmad include: Alhassane Ould Mohamed, a Malian who murdered U.S. defense attaché William Bultemeier in Niamey, Niger, and was later involved in numerous other attacks and crimes. Mohamed pleaded guilty and in 2016 was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Russell Defreitas and Abdul Kadir, conspirators in the 2007 John F. Kennedy International Airport attack plot, who were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment. Najibullah Zazi and Abid Naseer, conspirators in the 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot. Zazi pleaded guilty in 2010 but has not yet been sentenced, as he is cooperating with investigators. In 2015, Naseer was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 40 years