Just days after losing his reelection race, outgoing Flint, Michigan City Councilman Leon Abdullah El-Alamin walked into Genesee County Circuit Court on Thursday and pleaded guilty to election law false swearing and no contest to felony assault and domestic violence charges. Timing really is everything.
El-Alamin appeared before Judge Khary Hanible on what was supposed to be the first day of his trial on the assault charges. Instead of fighting it out in court, he entered his pleas and saved everyone the trouble of a trial. How thoughtful of him.
The election fraud charge stems from a felony count of falsely swearing on an affidavit of identity when he filed to run for council. Prosecutors say that in 2024, shortly after being appointed as interim 1st Ward councilman following the death of Eric Mays, he claimed to live at a property inside Flint city limits. The problem? A tenant who actually lived at that address testified that El-Alamin was never a resident there and was only the landlord. Investigators determined he actually lived outside the city in Mount Morris Township. He later won a special election to finish out the term anyway, which is just the kind of thing that happens when Democrats are running things in Michigan.
For more background on how this mess unfolded, Leon El-Alamin election fraud charges has the full rundown, including the long string of delays that pushed both cases back repeatedly before Thursday’s pleas.
On the assault side, El-Alamin pleaded no contest to felony assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder and misdemeanor domestic violence. Those charges came out of a July 2025 incident at a home he owns in Mount Morris Township, where he was accused of punching, choking, and pulling the hair of a woman, according to ABC News. So to recap: the city he claimed to live in for election purposes was the same city he was apparently too good to actually live in, but the township he did live in became the scene of a felony assault. Got it.
Libs of TikTok had flagged this situation back in August, noting that El-Alamin had previously served seven years in prison on weapons and drug charges, and that a resurfaced video allegedly showed him approaching a tenant’s home while wielding an AK-style firearm. Democrats in Flint backed him anyway. Because of course they did.
A sentencing hearing covering both charges is scheduled for January 4. El-Alamin will head into that hearing as a former councilman, having lost his reelection bid just days before entering his guilty plea. The voters of Flint finally got one right, even if the Michigan Democratic Party spent the whole ride telling them not to worry about it.
