During a sometimes confrontational hearing Monday, City Council members questioned the independence of Nadia Shihata, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s nominee for Department of Investigation commissioner, citing her longtime friendship with a top Mamdani aide and $700 in donations she made to the mayor’s campaign.
Shihata insisted she would remain unbiased if she’s confirmed to run the anti-corruption watchdog, vowing to act “without fear or favor.”
Multiple council members grilled the former federal prosecutor during a rules committee hearing on what they saw as a potential conflict of interest. Of key concern was her relationship with Mamdani’s chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem.
The investigations department has a key oversight function. Under Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, the department contributed to probes that led to criminal charges against Adams, his chief advisor, his buildings commissioner and the official in charge of city leases.
On Monday, council members repeatedly pressed Shihata on the question of her independence from Mamdani and his chief counsel.
Councilmember Shaun Abreu, D-Upper Manhattan, said that in the questionnaire she submitted to the council, Shihata had revealed that Kassem had asked her to apply for the DOI slot. She called that a “mischaracterization.”
Shihata acknowledged that she’d met Kassem years ago after law school, had socialized with him on occasion, and solicited his advice when she left the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney’s office in 2022 to form her own law firm.
But Shihata sought to minimize these connections, insisting that Kassem had not encouraged her to apply for the job but contacted her to merely ask her if she “might be interested.” And while she acknowledged they “have kept in touch over the years, kept in touch periodically,” she noted, “It has not been a close friendship.”
When Abreu asked Shihata what she would do if Kassem became the target of a DOI probe on her watch and if she would voluntarily remove herself from the investigation, she said, “Under the circumstances, that’s likely,” adding she would ultimately follow the recusal advice of DOI’s general counsel.
Councilmember Nantasha Williams, D-Southeast Queens, zeroed in on Shihata’s four donations to Mamdani’s campaign – a total of $700 over several months. Shihata admitted that while she’d made donations in the past to federal candidates, she’d never contributed to any other municipal campaign. She admitted she had canvassed for Mamdani “for a couple of hours” on one evening during the mayoral campaign.
Shihata says she’ll watch Mamdani ‘without fear or favor’
Noting her “repeated” donations to the mayor, the canvassing activity and the fact that Mamdani was the sole beneficiary of her local political largesse, Williams asked if Shihata would say she’d “demonstrated a uniquely enthusiastic level of support for this mayor?”
Shihata countered by saying: “I’ve donated throughout my life to various political campaigns but most importantly, as a former federal prosecutor I understand very well the difference between my support for a campaign as a private citizen and my roles as a public servant tasked with making independent investigative decisions based on the facts and the law without fear or favor.”
“Throughout my career I have maintained the highest level of integrity and I will continue to do that as DOI commissioner,” she said.
Though the DOI commissioner is nominated by the mayor, the agency has long been considered independent of the mayor’s office. The previous commissioner, Jocelyn Strauber, was so independent she co-led a sprawling investigation with the FBI that resulted in the indictment of the man who nominated her for the job, Eric Adams.
And Shihata’s donations to Mamdani are unusual but not unique: Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first DOI commissioner, Mark Peters, served as de Blasio’s campaign treasurer when he ran for mayor. Council members hammered him relentlessly on this during Peters’ 2014 confirmation hearing, but ultimately approved his appointment.
“The Mayor was proud to nominate Nadia Shihata for DOI Commissioner because of her demonstrated integrity, her extensive experience as a federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, and her track record of rooting out corruption throughout her career,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.
A confirmation vote on Shihata is expected in the next two weeks.
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