New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani remains without a federal security clearance more than eight months after taking office, potentially preventing him from personally receiving classified intelligence briefings involving terrorism and other national security threats.
Mamdani, who was sworn in on Jan. 1, said earlier this year that he was in the process of applying for the high-level clearance. But as he approaches nine months in City Hall, the approval has still not come through.
The lengthy delay is particularly notable in a city that remains one of the nation’s most prominent terrorism targets and comes amid continued turmoil in the Middle East and heightened security concerns in New York.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also faced a delay in obtaining his clearance, said access to classified information is important for the city’s chief executive.
“It is vitally important for a mayor to have security clearance,” de Blasio said. “Every mayor deserves to have all the best information available to be able to protect New Yorkers.”
Recent mayors generally received their clearances considerably earlier. Former Mayor Eric Adams reportedly obtained his within his first five months in office, while Michael Bloomberg received his roughly four months after taking office.
Christopher O’Leary, a former FBI official who led the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, said it was unusual for the mayor of New York City to be approaching his first full year without receiving clearance.
“You would assume the mayor of New York, one of the senior most elected officials in the country, would go to the front of the line, and in normal cases it would,” O’Leary said.
Mamdani’s background has also attracted scrutiny from Republican lawmakers. Following his election, eight GOP members of Congress urged the Department of Homeland Security to deny him a security clearance, pointing to his history of anti-Israel activism, his involvement in establishing a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter while in college, and his previous rhetoric regarding the NYPD.
The FBI typically conducts the background investigations required for security clearances, which can involve extensive reviews of an applicant’s personal history, foreign travel and contacts, as well as interviews with relatives, friends and acquaintances.
City Hall maintains that the process is proceeding normally.
“The process of obtaining the mayor’s federal security clearance is ongoing and proceeding within the currently prevailing timeline for one,” spokesperson Sam Raskin said.
Mamdani has previously downplayed concerns about operating without the clearance, saying in March, “This has in no way impeded our abilities to respond both to the day-to-day needs of New Yorkers as well as to respond to the current crisis at hand.”
Several senior members of Mamdani’s administration already hold security clearances, including NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan and chief counsel Ramzi Kassem. However, federal rules prohibit them from simply passing classified information from those briefings to Mamdani.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
