City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced Wednesday her support for Nadia Shihata, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pick to lead the Department of Investigation, one day before a confirmation vote that had looked uncertain.
Menin is backing Shihata “based on her qualifications and her stated commitment to independent leadership,” a Council spokesperson said. “Rooting out corruption and fraud in government is a top priority for the Speaker and she believes Ms. Shihata’s 11 years as a prosecutor in New York’s Eastern District makes her well positioned to take on that fight head on.”
The speaker’s endorsement carries real weight. Shihata needs a majority Council vote to take over as the city’s chief corruption watchdog, and her path to confirmation ran into serious trouble at an April 6 hearing before the Council’s rules committee. Members pressed her hard on two fronts: $700 in donations she made to Mamdani’s campaign and her close friendship with Ramzi Kassem, the mayor’s general counsel.
Shihata didn’t dodge the questions. She admitted she had canvassed for Mamdani once during the 2025 race and acknowledged knowing Kassem since graduating from law school, socializing with him periodically and seeking his professional advice after she left federal prosecution. She also told the committee that Kassem had approached her directly to ask whether she wanted to apply for the DOI commissioner post.
That last admission gave some members pause.
The DOI commissioner role has traditionally stood apart from City Hall’s political orbit. The last commissioner, Jocelyn Strauber, helped direct probes that led to charges against Mayor Eric Adams and members of his administration. That precedent looms over Shihata’s nomination, and Council members want assurances the new commissioner won’t soften the office’s independence.
Shihata insisted she’d approach any investigation “without fear or favor,” including probes that might touch the mayor, Kassem or anyone else in the administration. Whether those assurances satisfied enough members to secure confirmation was the key question heading into Thursday’s vote.
The social media issue added another layer of friction. Councilmember David Carr, R-Staten Island/Brooklyn, questioned Shihata about posts she said she had made private sometime after leaving the U.S. Attorney’s office in 2022. At least one post had not been made private before the hearing, according to The City’s reporting on the nomination.
Shihata’s background gives her defenders something to work with. Eleven years as a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York is a serious credential, and Menin leaned on it hard in making her case. Former Brooklyn federal prosecutors don’t grow on trees.
What the hearing made clear is that the Mamdani administration is navigating its own version of a familiar tension: how do you install a loyal, trusted figure in a watchdog role without inviting accusations that the watchdog answers to City Hall? Kassem recruiting his longtime friend for the job, while entirely legal, gave skeptical Council members exactly the ammunition they needed.
Shihata faces a tougher credibility test than most DOI nominees precisely because the DOI’s recent history is so vivid. The Adams-era investigations are barely in the rearview mirror. Riders and residents who watched that saga play out know what happens when accountability structures get bent.
It didn’t help that she canvassed for the very man who now controls her salary and her office space. $700 is a small number. The optics aren’t.
Still, Menin’s support shifts the math. The speaker doesn’t back nominees she expects to lose, and her office’s statement was specific enough to read as a genuine endorsement rather than a courtesy gesture. Backing someone “based on qualifications” is hedged language, but calling out 11 years at the Eastern District by name signals the speaker did her homework.
Mamdani announced Shihata’s nomination at City Hall on February 12, 2026. It’s taken more than two months to get to a floor vote, which itself reflects how much scrutiny the nomination attracted.
The Council votes Thursday. If Shihata clears confirmation, she takes charge of an office that has enormous authority to investigate city contractors, agencies and officials. The question her critics keep asking is whether she’ll use it.