BREAKING: Mamdani's rent freeze sued amid fraud allegations!
Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised New York City renters a rent freeze during his campaign. He then appointed six of the seven members of the board responsible for setting rent increases. That board voted 7-1 to freeze rents. One member resigned in protest beforehand, stating publicly that her colleagues had already decided the outcome before reviewing a single data point.
A group of landlords just sued to overturn it. They’re calling it what it is: a sham.
The New York City Rent Guidelines Board is supposed to function as an independent fact-finding body — reviewing economic conditions in the residential real estate industry and making data-driven decisions about whether rents should increase, decrease, or hold. The lawsuit alleges the board did none of that. It cherry-picked data, understated operating costs, overstated landlord revenues, and delivered the predetermined outcome Mamdani needed before the ink was dry on his inauguration speech.
The resigning board member said it plainly: the body had “ceased to function as a fact-finding body.” Her former colleagues intended to freeze rent regardless of what the evidence showed. She refused to participate and quit. The remaining six — all Mamdani appointees — proceeded without her and delivered exactly what their boss wanted.
Randy Mastro, the attorney representing the landlords, captured the essential corruption of the process: “Zohran Mamdani promised to deliver a rent freeze during his campaign and then he went to extraordinary lengths as a new mayor to guarantee it. This is a perversion of the process.”
That’s not hyperbole. That’s a description of how captured regulatory bodies actually work — and why their independence matters. The Rent Guidelines Board exists specifically because the city recognized that rent decisions shouldn’t be made by politicians accountable to landlords who invest the money into rental properties and have all the costs. Strip away the independence, pack the board with mayoral appointees, and you don’t have a regulatory body anymore. You have a campaign promise delivery mechanism with extra steps.
Here’s the economic reality that Mamdani’s ideology prevents him from acknowledging: rent freezes don’t make housing more affordable. They make it scarcer. Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck — about as far from a right-wing think tank as you can get — said in 1971 that rent control is the most efficient technique known to destroy a city short of bombing. The mechanism is straightforward: if landlords can’t raise rents to cover rising costs, they stop maintaining buildings, stop building new ones, and eventually exit the market entirely. Supply falls. Quality deteriorates. The tenants Mamdani claims to champion end up worse off.
This isn’t a conservative talking point. This is the near-unanimous consensus of professional economists across the political spectrum. Rent control polls well. It works badly. These facts have coexisted since the 1970s without changing either.
Mamdani promised a rent freeze and rigged the process to deliver it. New York City will pay the price in housing supply, building quality, and landlord flight for years to come.
"🚨 MAJOR BOMBSHELL! — CATHERINE HERRIDGE DROPS EXPLOSIVE NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT ILHAN OMAR!"
BREAKING: Catherine Herridge just dropped a bombshell that could change everything about the Ilhan Omar case...and it has nothing to do with what federal agents were looking for in Monday's raid.
Herridge is reporting that seasoned federal investigators see passport fraud as another potential avenue for criminal prosecution.
The statute at the center of it: 18 U.S.C. § 1542 — False Statement in Application. It prohibits making false statements on a passport application, using a passport obtained through false statements, or using a passport under an assumed or false name to hide criminal behavior.
And here's the part that should worry Omar's legal team: the 10-year statute of limitations on passport fraud resets every single time the individual renews their passport — if the underlying application records, such as a Social Security Number, were obtained through fraud.
So why does that matter here? Remember the birthdate change. Omar's staff had her publicly listed birth year changed from 1981 to 1982 back in May 2019. If someone lied about their true date and place of birth to obtain a Social Security Number, that fraud doesn't expire the way most people think it does. Every passport renewal restarts the clock.
And federal investigators have run this exact playbook before.
After 9/11, when the Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated Anwar al-Awlaki — the American-born cleric who became a top al Qaeda leader — a seasoned investigator ran down a scholarship scam: Awlaki had used his Yemeni passport and false claims about his birthplace to secure roughly $20,000 in USAID tuition money for Colorado State University. But the statute of limitations on the tuition fraud had already run out.
So a State Department Diplomatic Security agent found another way in. Awlaki had made false statements to secure a J-1 visa, then used a fraudulently obtained Social Security Number — falsely claiming he was born in Yemen — to obtain a U.S. passport. The passport fraud became the holding charge. Every renewal reset the 10-year clock.
Herridge's reporting doesn't say charges are coming. But it lays out a roadmap that federal investigators have walked before, and successfully.
"🚨 ROYAL FAMILY SHOCKER! — PRINCE HARRY SHARES A MAJOR UPDATE ON KING CHARLES' CANCER BATTLE!"
Prince Harry says there's 'big difference' between losing a parent and two
Prince Harry has shared an update on King Charles' health while reflecting on the lasting impact of losing his mom, Princess Diana.
In an interview with GQ, Harry was asked how his father's diagnosis had affected him.
The Duke of Sussex said of King Charles' health, "He's getting better." Notably, the monarch announced his cancer diagnosis in February 2024.
During the conversation, Harry also reflected on the different experiences of losing one parent compared with losing both. He explained that friends who had lost both parents had described feeling like orphans, even as adults.
As Zach Baron said, "I would think having suffered the traumatic death of a parent, that something like this could be very triggering in that respect... having a sick parent now," Prince Harry responded, "But yeah, I think there’s a big difference between losing one parent and losing two. From the friends of mine that have lost two, they go, ‘Well, now I’m an orphan,’ even if you’re in your 40s or 50s. I’ve never heard someone say that to me before."
"I was like, ‘Wow, I hadn’t considered that,’" he added.
It is pertinent to mention that Prince Harry was 12 years old when he lost Princess Diana. "I’ve always thought to myself since I was a young kid and conversations with other friends of mine, ‘If you had a choice, what would you choose? To have a parent ripped away from you suddenly without any preparation or having the long-term suffering, but the ability to say goodbye?’"
"And it turns out that there is no answer. because, you know, I’ve got friends and family who are suffering from cancer, I’ve had a mom that was taken away from me too soon, and I have spoken very openly about one of my biggest regrets is that last phone call I had with her," he added, also sharing that if he had known it was the final call the conversation would've been different.
"🔥 WHITE HOUSE EARTHQUAKE! — THE WILD CONSPIRACY POSTS THAT HAUNT NEW PRESS SECRETARY KATIE ZACHARIA!"
Old Truth Social posts from Katie Zacharia, in which she promoted the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory, have resurfaced days after Trump named her White House press secretary.
Katie Zacharia’s old social media posts are getting attention after Trump named her White House press secretary. Trump announced the appointment in a Truth Social post on Friday, October 9.
Trump called Zacharia a native of California and currently Senior Communications Advisor to Truth Social, where she “has been outstanding.” He said she previously served as spokesperson and deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. She graduated from Pepperdine University and its law school, and is an attorney and “a frequent Commentator on outlets, including Fox News and Newsmax.”
After the announcement, she thanked Trump on X for “the honor of a lifetime” and called him “a blessing to this country.”
Zacharia takes over from Karoline Leavitt, who left in August. “It is my Great Honor to have just appointed, as Press Secretary, Katie Zacharia,” Trump wrote, calling her “a loyal and brilliant supporter, right from the beginning.”
Since then, people have dug up posts she made back in 2022. According to Popular Information, which published its report on October 11, Zacharia repeatedly promoted the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory and accused Democratic and Hollywood elites of child trafficking and cannibalism. A CNN KFile review of her posts found she repeatedly made baseless accusations of pedophilia against prominent Democrats. Her Truth Social posts are still publicly available on her account, CNN reported.
A recap on Pizzagate
Pizzagate was a conspiracy theory that came out of the 2016 presidential campaign and has since been debunked. It claimed a child sex trafficking ring was being run from a Washington, D.C., pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong, and that Democrat politicians, including Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta, were involved.
On September 4, 2022, the day it was announced Podesta was joining the Biden White House, Zacharia posted: “Pedo Podesta. #pedoPodesta.” On the same day, she wrote that left-wing Hollywood elites were “sick pedo cannibals” and added: “Change my mind.”
She also pushed Fox News to cover the theory. In one post, she wrote: “[W]hy doesn’t Fox News do a ‘feature’ on what a pedophile Podesta is.” On October 17, 2022, she wrote: “[W]here’s the feature on John Podesta?”
She posted about QAnon too, the conspiracy theory that claims Trump is secretly fighting a child-abuse group made up of Democrats and other elites. Popular Information counted about 2,700 posts and reposts from her Truth Social account since March 2022.
Trump’s own history with Epstein
Zacharia’s posts and her new position are interesting considering Trump’s own well documented friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Trump told New York magazine in 2002 that he had known Epstein for 15 years and called him a “terrific guy.”
Footage from a 1992 party at Mar-a-Lago shows the two laughing together, flight logs show Trump flew on Epstein’s jet several times in the 1990s, and a photo from February 2000 shows Trump and Melania at Mar-a-Lago with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. When the Justice Department released hundreds of thousands of Epstein documents beginning in December 2025, later releases included mentions of Trump flying on Epstein’s plane.
Trump has said the two had a falling out and that he threw Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago. In 2019, he said they hadn’t spoken in about 15 years. In 2025, he said the friendship ended because Epstein “stole” young women who worked at the club’s spa. Trump has denied knowing about Epstein’s crimes and denied any wrongdoing.
The White House has stayed silent on the resurfaced posts
Neither the White House nor Zacharia has addressed the content of the posts, according to CNN. The White House Press Office pointed Popular Information to Trump’s announcement.
Communications Director Steven Cheung told CNN: “Katie is a fabulous and wonderful addition to the team. She is uniquely qualified and whip smart to help inform the American people about all the great things President Trump and his Administration have been doing, and she will do an incredible job as Press Secretary.”
