Democrat New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has sharpened his campaign’s rhetoric with a video containing brutal accusations against his chief opponent, Andrew Cuomo—even implying that the former New York governor is connected to the now-deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Four years ago, Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace. And you probably know why,” says Mamdani, a state assemblyman, before headlines alleging Cuomo committed acts of sexual harassment and that he had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic flash across the screen.
Mamdani handily defeated Cuomo in the Democrat mayoral primary by a nearly 13-point margin in June, and Cuomo is now running as an independent.
In the minute-and-a-half long video, Mamdani also implies Cuomo committed financial improprieties during his time as a legal consultant.
But the video’s most shocking implication is that Cuomo is connected to Epstein.
“In June, The New York Times uncovered that Cuomo had worked with his longtime friend Andrew Farkas on a luxury marina project in Puerto Rico. Farkas’ previous partner on luxury marinas in the Caribbean? Jeffrey Epstein,” Mamdani says.
“That’s the thing about Andrew Cuomo. Once you think you’ve found out about all of his scandals, you find out about another,” he adds.
Mamdani makes another tongue-in-cheek reference to Epstein in the video, saying, “Habibi, release your client list.”
“Habibi” is a term of endearment akin to “honey” or “sweetheart” in Arabic.
Rich Azzopardi, the head of a public relations firm representing Cuomo, strongly rejected the video’s claims in a statement provided to The Daily Signal that appeared in the New York Post as well, calling it “nothing more than a temper tantrum from an insecure child of privilege who knows his tenuous lead is slipping away.”
He fired back with a number of accusations, saying, “Try as he might, Zohran can’t distract from the rank hypocrisy of growing up wealthy, owning hundreds of thousands of dollars of land in a country that has the death penalty for LGBTQIA people and making more than $140k a year for a job he doesn’t show up to while taking a rent-stabilized apartment meant for a working New Yorker, not to mention his flip-flopping on the defund the police and supporting pro-Hamas criminals like the Holy Land Five.”
That’s a reference to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based organization whose members were convicted of aiding the terrorist group Hamas.
Mamdani is “a [total] fraud and with every passing day, New Yorkers see it,” he said.
Azzopardi also responded to Mamdani’s accusations of financial improprieties, writing, “Since he left office, Gov. Cuomo has been engaged in private practice, providing legal services, representing individuals and corporations in a variety of matters, and does not comment on those private client matters. He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency.”
In response to Mamdani’s accusations in the video of undisclosed financial dealings, Azzopardi wrote, “The stock options were publicly disclosed … for years. There was a question about if and how they were required to be disclosed on city filings, which, after consulting with the conflict of interest board, we corrected the same day the matter was brought to our attention.”
On the question of Cuomo’s alleged indirect connection to Epstein through his business relationship with Farkas, Azzopardi wrote, “as was reported in The New York Times, that project never got off the ground and the governor wasn’t compensated for it.”
He added, “He didn’t know Epstein, but you can smell the desperation from conspiracy-peddling Zohran seep through your screen.”
A source familiar with Farkas told The Daily Signal, “There was never any project with Mr. Cuomo in Puerto Rico, and he was never paid for any work involving such a project.”
The source added of Mamdani’s mention of Epstein’s dealings with Farkas: “Epstein was a passive investor in a marina in St. Thomas. This was many years before the accusations and the charges were filed against Epstein.”
Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on his remarks about Cuomo and Farkas.
