Senior transition official Mamdani was heavily influenced by the Soros network during the Biden years
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Just hours after criticizing the Democratic Party establishment in his victory speech, New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani hired an all-female transition team made up of veterans of the past administrations of Michael Bloomberg, Eric Adams, Bill de Blasio and Joe Biden.
Among these members of the transition team is Lina Khan, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission under Joe Biden. When Lina Khan was chair, the FTC was accused by Republicans of eroding the agencies’ independence and bipartisanship, working with foreign regulators to weaken American businesses, politicizing antitrust enforcement, and adopting illegal rules.
Among those charges were allegations that Khan sidelined career staff in favor of fresh blood from a cadre of nonprofits funded by liberal billionaires like George Soros and Pierre Omidyar, while simultaneously pushing a strong antitrust enforcement agenda backed by those groups.
Mamdani’s decision to name Khan as one of four co-chairs of his transition team came just hours after he criticized unaccountable elected officials, accusing them of being more concerned with enriching themselves than winning public trust. “For years, elected officials at town hall only helped those who could help them,” he told his supporters Tuesday evening. “But on January 1, we will usher in a city government that helps everyone.”
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Zohran Mamdani’s transition co-chair Lina Khan speaks at a press conference Wednesday afternoon in Queens. (Photo by Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
However, Mamdani’s appointment of Khan puts this commitment under the spotlight, given that she has been accused of using her position to benefit allies, including those she worked for.
During Khan’s presidency of the FTC, she hired Sarah Miller as a “special advisor” before elevating Miller to chief of staff shortly thereafter. Miller previously led the antitrust advocacy group American Economic Liberties Project (AELP), which, according to tax filings and grant databases, received at least $200,000 to $500,000 from Soros’s Open Society foundations, the Omidyar Network and the Ford Foundation.
Miller is married to the former Bernie Sanders aide Faiz Shakir, founder of another antitrust defense organization called More Perfect Union (MPU). The MPU and its affiliated advocacy arm, More Perfect Union Action, have also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from the Soros, Omidyar networks and the Ford Foundation. When Miller joined the FTC, her former group, AELP, named her husband Shakir as its interim head. At the same time, at the time, AELP had also elevated Nidhi Hedge, a former Omidyar Network consultant, to the position of executive director, said a press release on its website, highlighting the network’s intimacy.
Under Khan, the FTC quietly recruited several employees from another nonprofit funded by Soros, Omidyar and the Ford Foundation, called the AI Now Institute. The FTC has named AI Now founder Meredith Whittaker as “senior advisor on artificial intelligence” in 2021, and at least four other AI Now staff members in advisory roles. At one point, the entire AI Now organization had been called upon at one time or another in recent years to advise the commission.
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Lina Khan, former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, takes the oath of office before testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in the Rayburn House office building on Capitol Hill July 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Over time, AI Now advisors on the trade commission were repeatedly recognized for helping develop policies and messaging, according to the FTC website during Khan’s tenure. The FTC also appeared to adopt policy statements that coincided with opinions from AI Now’s analyses.
Another adviser hired to assist the trade commission under Khan, who previously worked at the Omidyar-backed Democracy Fund, had his job description changed shortly after his arrival to include a mention about assisting the commission with “enforcement efforts.” Law professor John Kwoka, also appointed as an adviser to the commission under Khan, previously advised the Open Markets Institute, where Khan herself was director of legal policy. The Soros, Omidyar and Ford networks have all provided grants to the Open Markets Institute.
Among Khan’s critics during his presidency was Christie Wilson, the only Republican commissioner at the FTC who ultimately resigned due to Khan’s leadership. Wilson accused Khan of flouting due process and the rule of law, while also confirming that she sidelined career professionals at the FTC.
“Former FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan became synonymous with her hostility toward businesses large and small during the Biden administration and a leader in Bidenomics,” GOP strategist Colin Reed said when asked about Mamdani’s transition team appointments. “The new mayor is already breaking one of his core promises to shake up the status quo and usher in a new era.”
When Fox News Digital contacted Khan about her tenure at the FTC, she responded, “No comment.”
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, center, joined by members of his transition team, from left, Transition Executive Director Elana Leopold, Transition Co-Chair Melanie Hartzog, Transition Co-Chair Maria Torres-Springer, Transition Co-Chair Grace Bonilla, and Transition Co-Chair Lina Khan speak to the media at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in the Queens borough of New York York, Wednesday, November 5. 2025. (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Matt Gorman, a conservative political strategist in Washington, D.C., also criticized Mamdani for claiming to usher in a new political era in New York, but then turning around and “choosing from the same old political class of a failed Democratic administration.”
Besides Khan, Mamdani’s all-female transition team also includes Democratic Party veterans with ties to the former administrations of Bill de Blasio, Eric Adams and Michael Bloomberg.
Other co-chairs include Maria Torres-Springer, a former senior aide to former Mayors de Blasio and Bloomberg, and soon-to-be former Mayor Adams; Melanie Hartzog, former New York City budget director who served as deputy mayor for health and human services under de Blasio; and Grace Bonilla, a former aide to Bloomberg and de Blasio named to lead the former’s task force on racial equity and inclusion.
Elana Leopold, a former senior aide to de Blasio, was named executive director of the transition team.
Joe Schoffstall contributed to this report.
