New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani confessed he does not possess any federal security clearance on Monday, just one day after saying he had been “briefed” about the United States military operation that led to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. During a press briefing, a reporter asked Mamdani about his security clearance, and he admitted he had not yet received it.
The newly installed mayor found himself the butt of jokes on social media as users came out saying he had inflated his access to information concerning the strike in his previous statement on the matter. “You don’t have federal security clearance yet, and has anyone from a federal agency reached out to you or members of your team to begin the vetting to get federal security clearance?” a reporter asked Mamdani.
“That briefing, yes, was conducted by my team,” Mamdani replied. “And the question of federal security clearance is one that’s on and on.” The reporter pressed forward by asking, “So you do have it?” The mayor admitted that he did not. The admission came after the first statement Mamdani made seemed to indicate he had received inside information about the operation.
“I’m in the process of applying for that clearance, and I’m also thankful that there are senior members of my team that already have that clearance thanks to past positions that they’ve held. And so as a result of that, New Yorkers have nothing to fear about my ability to both represent our city and also to deliver for it,” Mamdani went on to say.
“I was briefed this morning on the U.S. military capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, as well as their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City,” Mamdani stated in a post on X after news came out about Maduro’s capture. According to Fox News, Mamdani then went on to rip President Donald Trump for the move.
However, users on social media were not so easily fooled, going on to call him out for inflating his access to information concerning the operation. “Called it,” one user replied, meaning that they had called ahead of time that Mamdani hadn’t actually been briefed as he claimed. Fox News reached out to Mamdani’s office, but as of this writing, it has not received a response. Mamdani described Trump’s operation as a “blatant pursuit of regime change,” going on to call it “an act of war and a violation of federal and international law.”
Maduro and his wife have both pleaded not guilty to charges of narcotics trafficking and machine gun possession during an arraignment held in Manhattan on January 5, 2026. A report from amNY said Maduro told the federal judge that he had been “kidnapped” by military forces. Mamdani told reporters that his number one concern at the moment is keeping New York and its large Venezuelan population safe. The report revealed that there are 32,000 Venezuelans living in New York City.
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During the same press conference where Mamdani made his admission about the security clearance, the mayor was asked about transportation arrangements for Maduro between Brooklyn and Manhattan for his trial. He declined to provide any information. He went on to stress coordination with law enforcement and stated they were focused on keeping disruption to a minimum.
“I continue to stay in constant communication with my police commissioner and the NYPD, and my job as the mayor of New York City is to ensure that any federal action has a limited impact on the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers,” Mamdani responded. While the position of New York mayor is not a federal position, it has traditionally come with access to classified briefings on terrorist threats that impact the city.