Zohran Mamdani made a campaign promise to freeze the rent in New York City. It happened. Now a lawsuit is asking questions, and a judge just granted discovery.

We all heard Zohran Mamdani promise to freeze rent. As soon as he was mayor, he started working to deliver on that campaign promise.

By June, he had the rent freeze in hand. But how? Rent control is done in New York City by the “Rent Guidelines Board,” not the mayor. However, Mamdani appointed six members to the nine-person board last February. And by June, the rent freeze was approved by the RGB.

The board passed a rent freeze on both one-year and two-year leases for the Big Apple’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized units in a 7-1 vote. Arpit Gupta, an appointee of Mamdani’s immediate predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, was the one no vote.

It came hours after the public resignation of one of the RGB’s nine members, Christina Smyth, who accused the panel of ignoring its own data during the lengthy process to decide whether to adjust rents — claiming the decision was made “last year on the campaign trail.”

The board “stopped being a fact-finding body” and was rebuilt “to deliver a rent freeze” no matter what, Smyth, one of two landlord advocates on the board, wrote in her scathing resignation letter.

“Everything else has been theater,” she wrote. “The hearings, the reports, the public comment, the data. None of it was ever going to change the result.”

Smyth was one of three members appointed by Adams. Mamdani appointed the other six members after taking office this year.

Hizzoner has repeatedly claimed that the board is independent, noting it had been conducting “both fact finding as well as testimonies” for months before the highly anticipated vote.

Sure, the board was “independent.” Mamdani just made sure that everyone he appointed to the board agreed with HIM, which made the vote a foregone conclusion.

A lawsuit by landlords was filed in July. Recently, two of the plaintiffs wrote an editioral for City Journal, explaining their rationale for the lawsuit.

We did so because we believe Mamdani’s repeated promise to freeze rents prejudged a decision that by law belongs to an independent Rent Guidelines Board (RGB). The law requires the RGB, in setting rent-stabilized increases, to consider operating costs, taxes, vacancy rates, and more. Despite evidence showing mounting operating costs, the RGB (now with a Mamdani-appointed majority) voted to fulfill the mayor’s campaign promise for one-year and—for the first time—two-year leases.

Mamdani repeatedly and explicitly promised to freeze rents, including through various social-media stunts. He pledged to appoint RGB members who understood that landlords were “doing just fine.” Yet he knew that as mayor, he has no direct authority to set rent-stabilized increases, just as he cannot tell his appointed judges how to decide cases. So, in the weeks before the RGB’s vote, the mayor changed his tune, emphasizing the board’s independence.

The RGB’s structure and statutory framework are intended to shield it from political pressure and ensure balanced decisions. Mayors appoint members to serve fixed terms and cannot remove them except for cause. Owners and tenants each have two representatives, while five members represent the public.

Unlike the rent freezes under Mayor Bill de Blasio, which were imposed when costs were flat or declining, this year’s freeze occurs in a more challenging environment. The RGB’s own research found that operating costs for stabilized buildings rose 5.3 percent from April 2025 to March 2026. RGB member Christina Smyth resigned in protest hours before the vote, stating that “this year’s RGB order was decided last year on the campaign trail” and that the board’s majority was “required to deliver a rent freeze.”

The RGB did not justify its rent freeze with a written rationale. Its explanatory order catalogs data, memos, testimony, and studies, but does not state why a rent freeze is warranted. For these reasons and others, the RGB’s order should not receive the deference usually afforded administrative decisions.

Now, a judge is ordering discovery in the case – a huge step forward in the suit.

Judge Brendan Lantry — the former chair for the Staten Island GOP — granted a narrow order for the behind-the-scenes communications to see if supposedly independent rent board members illicitly colluded with Mamdani’s team.

“The question naturally arises: how would the Mayor comply with his ‘guarantee’ to the voters to ‘freeze’ the rent unless he, or his staff, communicated with the Board to ensure that the Board refrained from imposing any rental increase?” Lantry wrote.

While the landlords challenging the hike were seeking permission to demand an even broader swath of municipal messages, the limited order is still a notable victory for critics pushing to probe the Rent Guidelines Board vote.

“The court acknowledges that discovery in a special proceeding is rare,” Lantry wrote. “It is also rare (in fact, it is unprecedented) for a candidate for Mayor of New York City to guarantee that the Board, an entity that the parties concede is independent from the Mayor’s Office, will freeze the rent upon his election to office.”

Lantry also noted other rarities, including the resignation of RGB board member Christina Smyth, who described the vote as a pre-decided “sham.”

The order for City Hall communications with the RGB also covers the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement, the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget.

The order does exclude communications between Mamdani and his staff, as well as internal comms at the RGB.

A discovery conference is set for Sept. 21.

What? Mamdani accused of something unsavory in order to push through his socialist agenda? Ya don't say! https://t.co/1vyARr2Wrl

— AllieJade (@AllieJade1) September 16, 2026

The other issue at hand is that the rent freeze is supposed to take effect on October 1st. The clock is ticking, and the judge knows it. And there is no guarantee that this discovery will find a proverbial “smoking gun” that the landlords can use.

Lantry authorized limited discovery of written communications between the mayor’s office and Rent Guidelines Board personnel from Jan. 1 through the board’s June 25 vote. He excluded internal communications within City Hall and within the board.

Randy Mastro, an attorney representing the landlords, praised the ruling.

“We are gratified by the judge’s decision, and this targeted discovery goes to the heart of our position that this was a sham process with a predetermined outcome, and communications between the Mayor’s Office and the Rent Guidelines Board, which all parties admitted is supposed to be independent of the Mayor’s Office, should show that,” Mastro said.

It remains unclear, however, whether any such communications exist.

A day after the Rent Guidelines Board vote, the lone member to oppose a rent freeze said city officials did not try to influence its decision.

“One thing I can say is that, unlike in some previous years, I observed no interference by the administration in individual members’ decisions,” Gupta said during an event hosted by the urban policy group Vital City.

Considering that those within the Mamdani administration have played fast and loose with preserving records, there is no certainty that written communication exists that shows collusion between Team Mamdani and the RGB. In fact, I would lay money on nothing of consequence being uncovered. Why? Because by appointing six members, Zohran Mamdani all but assured that he DIDN’T have to put anything in writing. He picked six people he knew agreed with him about instituting a rent freeze, and likely left them to their own devices. This is why elections matter so much. When one side knows they have the power to manipulate the bureaucracy to do their bidding simply by picking the right people to do it, it is essential to make sure that those who espouse “the warmth of collectivism” are nowhere near the levers of power.

As the landlords’ lawyer Randy Mastro said, this was indeed “a sham process with a predetermined outcome.” But it probably didn’t need a paper trail to make it happen. However, that’s what discovery is for, and since Team Mamdani has been known to have arrogant people who say and do stupid things, we shall see what gets presented to the court on Monday.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click