{"id":66401,"date":"2025-12-10T03:07:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:07:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66401\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T03:07:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T03:07:16","slug":"mamdani-reveals-why-he-appointed-convicted-armed-robber-to-nyc-transition-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/66401\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani reveals why he appointed convicted armed robber to NYC transition team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">New York City Mayor-elect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/zohran-mamdani\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Zohran Mamdani;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Zohran Mamdani<\/a> said Tuesday he appointed a convicted armed robber to advise him on the criminal justice system because he wants to take experience and analysis from all New Yorkers into account to &#8220;build a city for each and every person.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Mysonne Linen, 49, served seven years behind bars in state prison for robbery cases dating back to the 1990s. His appointment to Mamdani\u2019s City Hall transition team was announced in a Nov. 26 Instagram post from Until Freedom, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/new-york-city\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:New York City\u2013based social justice organization;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">New York City\u2013based social justice organization<\/a>, where Linen is a leader.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We put together a team of more than 400 New Yorkers who are on 17 different committees, and these are New Yorkers who bring with them both a fluency of the policies and politics of the city, the places that they&#8217;ve succeeded, the places that they&#8217;ve failed, and we will take all of their experiences and their analysis into account as we build a city for each and every person,&#8221; Mamdani said Tuesday when asked by Fox News correspondent Alexis McAdams about the appointment.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to past reports, Linen, a Bronx native who was once signed to Def Jam, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/crime\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:convicted of two felony robberies;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">convicted of two felony robberies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/mamdani-appoints-convicted-armed-robber-public-safety-transition-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mamdani Appoints Convicted Armed Robber To Public Safety Transition Team;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Mamdani Appoints Convicted Armed Robber To Public Safety Transition Team<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Mysonne Linen and Zohran Mamdani\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/e2e7ac65cc65e3910bbb841929eda091.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mysonne Linen, left, and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In 1999, a Bronx jury found him guilty in two armed robberies of taxi drivers, according to the New York Daily News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS\/mvaj7wvj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Read On The Fox News App;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Read On The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Prosecutors said Linen was part of a group that robbed cab driver Joseph Exiri June 8, 1997, striking him with a beer bottle, and he held up cab driver Francisco Monsanto at gunpoint on March 31, 1998, stealing cash and a ring before fleeing.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Mysonne Linen in NYC\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/e40ee5cfdfba4507c28e929ea76120a4.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Zohran Mamdani has appointed formerly incarcerated rapper turned activist Mysonne Linen, center, to his transition team for public safety and criminal justice committees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/mamdani-taps-party-insiders-steer-transition-despite-vowing-turn-page-old-guard-nyc-dems\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mamdani Taps Party Insiders To Steer Transition Despite Vowing To \u2018Turn The Page\u2019 On Old-guard Nyc Dems;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Mamdani Taps Party Insiders To Steer Transition Despite Vowing To \u2018Turn The Page\u2019 On Old-guard Nyc Dems<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Both cabbies testified and identified Linen as one of the robbers.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Zohran Mamdani after his mayoral election victory.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/e779fac8641e22d80f1d7de3a52f47d9.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani won New York City\u2019s mayoral race in November.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click Here To Download The Fox News App;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Click Here To Download The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The New York Daily News reported that Linen\u2019s defense argued he had no reason to commit the crimes because he was earning money writing songs for artists such as Lil\u2019 Kim and Mase, and his music was slated to appear on an all-star album featuring LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes and Q-Tip.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He faced up to 25 years in prison and ultimately served seven years. Linen maintained at the time that he had been falsely accused, according to reports.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Original article source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/mamdani-reveals-why-he-appointed-convicted-armed-robber-nyc-transition-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mamdani reveals why he appointed convicted armed robber to NYC transition team;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Mamdani reveals why he appointed convicted armed robber to NYC transition team<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani said Tuesday he appointed a convicted armed robber to advise him on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[34613,33508,34612,9,24,55,54,56,19125,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-66401","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-armed-robber","9":"tag-criminal-justice-system","10":"tag-mysonne-linen","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-city-news","15":"tag-ny","16":"tag-transition-team","17":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}