Zohran Mamdani’s transition team list has drawn sharp criticism after multiple appointees were both controversial and, at first, misspelled on his team roster.

Last month Zohran Mamdani named a string of outspoken critics of law enforcement to key transition committees, moves that have set off alarms among New Yorkers who want safer streets. Among the early picks were Janos Marton for the Criminal Legal Committee and Alex Vitale, who has publicly argued for abolishing traditional policing. Marton has pushed to slash the jail population by at least 80 percent, a goal opponents say would leave the city dangerously unprepared to deter violent crime.

The mayor-elect then added two more figures that worried many voters: Mysonne Linen, who served time for an armed robbery conviction, and Lumumba Bandele, described by some as a “Black nationalist.” When asked about the appointments, Mamdani defended including a wide range of viewpoints and said his team would “build a city for each and every person,” a line that has been repeated by his spokespeople.

“We put together a team of more than 400 New Yorkers who are on 17 different committees,” Mamdani said. “And these are New Yorkers who bring with them both a fluency of the policies and politics of the city…and we will take all of their experiences and analysis into account as we build a city for each and every person.”

That defense didn’t stop critics from combing through the transition rollout and spotting something odd: a series of misspellings on the official list that seemed, to some, more than accidental. Local watchdogs and opponents flagged multiple name errors almost as quickly as the announcements landed online, and the mistakes raised eyebrows because some of the wrong spellings softened the appearance of the more controversial hires.

Specific errors stood out. Mysonne Linen’s first name appeared as “Mysoone” in the initial announcement; Lumumba Bandele’s first name was printed as “Lumuumba” in the Nov. 24 press release announcing his role on the Committee on Community Organizing. Those apparent typos were followed by a wider pattern of mistakes across the roster, which added fuel to accusations that the list was being curated to hide or downplay certain advisers.

Zohran Mamdani is off to a sloppy start.

The democratic socialist mayor-elect’s team misspelled the names of several appointees to his transition team — including two of his most controversial picks.

Among them was controversial rapper Mysonne Linen, an ex-con who served seven years in state prison, whose first name was botched as “Mysoone” when his appointment to Mamdani’s “Committee on the Criminal Legal System” was announced last month.

The first name of Black Nationalist Lumumba Bandele was also butchered in the Nov. 24 press release, spelled “Lumuumba,” as the mayoral transition announced he’d serve on Mamdani’s “Committee on Community Organizing.”

Other names on the list were garbled as well: Mary Travis Bassett was listed as “Basset,” Justine Olderman had an extra “n” added, AnnMarie Scalia appeared as “Ann Maria,” and Mary Vaccaro showed up with an extra “r” in her surname. News outlets reported that the errors were mirrored on Mamdani’s website and that those entries were “abruptly” corrected on Monday, a fix that did nothing to erase questions about how and why so many mistakes appeared at once.

The bigger question critics keep asking is whether these were simple typos or a deliberate attempt to slow public scrutiny of controversial advisors. It’s a stark choice between an incompetent communications team and a political play to obscure connections that would be plainly obvious if every name were spelled correctly. Either explanation is uncomfortable for a mayor-elect who campaigned on transparency and radical reform.

The background of some appointees fuels the debate. Linen’s armed-robbery conviction and prison time are part of his public record, while Bandele’s ties to the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and past support for figures like Assata Shakur have drawn fierce criticism. Shakur’s history—she was convicted in the death of a New Jersey police officer, later escaped, and received asylum in Cuba where she died this past September—adds a layer of controversy that voters may expect their incoming leader to address openly.

Mamdani identifies with democratic socialism and has pledged to reshape city policy, even speaking of a “city of international law” and signaling alignment with anti-capitalist groups. That ideological stance explains why his transition committees skew toward activists with deep skepticism of traditional policing and the current criminal-justice system. But appointing polarizing figures and then having their names misprinted undermines trust and hands opponents a simple, effective argument about the administration’s competence and priorities.