Lefty political operative Morris Katz has spoken out after a report that he stiffed his Brooklyn landlord for $14,000 in back rent and left his apartment trashed.
Katz, 27, the nepo baby strategist credited with fueling socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rise, signed a six-month lease in November for a $6,500-per-month top-floor duplex on Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, according to documents reviewed by The Post. The two-bed, three-bath unit came with a private roof deck, but Katz was late on rent for the first three months and eventually stopped paying entirely, two sources with knowledge of the situation said.
Super Felix Barbosa, who works at the four-story building, didn’t hold back when asked about the young operative. “I don’t get him. He don’t have his priorities in order, that’s for sure,” Barbosa told The Post on Thursday while hosing down the sidewalk outside. “When you come from a rich family, you don’t have your priorities in order. He’s not a bad guy, but his priorities are all f–ked up.”
Barbosa also alleged Katz’s money troubles extended beyond the landlord. “He owes Con Edison money. He owes the gas company money. He owes everyone money,” the super said.
The rent chase grew so contentious that Barbosa described extracting payments as dental work. “It was one of those things to get the rent you had to pull out his f–king teeth,” he said. “But then he came back and paid everything, $14,000. I don’t know where the money came from.”
Katz only offered the full back rent when he was set to move out on April 30, after initially bouncing a check, the sources said. But his departure was hardly clean — photos show he left the place stuffed with trash for weeks after his lease ended.
The snaps obtained by The Post show a loaded bar cart, junk-filled closet, random furniture and a fridge packed with takeout boxes and wrapped-up leftovers. “He has too much on his plate that he can’t handle, that’s what happened with him. He didn’t clean up the place at all. He didn’t clean up any of his s–t,” Barbosa said. The apartment wasn’t fully cleared until early June, according to the sources.
Reached by The Post on Thursday, Katz tried to claim Barbosa’s comments were being taken out of context. He did not dispute any of the specific claims about the unpaid rent or the condition of the apartment, instead saying only that he stayed in “communication” with the landlord during the months he wasn’t paying.
He blamed a snafu involving a new bank — and said he eventually got his relatives to help make good on the debt.
“When it came time to settle the balance, Morris didn’t yet have a checkbook with his new bank, so he sent his family the funds to use theirs and paid the balance in full,” a Fight Agency spokesperson said in a statement on his behalf. “When he returned from traveling for work, he cleared out his remaining belongings.”
The episode lands awkwardly for Katz, who was coming off a major win after playing a key role in propelling Mamdani — a formerly backbench state lawmaker — into City Hall. The co-founder of The Fight Agency was also advising multiple congressional candidates in New York’s June Democratic primaries, including DSA-backed hopefuls Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez, as well as Brad Lander and Micah Lasher.
But Katz has been embroiled in controversy before. He took on advising former Maine Senate hopeful Graham Platner, whose campaign imploded when he faced a rape accusation. Katz then allegedly threatened a whistleblowing ex-staffer, prompting DSA members across the country to call for campaigns to cut ties with him and his firm.
In the viral moment that preceded this latest scandal, Katz’s privileged upbringing has drawn scrutiny alongside his progressive politics. He grew up in a $5 million apartment with his famous screenwriter and TV producer father, David Bar Katz, and mother Julie Merberg, a children’s book author. His godfather was the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. That upbringing mirrors his pal Mamdani, who grew up on the Upper West Side with an award-winning filmmaker mother and a Columbia professor father.
The rent dodge also comes as the Mamdani administration has made targeting landlords a key priority. City Hall housing adviser Cea Weaver has called for seizing private property, and the Mayor’s Office of Mass Engagement has pushed tenants to turnout for board meetings to champion rent-freezes on stabilized units.
Katz is currently listed as a senior adviser in Mamdani’s administration, with New York magazine noting the strategist is “so young he lied about his age (26) until this past summer.”