AG for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon publicly questioned Mayor Mamdani's race-based policies as "fishy/illegal" and pledged a DOJ Civil Rights Division probe of the Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan. Sat May 2 the Washington Free Beacon obtained internal NYC documents (dated January) showing the NYC Commission on Racial Equity (CORE) is awarding $500,000 across 13+ community groups, with each org receiving up to $20,000 to "host conversations to discuss the development of a Reparations study" and gather "input on the early development of the citywide Truth, Healing and Reconciliation plan." Funding explicitly covers participant "incentives" and "refreshments." NYC Mayor's office did not respond to Fox News's Friday request for comment. Mamdani's prelim budget requested $4.6M for CORE + $5.6M for Office of Racial Equity (~$10M, +$3M YoY). Final reparations study due July 2027; Truth, Healing and Reconciliation Plan implementation due June 2028. NYC is required to consider reparations under a 2024 Local Law (Intro 2024-92) — financial/in-kind restitution, compensation, public apologies for descendants of African slaves. Conservative outlets (Fox, Free Beacon, Gateway Pundit, Yahoo, AOL) hammered the spend Sat-Sun May 2-3 as tone-deaf during the $5.4B deficit. Dhillon's pledged probe is the federal escalation hanging over CORE's 2027-2028 timeline.