Exclusive | NYC mayoral hopeful Jim Walden wants to fight City Hall corruption with overhauled Integrity agency

The Department of Investigation would be overhauled and given new powers – including the authority to prosecute corrupt government employees — if a prominent white-collar lawyer running for mayor wins the race.The agency would be rebranded the “Citywide Department of Public Integrity” and rely on a team of “elite anti-corruption prosecutors” who’d fast track cases through a newly created NYC Corruption Court under mayoral candidate Jim Walden’s plan.“This reimagines DOI and turn it into something more like the [U.S.] Department of Justice,” Walden told The Post.Under current law, the DOI can only prosecute misdemeanors, so Walden said he’d push for legislation also allowing it to handle felonies and provide whistleblowers amnesty in exchange for cooperation.The office would be independent like DOI, but its commissioner would serve a 10-year term rather than at the pleasure of the sitting mayor and City Council.Walden, a former federal prosecutor who also has long history of representing elected officials and other clients in cases involving Big Apple politics, is currently handling a lawsuit indirectly tied to federal bribery charges pending against Mayor Eric Adams.The Brooklyn Heights resident attributed his desire to create the new department to “23 years of suing agencies and seeing corruption all over the place and then living through three-and-a-half years of a federal investigation into [former Mayor] Bill de Blasio and an indictment of Mayor Adams.”Walden jumped in the race two months ago and is running as an apolitical independent, trying to take a page from former Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s playbook by seeking support from both the left and right.

 Although he lacks Bloomberg’s billions, he did jumpstart his campaign with a $500,000 personal loan....