Federal agents zeroed in on the highest ranks in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration on Wednesday, searching a home and seizing the phones of the New York City police commissioner, first deputy mayor, schools chancellor and others, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The actions were unrelated A separate investigation into corruption The mayor and his campaign focused on fundraising, some said. But revelations that not only the mayor but several senior city officials are implicated in the federal probe further destabilize an administration already grappling with other legal problems.
The investigation also raises questions about Mr. Adams’ ability to continue running the nation’s largest city. And they threaten to further weaken his political position as he faces a hotly contested Democratic primary next year in which he already faces several serious challenges.
Among other officials, federal investigators sought information from the deputy mayor for public safety and the mayor’s senior adviser, who is one of his closest confidantes, the people said. Both men had other legal challenges.
Agents also searched the home and seized the phone of a consultant who is the brother of both the school’s chancellor and a deputy mayor, the people said.
The nature of the investigation is unclear, but one appears to focus on senior City Hall officials and the other on the police commissioner, the people said.
In an interview on Fox 5 New York Thursday evening, Mr. Adams denied that the various federal investigations were a distraction.
“Everybody has heard me from time to time: stay focused, have no distractions and grind,” Meyer said. “My job is to make sure I’m fighting on behalf of New Yorkers, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Representatives of City Hall officials — First Deputy Mayor, Sheena Wright; Her partner, school chancellor David C. banks; Deputy Mayor for Public Safety, Philip Banks III; and Timothy Pearson, a senior adviser to the mayor — could not be reached or declined to comment.
Terence Banks, a consultant and brother of Philip Banks and David Banks, recently opened a government and community relations firm aimed at closing “the gap between New York’s complex infrastructure and political landscape.” He too could not be reached for comment.
Several officials’ phones were seized or records of their communications subpoenaed.
No one has been charged with any crime.
Police Commissioner, Edward A. In addition to Caban, several other department officials, including Mr. Caban’s chief of staff and two Queens precinct commanders, also had their phones tapped by federal agents, the two people said.
The police department’s chief spokesman, Tariq Shepard, said he could not confirm that agents had tapped the commissioner’s phone, but said: “We will cooperate with the US attorney’s office, and any of these questions need to be referred to what was done.” . Because this is not a joint investigation.”
Lisa Zornberg, City Hall’s chief counsel, said in a statement that investigators have not indicated that the mayor or his staff were “targets of any investigation.”
“As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has made it clear time and time again that all members of the team need to obey the law,” Ms. Zornberg said, referring to Mr. Adams’ career in the police department, from which he retired. Captain
The phones of David Banks and Mrs Wright and Philip Banks were seized First reported by nonprofit news site The City.
The investigation was conducted by prosecutors from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is separately investigating the mayor and his campaign fundraising along with the FBI.
The full scope of the investigation into the mayor’s fundraising is also unclear. But it focused at least in part on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to collect illegal foreign donations and whether Mr. Adams, in turn, pressured the Fire Department to sign the new Turkish consulate. In Manhattan, despite safety concerns. He has also seen the free flight upgrade Mr. Adams Received From Turkish Airlines.
Representatives for the US Attorney’s Office and the FBI declined to comment.
Mr. Adams has consistently denied wrongdoing, and federal authorities have not charged him with any crime.
His first deputy mayor, Ms. Wright, whose phone was confiscated, is trailed by a few people at City Hall. A trusted adviser, she led Mr. Adams’ transition team before taking a position at City Hall as deputy mayor for strategic initiatives.
Ms Wright was promoted to First Deputy Mayor in December 2022 and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the country’s largest municipal government, which employs around 300,000 people. He often sits next to the mayor during his weekly press briefings.
Before joining Mr. Adams’ campaign, Ms. Wright, an attorney, was chief executive of the United Way of New York City and also served as president and chief executive of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, the community development arm of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
In 2013, Ms. Wright and David and Philip Banks were involved in an incident that raised ethical questions. Ms Wright and her then-husband Greg Walker had a dispute which led to mutual accusations of domestic abuse and the arrest of both men. The City reported that David Banks called his brother Philip, then a high-ranking police officer. The charges were dropped.
Ms Wright has denied any wrongdoing in the case. says the New York Times in 2022 that she “never asked anyone to make any phone calls” on her behalf and that she was “released almost immediately not because of any outside influence, but because the facts of the case were so clear.”
After taking office in 2022, Mr. Adams chose Philip Banks as his top aide to oversee public safety, although Mr. Banks himself had previously been embroiled in a federal criminal investigation.
Years earlier, the same federal prosecutors’ office conducted the current investigation, which named him as an unindicted co-conspirator in a wide-ranging corruption case that led to the prison terms of Mr. Banks’ then-close friend, Norman Seabrook, then the city’s corrections officer. was a leader. ‘ Union, among others.
Over the course of two years, prosecutors investigated Mr. Banks’ acceptance of gifts in 2013 and 2014 while he was chief of the department, the city’s top uniformed police officer. Gifts include vacations to the Dominican Republic and Los Angeles, cigars and a ring worn by Muhammad Ali. He received gifts from and socialized with two businessmen trying to curry favor with the city’s leaders. One later pleaded guilty to criminal charges, cooperating with prosecutors, while the other was convicted at trial.
But prosecutors did not charge Mr. Banks, concluding they did not have enough evidence to prove he acted in an official capacity in exchange for gifts he received, people familiar with the case said.
After Mr. Adams appointed him, Mr. Banks publicly sought to quell concerns about his past, and apologized. Daily news column to an association with two businessmen because “even the appearance of our friendship was damaging my business.”
On Thursday, the first day of school, schools Chancellor Banks, carrying a purple folder in his home, appeared surprised by the presence of reporters.
Punching in the code on the panel above the door, he looked over his shoulder and asked, “What, was there a shooting or something?”
For his part, Terence Banks opened his consulting firm, Pearl Alliance, after retiring from his post at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It was not clear if the firm was the focus of the investigation that led to the search of his home Wednesday — or who the firm’s clients were. Mr. Banks does not appear to be a registered lobbyist with New York State.
The origin of the firm’s name is also unclear. But his brother Philip, the deputy mayor for public safety, and Mr. Pearson, the mayor’s senior adviser, both have offices at 375 Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan.
Mr. Pearson, the mayor’s senior adviser and close friend, has been named as a defendant this year Four sexual harassment suits Filed by former subordinates, three of the men said they were appalled by Mr Pearson’s behavior towards the women he supervised in the small unit. Mr. Adams faces a separate charge sexual assault Dating to the 1990s.
A federal investigation of Mr. Adams erupted In public view In November, when federal agents searched the Brooklyn home of Mr. Adams’ then chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggsand walked out with several electronic devices and a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams.”
That same day, federal agents Also found The New Jersey homes of Cenk Okal, an aide in Mr. Adams’ office of international affairs and his former liaison to the Turkish community, and former Turkish Airlines executive who served on the mayor’s transition team. Ms. Abbasova is cooperation with the authorities.
Days after raiding the homes of Ms. Suggs, Mr. Okal and Ms. Abbassova, federal officials stopped Mr. Adams after an event at New York University, asked him to step aside from security, joined him in his vehicle, and seized its electronic devices.
In July, prosecutors served a federal grand jury subpoena Mr. Adams, on the mayor’s office and his campaign.
Separately, the Eastern District of New York in February discovered Two houses owned by Vinny Greco, the mayor’s director of Asian affairs.
On Thursday, the political fallout from news of the searches and phone seizures was swift, with many of Mr. Adams’ potential opponents in the Democratic primary portraying the investigation as an unacceptable distraction.
“You can’t clean up this city’s problems when your own house is a mess,” said Scott M., one of the protesters at X. Stringer, the former city controller, said.
In November, after federal agents searched the home of Mr. Adams’ chief fund-raiser, he brushed off concerns about the ethics of his team.
“I can’t tell you how many times I start the day by telling my team, ‘We’ve got to follow the law, we’ve got to follow the law,'” Mr Adams said. said. “Almost to the point that I’m annoying.”
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