Truly the “Feather” music video is the gift that keeps on giving. First it got a priest in trouble, now it’s somehow connected to the indictment of New York City Mayor Eric Adams. According to the NY Post, Monsignor Jamie J. Gigantiello of Our Lady of Mount Carmel-Annunciation Parish in Williamsburg (the same priest who let Carpenter get into some nonsense) may have been up to some shady business with Adams’ ex-chief of staff Frank Carone. Diocese officials said “It would be inappropriate to comment further on that review, which is still ongoing,” when asked about the investigation. Now, the Post implies that Carpenter’s MV helped twig officials to Giantiello’s potentially criminal doings, but let’s be clear: she’s not named in any subpoenas. Still, Carpenter is cool with the mythmaking taking place. At her latest show at Madison Square Garden, she asked the audience “Should we talk about how I got the mayor indicted?” If only she was still doing “Nonsense” outros, this one would be killer.
Credit: Office of U.S. House Speaker, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Christian Wade (The Center Square)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations stemming from an investigation spanning nearly a decade.
The indictment, unsealed on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams’ office, includes five charges: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals; wire fraud; solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national; solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national and bribery.
Williams said prosecutors allege in the indictment that Adams sought and accepted more than $10 million in illegal ‘straw’ contributions for his 2021 mayoral bid that were traced to Turkey.
“Mayor Adams took these contributions even though he knew they were illegal, even though he knew these contributions were an attempt by a Turkish government official and Turkish businessman to buy influence with him,” Williams said at a press briefing on Thursday. “The mayor had a duty to disclose these gifts on his annual financial disclosure forms so that the public could see who is giving him what.”
Federal prosecutors also allege in the indictment that Adams “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits” since at least 2014, when he was then the Brooklyn borough president. They say Adams also benefited from more than $100,000 in gifts from the Turkish government, including free travel to Turkey, meals and hotel rooms, and created “fake paper trails” to hide the gifts or make them appear as if he hadn’t paid for them.
In exchange, Adams, as mayor, pressured the New York Fire Department to open a new Turkish consular building in Manhattan despite not passing a fire safety inspection. Prosecutors said an FDNY official was threatened with being fired if he didn’t follow the mayor’s directive.
“As Adams’ prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that Adams would become New York City’s mayor,” prosecutors wrote in the 57-page indictment. “Adams agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”
The indictment, the first of a New York City mayor in its history, is a dramatic fall from grace for the mayor of America’s largest city who was once considered a rising star in the Democratic Party.
At a press conference earlier Thursday morning, Adams denied any wrongdoing and claimed federal investigators are demonizing him. He urged New Yorkers not to rush to judgment on his indictment.
“I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense,” Adams said at the briefing as hecklers shouted for him to resign. “Everyone who knows me knows that I follow the campaign rules and I follow the law.”
Adams, 64, was elected to lead the nation’s most populous city nearly three years ago, pledging to reduce crime and guide the city out of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the news of federal investigations surfaced last year after federal authorities searched the home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, and temporarily seized Adams’ electronic devices.
The swirl of probes has prompted the resignations of Ed Caban, Commissioner of the New York Police Department, and the city’s health commissioner and the city’s school chancellor, David Banks, whose brother, Deputy Mayor Phil Banks, and fiancée Sheena Wright, who serves as a deputy mayor as well were among City Hall officials to have devices seized as part of the investigations.
In recent weeks, calls have mounted for Adams to resign, including from New York Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and state Sen. John Liu, D-Queens.
If Adams resigned, New York City’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would take over as acting mayor. He would then schedule a special election for a new mayor, which could take place within 90 days.
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on federal charges, including bribery, conspiracy and campaign finance violations.
The newly unsealed indictment, which is more than 50 pages long, alleges the mayor accepted illegal campaign donations, including those from Turkish businessmen in exchange for political favors.
“Mayor Adams engaged in a long-running conspiracy in which he solicited and knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors and corporations,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams announced Thursday. “As we allege, Mayor Adams took these donations, even though he knew they were illegal, and even though he knew these contributions were attempts by a Turkish governmental official and Turkish businessmen to buy influence with him.”
Williams said Adams “sought and accepted” more than $100,000 in luxury travel benefits, including free international flights and “opulent hotel rooms.” Williams said the mayor did not disclose those gifts and even “created fake paper trails” in some instances.
“Year after year after year, he kept the public in the dark. He told the public he received no gifts, even though he was secretly being showered with them,” the U.S. attorney said.
The indictment claims Adams cultivated relationships with multiple Turkish businessmen in 2018 and continued to solicit donations from them as recently as last year for his reelection campaign.
“I want to be clear, these upgrades and freebies were not part of some frequent flyer or loyalty program available to the general public. As we allege, this was a multi-year scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise,” Williams said.
Adams faces the possibility of up to 45 years in prison if convicted on all counts. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, accepting a bribe carries a maximum of 10 years, and the other charges can carry up to five years each.
Williams had a message for others who may know something: Come forward before it’s too late. He said the investigation is ongoing.
“We are not surprised. We expected this. This is not surprising to us at all. The actions that have unfolded over the last 10 months — the leaks, the commentary, the demonizing — this did not surprise us that we reached this day,” Adams said. “I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments.”
“I’m not here to convict him criminally. I’m here to convict civilly, and say he is unfit to manage the dealings of New York City,” Newsome said.
“My day-to-day will not change. I will continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do,” Adams said. “And the 300,000-plus employees of our city government will continue to do their jobs, because this is what we do as New Yorkers.”
Adams is now the first sitting mayor in the city’s history to be indicted on federal charges. He called it an “unfortunate” and “painful” day, but said he looks forward to defending himself against the allegations, insisting, “Everyone that knows me knows I follow campaign rules and I follow the law.”
Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, joined Adams at his news conference. Hecklers continued as the mayor’s supporters spoke.
“I’ve known this young man for over 40 years. I come with heavy heart today, but my head is not unbowed. He’s going to have his day in court, and we’re going to stand by him,” she said.
Federal agents were seen outside the mayor’s home earlier Thursday morning, and his attorney said his phones were seized.
“We have known for some time that they would try to find a way to bring a case against Mayor Adams. Yesterday — more improper leaks. Today — they emailed us a summons (and created the spectacle of a bogus raid). And very soon they will no doubt hold an hour-long dog-and-pony show presser rather than appear in open court,” attorney Alex Spiro said in a statement. “Federal judges call them out all the time for spinning in front of the cameras and tainting jurors. But they keep doing it because they can’t help themselves. The spotlight is just too exciting. We will see them in court.”
“Let me be clear, I know I’ve done nothing wrong, and I am committed to continuing to fight on behalf of New Yorkers as your mayor. From here, my attorneys will take care of the case so I can take care of this city,” Adams wrote.
“You know, you can almost picture them trying to cobble this together, and try to tell a story so they can say ‘corruption, corruption’ at a press conference. They do that to tarnish him in your eyes. That’s why they’re doing this,” Spiro said.
He called the flight seat improvements and hotel rooms “upgrades,” and said airlines and hotels routinely do those sorts of things for VIPs.
“There’s no corruption. This is not a real case,” Spiro said.
What did Eric Adams allegedly do? Here’s what he’s accused of
“A straw donor contributes someone else’s money, hiding the money’s illegal source, such as a foreign businessman, a corporation or a wealthy New Yorker who has already contributed the maximum amount allowed,” Williams said Thursday.
Williams said the mayor’s campaign also received illegal donations from corporations, as well as others that exceeded the legal amount.
Prosecutors pointed out under a matching funds program, eligible small donors could give up to $250, but the candidate would receive up to $2,000 in matching funds — eight times the amount donated. Prosecutors say the matching funds program doled out up to nearly $13 million to qualifying candidates in the 2021 election cycle.
“These are bright red lines, and we allege that the mayor crossed them again and again for years,” said Williams. “That is the only reason we are here today.”
The indictment alleges the mayor went on to pressure the FDNY into green-lighting a new Turkish consulate building in 2021.
“There was significant time pressure, because the Turkish official desperately needed the building to be open in time for a visit from Turkey’s president. This building was important to the Turkish official, and it was important to Turkey,” said Williams. “But the FDNY’s fire safety professionals wouldn’t let the building open, because the building hadn’t passed an inspection. And not just that, some of the people of the FDNY thought the building had so many issues and defects that the building was not safe to occupy.
“So the Turkish official sent word to Adams that it was ‘his turn’ to support Turkey. As we allege, Adams delivered, and pressured the fire department to let the building open,” the U.S. attorney continued, adding FDNY officials were “convinced that they would lose their jobs if they didn’t back down.”
Federal agents first visited the home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs in November 2023.The mayor was headed to Washington, D.C. for a meeting on the migrant crisis but suddenly returned to New York when he learned of the raid.
Since news of the indictment broke, there have been mounting calls for Adams to step down. Many of the voices are coming from members of his own party, including those planning to run against him in next year’s Democratic primary.
“I was elected by the people of this city — over 700,000 strong — and this is a city that is extremely resilient. This is a city that we have gone through some difficult and hard times, and we’re going to continue to move forward as a city,” Adams said Thursday. “When you say, ‘Who is the point person that’s going to deal with business communities, who’s going to deal with the business of running this city?’ The point person is Eric Adams. I’m the mayor of the city of New York.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul does have the ability to remove Adams from office. CBS News New York political reporter Marcia Kramer says there will be pressure on the governor to do so. The governor addressed the issue in a statement on Thursday night.
“This is an extraordinarily difficult day for New York City. I have carefully reviewed the indictment released by the United States Department of Justice. This indictment is the latest in a disturbing pattern of events that has, understandably, contributed to a sense of unease among many New Yorkers,” Hochul said. “Our judicial system is based on the foundational principle that all of us are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Yet those of us who have chosen a career in elected office know that we’re held to a higher standard. Given the responsibilities we hold as public servants, that’s entirely appropriate.
“New Yorkers deserve to know that their municipal government is working effectively, ethically and in the best interests of the people — driving down crime, educating our kids and ensuring basic city services continue unabated. It’s now up to Mayor Adams to show the City that he is able to lead in that manner.
“My focus is on protecting the people of New York and ensuring stability in the City. While I review my options and obligations as the governor of New York, I expect the mayor to take the next few days to review the situation and find an appropriate path forward to ensure the people of New York City are being well-served by their leaders. We must give New Yorkers confidence that there is steady, responsible leadership at every level of government,” Hochul added.
If Adams were to resign or be removed by the governor, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would take over on an interim basis. He would have three days to call for a special election, which would have to be held within 80 days.
Renee Anderson is a digital producer at CBS New York, where she covers breaking news and other local stories. Before joining the team in 2016, Renee worked at WMUR-TV.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty Friday to federal bribery charges, firmly rejecting allegations that he accepted overseas travel, campaign cash and other perks from foreign interests seeking to harness his influence.
Adams, a former police captain, entered the plea in a packed courtroom that’s just a short walk from City Hall, which has been roiled in recent weeks by a cascade of investigations, searches and subpoenas. The first-term Democrat maintains he did nothing wrong and has vowed to stay in office, rebuffing growing calls for him to quit.
“I am not guilty, your honor,” Adams said, looking solemnly at the judge.
His appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker came a day after prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing him of taking $100,000 in flights and stays in opulent hotel suites from people tied to Turkey, and fueling his run for mayor with illegal donations that helped him qualify for more than $10 million in public campaign funds.
Adams was released on the condition that he not contact any witnesses or people described in the indictment. The mayor is allowed to speak with relatives and staff, but not about anything pertaining to the allegations.
Adams left the courtroom without commenting. He smiled at a court officer but ignored the rows of reporters he passed on his way out. Afterward, he stood silently outside the courthouse while his lawyer, Alex Spiro, railed against the charges to a crowd of cameras while onlookers shouted “Free Eric!” and “Lock him up!”
“This isn’t even a real case. This is the airline upgrade corruption case,” Spiro said. He told the judge would file a motion next week asking for the case to be dismissed.
Yet even as the mayor appeared in court, the investigation into his administration continued.
One of Adams’ closest City Hall advisers, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was met at the airport Friday by investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office and Manhattan district attorney’s office after she got off flight from Japan. The federal investigators served her with a subpoena. The local prosecutors took her phones and searched her house, according to her lawyer, Arthur Aidala. A TV news crew got footage of investigators carrying out boxes marked “documents” and “electronics.”
“She will cooperate fully with any and all investigations and Ms. Lewis is not the target of any case of which we are aware,” Aidala said.
Adams, 64, is due back in court Wednesday for a conference before U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho, who will preside over the case going forward.
In his 18-minute appearance Friday, Adams sat stoically with his hands folded in his lap as the magistrate judge read the charges aloud, her sturdy delivery underscoring the gravity of the case. He was at the courthouse for just under four hours.
The criminal case and tumult in Adams’ administration, including the sudden resignation of his police commissioner and retirement of his schools chancellor, have created a political crisis for the mayor.
Adams has so far weathered calls to resign, including from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, potential Democratic challengers in next June’s mayoral primary, and some Republicans. Top Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries have not called on Adams to quit, saying the legal process should be allowed to play out.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has the power to remove Adams from office, appeared to issue a warning to a mayor she has often portrayed as a close ally, saying in a statement that she was reviewing her “options and obligations” and expects “the mayor to take the next few days to review the situation and find an appropriate path forward to ensure the people of New York City are being well-served by their leaders.”
Adams, who soared to office as a law-and-order champion of the middle class, is charged with five counts: wire fraud, bribery, conspiracy and two counts of receiving campaign contributions from a foreign national. If convicted of the most serious charge, wire fraud, he faces up to 20 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
Among other things, Adams is accused of allowing a senior Turkish diplomat and others to shower him with luxury accommodations to places like France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary, Ghana and Turkey, including valuable business-class upgrades, high-end meals and even a trip to a Turkish bath. Most of the trips took place while Adams was Brooklyn borough president, before he ran for mayor.
Adams is also accused of conspiring to take campaign contributions from foreign sources banned from giving to U.S. campaigns and disguising the payments by routing them through straw donors.
In return, Adams allegedly did favors for his patrons, including helping ensure that Turkey’s newly built diplomatic tower in Manhattan wouldn’t be subject to a fire inspection that it was certain to fail.
Spiro, whose roster of past and present clients includes Elon Musk, Alec Baldwin and Jay-Z, said it was neither unusual nor improper for an elected official to accept some travel perks. The mayor has denied ever knowingly accepting an illegal campaign contribution and said any help he gave people navigating city bureaucracy was just part of his job.
Adams’ indictment is unlikely to be the last word on federal investigations involving city government.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams told reporters Thursday: “This investigation continues. We continue to dig, and we will hold more people accountable, and I encourage anyone with information to come forward and to do so before it is too late.”
Federal prosecutors are believed to be leading multiple, separate inquiries involving Adams and his senior aides and relatives of those aides. In early September, federal investigators seized devices from the police commissioner, schools chancellor, two deputy mayors and other trusted Adams confidants.
None of those other officials have been publicly accused of wrongdoing or charged with a crime.
The Lower Manhattan courthouse is less than two blocks from the one where former President Donald Trump was tried and convicted of falsifying business records. Adams’ arraignment was in the same courthouse where a jury found Trump civilly liable for sexually assaulting the writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996 and in the very same courtroom where hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arraigned last week on sex trafficking charges.
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Associated Press reporter Anthony Izaguirre in Albany contributed.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has never been shy about his globetrotting ways. But he’s not always said how he bankrolled years’ worth of overseas adventures.
Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Thursday saying the Democrat took trips to France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary, Ghana and Turkey that were partly or fully paid for by people looking to buy his influence in city government.
The gifts, prosecutors said, included free hotel rooms, seat upgrades worth thousands of dollars, expensive meals, entertainment — even a trip to a Turkish bath. All told, the perks were worth more than $100,000, prosecutors said.
The indictment also accuses Adams of conspiring to collect illegal donations to his campaigns, partly by funneling them through straw donors who hadn’t actually contributed the money.
Adams says he didn’t do anything wrong and has no plans to resign. His lawyer, Alex Spiro, criticized the charges as a jumble of innuendo meant to mislead the public and tarnish the mayor.
Here are highlights from the 57-page indictment:
Key allegations against Adams
Adams is accused of exploiting a yearslong relationship with people tied to Turkey, who funded his travel and fueled his run for mayor with donations that helped him qualify for more than $10 million in public campaign funds. People who are not U.S. citizens are banned by law from donating to U.S. political candidates.
Prosecutors say Adams returned the favor in September 2021 by ensuring that Turkey’s newly built diplomatic tower in Manhattan wouldn’t be subject to a fire inspection, which it was certain to fail.
At one point, a Turkish official praised Adams as a “true friend of Turkey,” according to the indictment. Adams allegedly responded: ”Yes even more a true friend of yours. You are my brother. I am hear (sic) to help.”
The indictment said Adams also agreed not to release a statement on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day that would reflect poorly on Turkey.
Adams is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery and receiving campaign contributions from a foreign national.
Who is named in the indictment?
Adams is the only person charged and the only person identified by name — but there are lots of other characters who factor prominently in the indictment.
There’s the “Turkish Official,” a senior official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment said to have arranged Adams’ travel perks and facilitated straw donations to his campaign; “The Promoter,” a Turkish entrepreneur who prosecutors say organized events to introduce Adams to Turkish businesspeople; and the “Airline Manager,” a New York City-based general manager for Turkish Airlines who booked Adams’ free and heavily discounted flights and business class upgrades.
There were also “Businessman-1,” the owner of a Turkish University who prosecutors say was considering a business venture in Brooklyn; the “Businesswoman,” who gave Adams free or steeply discounted stays in opulent suites at the St. Regis Istanbul, a luxury hotel she owned; plus “Businessman-2,” “Businessman-3,” “Businessman-4,” and “Businessman-5,” all of whom were accused of being involved in straw donations.
‘The Promoter’
Prosecutors said the person they identified as “The Promoter” concocted a plan — personally approved by Adams — to funnel up to $100,000 in banned campaign contributions to him through U.S. employees of a Turkish university, the indictment alleges.
At one point, an Adams staffer tried to discourage the idea, saying Adams likely wouldn’t be interested in “such games” because it “might cause a big stink later on,” according to the indictment. But prosecutors said Adams liked the idea and directed his staffer to pursue it.
“The Promoter” purportedly told associates that Adams was worth supporting because he could become president someday.
‘This is how things work in this country’
At one point, the indictment says, a construction company owner tried to recruit others in industry and the Turkish community to back Adams with campaign contributions and gifts, writing, in part, this “may feel like swimming against the current but unfortunately this is how things work in this country.”
What does Adams’ lawyer say?
Spiro told reports the conduct described in the indictment wasn’t illegal or didn’t involve the mayor.
The Turkish consulate was asking for “a courtesy,” not payback, when it wanted Adams’ help in skipping a fire inspection, Spiro said, adding: “New Yorkers do this all the time.” Adams said he’d see what he could do and, a few days later, ignored a follow up phone call from the consulate, Spiro asserted.
“There is no corruption. This is not a real case,” Spiro said.
Spiro said Adams sent emails telling his staff never to accept foreign donations.
As for the free flights and upgrades, Spiro said there’s nothing illegal or unusual about that.
“When you actually look at this — if you just take a second to step back and look at this — look at the flights they talk about, the travel, the expenses,” Spiro said. “The flight they talk about, that free flight was in 2017 — seven years ago, five years before he’s the mayor. There’s nothing illegal or improper about that.”
Adams’ flight upgrades put him in otherwise open seats, the defense attorney said, contending that such arrangements are a common practice in the airline industry.
“That’s what airlines do,” Spiro said. “They do it every day. They do it for VIPs. They do it for congresspeople. They’re empty seats that cost the airlines nothing.”
Alleged cover up
The indictment claims that Adams and co-conspirators took steps to cover their tracks, including making a false paper trail to make it appear as if he had fully paid for flights that were free or deeply discounted.
The indictment also accused the mayor and others of making it difficult for investigators.
FBI agents seized electronic devices from Adams last November as he left an event. According to the indictment, the mayor produced two phones but not the personal phone. Adams later turned over that phone in response to a subpoena, but it was locked and required a password.
Adams claimed to have forgotten it, the indictment said.
According to the indictment, an Adams staffer who met with FBI agents excused herself at one point, went to a bathroom and deleted the encrypted messaging app she had used to communicate with the mayor, the Turkish official, the Turkish airline contact and others.
The investigations and resignations swirling around New York City mayor Eric Adams have multiplied nearly nonstop for the past year. For that whole time, the disclaimer has been consistent whenever I asked his possible political challengers and their advisers about plans for challenging the mayor in a 2025 campaign: Only if Adams himself is indicted.
Well, that caveat crumbled this morning when Damian Williams, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, unsealed a five-count federal indictment against Adams. The charges include bribery, wire fraud, and conspiracy to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals. The allegations stem largely from his victorious 2021 run for City Hall, as prosecutors claim he received campaign donations and travel benefits from entities connected to the government of Turkey in exchange for, as mayor, pressuring New York City Fire Department officials to approve an occupancy permit for the new Turkish consulate building that had not passed a fire-safety inspection. If those charges prove true, they’re both very on-brand for Adams—combining his long-running love for international excursions and glitz with his background in law enforcement—and depressingly petty and stupid.
The city’s history of political corruption is long and tawdry, but this is a first: No sitting mayor has ever been formally accused of criminal acts. Adams insists that any charges are “entirely false.” In a short video released Wednesday night after The New York Timesbroke the news of the impending indictment, the mayor said he would “fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit.” He is a formidable fighter willing to work almost any angle in his defense. Adams has already invoked racism as a possible motivation for criticism of his administration; he has also alluded to the far-fetched idea of the federal investigations as being part of a Biden administration conspiracy to exact revenge for the mayor’s criticism of the president’s border policies.
Fending off the criminal charges will be tough for Adams, but the judicial process will be fairly slow. Faster-moving, more difficult, and well-underway is the political battle to hold onto his job. He’s already lost his police commissioner and schools chancellor to recent resignations; more top staff may now head for the exits. Rev. Al Sharpton, an Adams ally, has already delivered a worrisome signal, with the Timesreporting he has “expressed concern” that the mayor’s mess could become a drag on other Democrats this fall, including Kamala Harris.
Calls for Adams’s resignation are escalating, but, so far at least, they’re mostly from Adams’s already declared reelection opponents or his long-standing adversaries, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Working Families Party. Key players to watch are Governor Kathy Hochul, who has had a friendly relationship with Adams but who has often miscalculated the city’s political dynamics; Senator Chuck Schumer, whose relationship with Adams has been cordial if mostly distant (though Schumer’s reaction to the indictment was fairly ominous: “No one is above the law, including the mayor of New York City”); and House Democratic majority leader Hakeem Jeffries. Jeffries is plenty busy at the moment, marshaling campaign troops to try to win New York congressional races in November, but he and Adams, both from Brooklyn, have very different personalities and politicians, and they have clashed in the past.
The city charter stipulates that if a mayor leaves office early, they are replaced by the city’s public advocate. This means that Democrat Jumaane Williams would move into the top job temporarily, with a special election required to take place within roughly 90 days. That’s when the fun would really start, and it’s why the already declared and most plausible contenders have quickly shifted from saying, “Only if Adams himself is indicted” to “If Adams quits.” Some would be better off if Adams departs soon; some would prefer he stay in office but decline to run for reelection next year. Here’s who to watch and the calculations they are making right now:
The 2013 favorite
For a long time, Christine Quinn looked to be on track to become the city’s first female mayor. But she got caught in the progressive backlash to three terms of plutocrat Mayor Michael Bloomberg and lost to Bill de Blasio. Lately, Quinn has been doing good work by running a nonprofit called Win that provides shelter and services to homeless women and children. But 11 years is a very long time to be off the radar with city voters.
The 2021 near miss
Kathryn Garcia lost to Adams by just 7,197 votes, or less than 1%, in the 2021 Democratic primary, the decisive contest in New York mayoral elections. That narrow margin and the fact that Garcia’s technocratic image would seemingly be a welcome antidote to all the Adams drama makes her a logical candidate. However, Garcia is said to be very happy in her current job as state director of operations in the Hochul administration and has no interest in running again now.
The existing 2025 field
Brad Lander has the strongest recent track record of winning actual city elections—three terms as a Brooklyn city councilman followed by, in 2021, a citywide contest to become comptroller. His campaign told The New York Times in July that it expected to have $3 million once anticipated matching funds were included; on the other hand, Lander may be too far left for some voters, and his attempts to be nuanced regarding Israel and Gaza may please no one. Zellnor Myrie is young (37) and energetic; he’s also little-known outside his Brooklyn state senate district. Jessica Ramos is young (39), charismatic, and somewhat better known outside her Queens state senate district. Scott Stringer, at 64, is the veteran: a former state assemblyman, borough president, and city comptroller. Stringer is making his second bid for mayor; the last one, in 2021, was derailed by a sexual misconduct allegation. (He has denied any wrongdoing.)
The possible interim mayor
Jumaane Williams is a left-wing activist turned politician. Williams, also from Brooklyn, spent two terms on the City Council before winning a 2019 special election to become a public advocate. Ninety days as interim mayor would give Williams a very large platform.
The dark horses
Jessica Tisch has held senior information technology jobs in the de Blasio administration; she’s currently Adams’s sanitation commissioner and is leading a major overhaul of how the city picks up garbage. She’s part of the Loews Corporation’s Tisch family, so she’d presumably have access to the necessary campaign money and be popular with the city’s business community. But Tisch is a virtual unknown with voters. Ritchie Torres, however, is very good at self-promotion. Currently a 36-year-old congressman representing a South Bronx district, Torres is an electric and sometimes polarizing presence. “He’s ambitious, Latino, and gay, and real estate and Jewish donors love him,” a Democratic operative tells me.
The lurking disgraced governor
Last November, shortly after FBI agents suddenly confronted Adams and seized his electronic devices, allies of Andrew Cuomo were already gaming out the advantages of a special election, telling me how the compressed campaign schedule would accentuate Cuomo’s strengths: nearly $8 million in campaign cash and much greater name recognition than his putative rivals. Those edges are still valid, and Cuomo has since made multiple speeches in Black churches around the city, keeping himself in front of a crucial voting group, especially in what would likely be a low-turnout contest.
Yet some recent reasons for Cuomo’s high name recognition aren’t helpful. In 2021, he quit as governor under a barrage of sexual harassment allegations (all of which he continues to deny). And just two weeks ago, Cuomo testified before a congressional committee investigating his handling of the COVID pandemic; his administration was criticized for concealing the actual number of deaths in nursing homes (Cuomo disputes this interpretation). If he runs for mayor, though, Cuomo would be the favorite. Probably. “I don’t know,” a former ally of the governor says. “The city has really changed. Are all those ethnic white voters who loved Mario and Andrew still around? And would Black voters go for him against a Black candidate?”
The disgraced governor’s mortal enemy
Which brings us to Tish James. She has previously talked of mayor being the job she dreamed of someday holding. James planned to run in 2021. But in 2018, scandal forced Eric Schneiderman out as state attorney general, so James ran—with the crucial backing of Cuomo—and won, which helped pave the way for Adams, her fellow Brooklynite, in the subsequent mayoral race. Relations between James and Cuomo have changed, to say the least. He blames her for using the sexual harassment allegations to railroad him out of Albany to stage her own gubernatorial bid (a motivation she dismisses, though James did run briefly in 2021 before ceding the race to Hochul). A showdown between James and Cuomo for City Hall would be irresistible theater. But it’s still hard to see James giving up her AG perch. If Adams quits and Cuomo gets in, however, James will come under considerable pressure to make a bid. “I think,” one of the city’s best-connected political players says, “she is the only one who can beat Andrew.”
The first signs of trouble for Adams came on November 2, 2023, with an ominous round of raids targeting people close to City Hall. While he was traveling to Washington, D.C., for a White House meeting with mayors about the migrant crisis, FBI agents were executing search warrants at the homes of three Adams associates, including his chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, for dealings involving the Turkish government.
In New Jersey, agents took cell phones and other materials from the homes of Rana Abbasova, director of protocol in the Mayor’s Office for International Affairs, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on the mayor-elect’s transition committee. Agents left Suggs’s home in Crown Heights with three iPhones, two laptops, and a manila folder labeled “Eric Adams,” the New York Timesreported.
Alerted to the Suggs raid by a staff member, Adams turned around after landing in D.C. and boarded a flight back to New York. He told reporters the following week that he had skipped the migrant summit out of concern for 25-year-old Suggs. On the following Monday, FBI agents approached Adams as he left an event at New York University and confiscated two cell phones and an iPad that were in his possession.
“As a former member of law enforcement, I expect all members of my staff to follow the law … I have nothing to hide,” the mayor said afterward, a refrain he used repeatedly, with variations, as the Turkey probe advanced and other investigations materialized.
Another sweep came on September 4. Federal agents conducted early-morning raids at the homes of senior city officials including NYPD commissioner Edward Caban; Deputy Mayor for public safety Philip Banks III; his brother, schools chancellor David Banks; first deputy mayor Sheena Wright, David Banks’s fiancée; and a top mayoral adviser, Timothy Pearson. Caban’s identical twin brother, James, and a younger Banks sibling, Terence, also had phones confiscated.
The coordinated raids came in support of two investigations unrelated to Turkey but run primarily out of the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office. One probe is looking into a consulting firm run by Terence Banks, whose fortunes rose when his older brothers joined the Adams administration, and the other is focused on whether James Caban had used his family ties to the police commissioner to gain work for his security business, according to news reports.
Edward Caban resigned ten days after the raid. His brother and the Banks siblings have all denied wrongdoing. David Banks later resigned as schools chancellor.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a grand jury on federal criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the matter.Related video above: NYC Schools chancellor to retire after home raidThe indictment detailing the charges against Adams, a Democrat, was still sealed late Wednesday, according to the people, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. The indictment was first reported by The New York Times.“I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement that implied he hadn’t been informed of the indictment. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”In a speech recorded at his official residence, Adams acknowledged that some New Yorkers would question his ability to manage the city while he fights the charges, but he vowed to stay in office.“I have been facing these lies for months … yet the city has continued to improve,” Adams said. “Make no mistake. You elected me to lead this city and lead it I will.”It was not immediately clear when the charges would be made public or when Adams might have to appear in court.The indictment marks a stunning fall for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime.For much of the last year, Adams has faced growing legal peril, with multiple federal investigations into top advisers producing a drumbeat of subpoenas, searches and high-level departures that has thrust City Hall into crisis.He had repeatedly said he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing, dismissing speculation that he would face charges as “rumors and innuendo.”“The people of this city elected me to fight for them, and I will stay and fight no matter what,” Adams said.Adams is the first mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office. If he were to resign, he would be replaced by the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who would then schedule a special election.Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams from office. Hochul’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday night.Hours before the charges were announced, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on Adams to resign, the first nationally prominent Democrat to do so. She cited the federal criminal investigations into the mayor’s administration and a string of unexpected departures of top city officials.“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on the social platform X.Adams reacted with scorn, dismissing Ocasio-Cortez as self-righteous.The federal investigations into his administration first emerged publicly on Nov. 2, 2023, when FBI agents conducted an early morning raid on the Brooklyn home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.At the time, Adams insisted he followed the law and said he would be “shocked” if anyone on his campaign had acted illegally. “I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team we’ve got to follow the law,” he told reporters at the time.Days later, FBI agents seized the mayor’s phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. The interaction was disclosed several days later by the mayor’s attorney.Then on Sept. 4, federal investigators seized electronic devices from the city’s police commissioner, schools chancellor, deputy mayor of public safety, first deputy mayor and other trusted confidantes of Adams both in and out of City Hall.Federal prosecutors declined to discuss the investigations but people familiar with elements of the cases described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling of the police and fire departments.A week after the searches, Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced his resignation, telling officers that he didn’t want the investigations “to create a distraction.” About two weeks later, Schools Chancellor David Banks announced that he would retire at the end of the year.Adams himself insisted he would keep doing the city’s business and allow the investigations to run their course.Over the summer, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Adams, his campaign arm and City Hall, requesting information about the mayor’s schedule, his overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government.Adams spent 22 years in New York City’s police department before going into politics, first as a state senator and then as Brooklyn borough president, a largely ceremonial position.He was elected mayor in 2021, defeating a diverse field of Democrats in the primary and then easily beating Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, in the general election.After more than two years in office, Adams’ popularity has declined. While the city has seen an increase in jobs and a drop in certain categories of crime, the administration has been preoccupied with efforts to find housing for tens of thousands of international migrants who overwhelmed the city’s homeless shelters.There has also been a steady drip of accusations and a swirl of suspicion around people close to the mayor.The Manhattan District Attorney brought charges against six people – including a former police captain long close with Adams – over an alleged scheme to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the mayor’s campaign by manipulating the public matching funds programs in the hopes of receiving preferential treatment from the city. Adams was not accused of wrongdoing in that case.Adams’ former top building-safety official, Eric Ulrich, was charged last year with accepting $150,000 in bribes and improper gifts in exchange for political favors, including providing access to the mayor. Ulrich pleaded not guilty and is fighting the charges.In February, federal investigators searched two properties owned by one of Adams’ close aides, Winnie Greco, who had raised thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the city’s Chinese American communities and later became his director of Asian affairs. Greco hasn’t commented publicly on the FBI searches of her properties and continues to work for the city.When agents seized electronic devices from Caban, the former police commissioner, in early September, they also visited his twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who runs a nightlife consulting business.Agents also took devices from the schools chancellor; his brother Philip Banks, formerly a top NYPD chief who is now deputy mayor for public safety; their brother Terence Banks, who ran a consulting firm that promised to connect businesses to government stakeholders; and from First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who is David Banks’ domestic partner.All denied any wrongdoing.While those investigations swirled, federal authorities also searched the homes of newly named interim police commissioner, Thomas Donlan, and seized materials unrelated to his police work. Donlon confirmed the search and said it involved materials that had been in his possession for 20 years. He did not address what the investigation was about, but a person familiar with the investigation said it had to do with classified documents dating from the years when Donlon worked for the FBI. The person spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about that investigation.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a grand jury on federal criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Related video above: NYC Schools chancellor to retire after home raid
The indictment detailing the charges against Adams, a Democrat, was still sealed late Wednesday, according to the people, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment. The indictment was first reported by The New York Times.
“I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement that implied he hadn’t been informed of the indictment. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
In a speech recorded at his official residence, Adams acknowledged that some New Yorkers would question his ability to manage the city while he fights the charges, but he vowed to stay in office.
“I have been facing these lies for months … yet the city has continued to improve,” Adams said. “Make no mistake. You elected me to lead this city and lead it I will.”
It was not immediately clear when the charges would be made public or when Adams might have to appear in court.
The indictment marks a stunning fall for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime.
For much of the last year, Adams has faced growing legal peril, with multiple federal investigations into top advisers producing a drumbeat of subpoenas, searches and high-level departures that has thrust City Hall into crisis.
He had repeatedly said he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing, dismissing speculation that he would face charges as “rumors and innuendo.”
“The people of this city elected me to fight for them, and I will stay and fight no matter what,” Adams said.
Adams is the first mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office. If he were to resign, he would be replaced by the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who would then schedule a special election.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams from office. Hochul’s office did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday night.
Hours before the charges were announced, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on Adams to resign, the first nationally prominent Democrat to do so. She cited the federal criminal investigations into the mayor’s administration and a string of unexpected departures of top city officials.
“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on the social platform X.
Adams reacted with scorn, dismissing Ocasio-Cortez as self-righteous.
The federal investigations into his administration first emerged publicly on Nov. 2, 2023, when FBI agents conducted an early morning raid on the Brooklyn home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.
At the time, Adams insisted he followed the law and said he would be “shocked” if anyone on his campaign had acted illegally. “I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team we’ve got to follow the law,” he told reporters at the time.
Days later, FBI agents seized the mayor’s phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. The interaction was disclosed several days later by the mayor’s attorney.
Then on Sept. 4, federal investigators seized electronic devices from the city’s police commissioner, schools chancellor, deputy mayor of public safety, first deputy mayor and other trusted confidantes of Adams both in and out of City Hall.
Federal prosecutors declined to discuss the investigations but people familiar with elements of the cases described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling of the police and fire departments.
A week after the searches, Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced his resignation, telling officers that he didn’t want the investigations “to create a distraction.” About two weeks later, Schools Chancellor David Banks announced that he would retire at the end of the year.
Adams himself insisted he would keep doing the city’s business and allow the investigations to run their course.
Over the summer, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Adams, his campaign arm and City Hall, requesting information about the mayor’s schedule, his overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government.
Adams spent 22 years in New York City’s police department before going into politics, first as a state senator and then as Brooklyn borough president, a largely ceremonial position.
He was elected mayor in 2021, defeating a diverse field of Democrats in the primary and then easily beating Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, in the general election.
After more than two years in office, Adams’ popularity has declined. While the city has seen an increase in jobs and a drop in certain categories of crime, the administration has been preoccupied with efforts to find housing for tens of thousands of international migrants who overwhelmed the city’s homeless shelters.
There has also been a steady drip of accusations and a swirl of suspicion around people close to the mayor.
The Manhattan District Attorney brought charges against six people – including a former police captain long close with Adams – over an alleged scheme to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the mayor’s campaign by manipulating the public matching funds programs in the hopes of receiving preferential treatment from the city. Adams was not accused of wrongdoing in that case.
Adams’ former top building-safety official, Eric Ulrich, was charged last year with accepting $150,000 in bribes and improper gifts in exchange for political favors, including providing access to the mayor. Ulrich pleaded not guilty and is fighting the charges.
In February, federal investigators searched two properties owned by one of Adams’ close aides, Winnie Greco, who had raised thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the city’s Chinese American communities and later became his director of Asian affairs. Greco hasn’t commented publicly on the FBI searches of her properties and continues to work for the city.
When agents seized electronic devices from Caban, the former police commissioner, in early September, they also visited his twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who runs a nightlife consulting business.
Agents also took devices from the schools chancellor; his brother Philip Banks, formerly a top NYPD chief who is now deputy mayor for public safety; their brother Terence Banks, who ran a consulting firm that promised to connect businesses to government stakeholders; and from First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who is David Banks’ domestic partner.
All denied any wrongdoing.
While those investigations swirled, federal authorities also searched the homes of newly named interim police commissioner, Thomas Donlan, and seized materials unrelated to his police work. Donlon confirmed the search and said it involved materials that had been in his possession for 20 years. He did not address what the investigation was about, but a person familiar with the investigation said it had to do with classified documents dating from the years when Donlon worked for the FBI. The person spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about that investigation.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a federal grand jury on criminal charges that are still sealed, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The charges against Adams, a Democrat, were still sealed late Wednesday, according to the people, who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The indictment was first reported by The New York Times. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.
“I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
The indictment marks a stunning fall for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime.
For much of the last year, Adams has faced growing legal peril, with multiple federal investigations into top advisers producing a drumbeat of subpoenas, searches and high-level departures that has thrust City Hall into crisis.
He had repeatedly said he wasn’t aware of any wrongdoing, dismissing speculation that he would face charges as “rumors and innuendo,” and vowing as recently as Wednesday afternoon to stay in office.
“The people of this city elected me to fight for them, and I will stay and fight no matter what,” Adams said.
The federal investigations into his administration first emerged publicly on Nov. 2, 2023, when FBI agents conducted an early morning raid on the Brooklyn home of Adams’ chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.
At the time, Adams insisted he followed the law and said he would be “shocked” if anyone on his campaign had acted illegally. “I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team we’ve got to follow the law,” he told reporters at the time.
Days later, FBI agents seized the mayor’s phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. The interaction was disclosed several days later by the mayor’s attorney.
Then on Sept. 4, federal investigators seized electronic devices from the city’s police commissioner, schools chancellor, deputy mayor of public safety, first deputy mayor and other trusted confidantes of Adams both in and out of City Hall.
Federal prosecutors declined to discuss the investigations but people familiar with elements of the cases described multiple, separate inquiries involving senior Adams aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling of the police and fire departments.
A week after the searches, Police Commissioner Edward Caban announced his resignation, telling officers that he didn’t want the investigations “to create a distraction.” About two weeks later, Schools Chancellor David Banks announced that he would retire at the end of the year.
Adams himself insisted he would keep doing the city’s business and allow the investigations to run their course.
Over the summer, federal prosecutors subpoenaed Adams, his campaign arm and City Hall, requesting information about the mayor’s schedule, his overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government.
Adams spent 22 years in New York City’s police department before going into politics, first as a state senator and then as Brooklyn borough president, a largely ceremonial position.
He was elected mayor in 2021, defeating a diverse field of Democrats in the primary and then easily beating Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a Republican, in the general election.
After more than two years in office, Adams’ popularity has declined. While the city has seen an increase in jobs and a drop in certain categories of crime, the administration has been preoccupied with efforts to find housing for tens of thousands of international migrants who overwhelmed the city’s homeless shelters.
There has also been a steady drip of accusations and a swirl of suspicion around people close to the mayor.
The Manhattan District Attorney brought charges against six people – including a former police captain long close with Adams – over an alleged scheme to funnel tens of thousands of dollars to the mayor’s campaign by manipulating the public matching funds programs in the hopes of receiving preferential treatment from the city. Adams was not accused of wrongdoing in that case.
Adams’ former top building-safety official, Eric Ulrich, was charged last year with accepting $150,000 in bribes and improper gifts in exchange for political favors, including providing access to the mayor. Ulrich pleaded not guilty and is fighting the charges.
In February, federal investigators searched two properties owned by one of Adams’ close aides, Winnie Greco, who had raised thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the city’s Chinese American communities and later became his director of Asian affairs. Greco hasn’t commented publicly on the FBI searches of her properties and continues to work for the city.
When agents seized electronic devices from Caban, the former police commissioner, in early September, they also visited his twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who runs a nightlife consulting business.
Agents also took devices from the schools chancellor; his brother Philip Banks, formerly a top NYPD chief who is now deputy mayor for public safety; their brother Terence Banks, who ran a consulting firm that promised to connect businesses to government stakeholders; and from First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, who is David Banks’ domestic partner.
All denied any wrongdoing.
While those investigations swirled, federal authorities also searched the homes of newly named interim police commissioner, Thomas Donlan, and seized materials unrelated to his police work. Donlon confirmed the search and said it involved materials that had been in his possession for 20 years. He did not address what the investigation was about, but a person familiar with the investigation said it had to do with classified documents dating from the years when Donlon worked for the FBI. The person spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly about that investigation.
NEW YORK (AP) — Ahead of the 2022 school year, the education technology company 21stCentEd was seeking to expand its presence in New York City’s public schools. So they turned to a man, Terence Banks, whose new consulting firm promised to connect clients with top government stakeholders.
Banks wasn’t a registered lobbyist. His day job, at the time, was as a supervisor in the city’s subway system. But he had at least one platinum connection: His older brother, David Banks, is New York City’s schools chancellor, overseeing the nation’s largest school system.
Within a month of the hire, 21stCentEd had secured a private meeting with the schools chancellor. In the two years since that October 2022 meeting, more than $1.4 million in Education Department funds have flowed to the company, nearly tripling its previous total, records show.
The siblings — along with a third brother, Philip Banks, who serves as New York City’s deputy mayor of public safety — are now enmeshed in a sprawling federal probe that has touched several high-ranking members of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
Federal investigators seized phones last week from all three brothers and at least three other top city officials, including Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned Thursday. Tom Donlon, a retired FBI official, was sworn in Friday as the interim police commissioner.
The exact nature of the investigation — or investigations — has not been disclosed. Among other things, federal authorities are investigating the former police commissioner’s twin brother, James Caban, a former police sergeant who runs a nightclub security business.
On Wednesday, a city operations coordinator was fired after a bar owner in Brooklyn told NBC New York that he had been pressured by the aide into hiring the police commissioner’s brother to make noise complaints against his business go away.
Federal investigators are also scrutinizing whether Terence Banks’ consulting firm, the Pearl Alliance, broke the law by leveraging his family connections to help private companies secure city contracts, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information about the investigations.
All three Banks brothers have denied wrongdoing. David and Terence Banks have said they don’t believe they are the target of the investigation. But government watchdogs say the family’s overlapping work in the private and public sector may have run afoul of conflict of interest guardrails as well as city and state laws on procurement lobbying.
“It has the appearance of Terence Banks using his family connections to help his client and enrich himself,” said Susan Lerner, the executive director of Common Cause New York, a good-government group.
Timothy Sini, an attorney for Terence Banks, did not respond to specific questions about the consulting firm. But he wrote in an email, “We have been assured by the Government that Mr. Banks is not a target of this investigation.”
Speaking at a news conference Friday, David Banks said FBI agents had not returned his phone, and he declined to answer questions about his relationship to his brother’s consulting firm. “We are cooperating with a federal investigation,” he said.
City ethics rules ban relatives from lobbying each other. At minimum, David Banks would be required to secure a waiver from the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board before meeting with a company represented by his brother, according to John Kaehny, the executive director of the good-government group Reinvent Albany.
“It’s surprisingly arrogant or obtuse that David Banks, one of the city’s top government officials, would ignore this basic, commonsense, conflict of interest rule,” Kaehny said in an email.
Neither the Department of Education nor the Conflicts of Interest Board would say whether a waiver was requested.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education, Nathaniel Styer, said all spending linked to 21stCentEd had come from individual schools and districts, which can make purchases of less than $25,000 without the agency’s approval.
The Utah-based company trains teachers and provides curriculums focused on artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation.
Dylan Howard, a spokesperson for the company, said Terence Banks was hired “to help 21stCentEd present our STEM solutions and services to decision makers within New York City public schools.” He said they learned of his consulting firm through a 21stCentEd employee who has since left the company.
The spokesperson could not say how the meeting with the school’s chancellor came about or whether Terence Banks attended. He added that Terence Banks had provided “no value” to the company and that his contract was terminated last December.
21stCentEd was one of several companies with city contracts that hired Terence Banks’ consulting firm, according to a website for the Pearl Alliance that was taken down after news of the federal investigations emerged last week.
Another listed client, SaferWatch, sells panic buttons to schools and police departments. Since August of 2023, it has been awarded more than $67,000 in city contracts, according to city records.
The third Banks brother, Philip Banks, maintains wide influence over the NYPD as deputy mayor for public safety. A spokesperson for SaferWatch, Hank Sheinkopf, declined to comment. The NYPD did not respond to email inquiries.
In total, the Pearl Alliance listed nine clients with millions of dollars in city contracts, including a software business, a grocery delivery start-up, and a company that specializes in concrete. At least seven of the companies have past or current contracts with the city.
It wasn’t clear whether the federal inquiry into the consulting firm run by Terence Banks was part of the investigation into the police commissioner’s brother.
Ray Martin, the city official who was said to have pressured a bar owner to hire James Caban, was “terminated for cause” Thursday after the mayor’s office learned of the allegations, according to Fabien Levy, the deputy mayor for communications.
The bar owner, Shamel Kelly, told WNBC-TV that Martin gave him what felt like an ultimatum last year to either pay James Caban or risk having his business shut down. Kelly said James Caban demanded an upfront fee of $2,500. He said he had been interviewed Thursday by federal investigators and the city’s Department of Investigation. The U.S. attorney’s office and the Department of Investigation declined comment.
Attempts to reach Martin were not immediately successful. A cellphone number listed in his name was no longer working.
A lawyer for James Caban said he “unequivocally denies any wrongdoing” and has cooperated fully with law enforcement. Once the investigation is complete, lawyer Sean Hecker said, “it will be clear that these claims are unfounded and lack merit.”
Both David and Philip Banks remain in their government positions. An attorney for Philip Banks, Benjamin Brafman, declined to comment.
At a press briefing Tuesday, Adams noted his relationship with the Banks family dates back decades, to when he served in the police department under the brothers’ father. He said he never met with Terence Banks about city business.
“I’ve known the Banks families for years,” Adams said. “And my knowing someone, I hold them to the same standard that I hold myself to.”
“I am deeply grateful to Mayor Adams for giving me the opportunity to serve the city, and I strongly support the work he has done and continues to do for New Yorkers,” Zornberg said in a statement.
“We appreciate all the work Lisa has done for our administration and, more importantly, the city over the past 13 months,” Adams said. “These are hard jobs and we don’t expect anyone to stay in them forever. We wish Lisa all the best in her future endeavors. The other senior members of the counsel’s team will remain in their roles to ensure the office continues to fully operate without issue, and we expect to name an acting chief counsel in the coming days.”
No further detail about the sudden weekend announcement was given.
Zornberg worked on behalf of the city and was not Adams’ personal attorney, but did function as counsel to the mayor offering legal and strategic advice to city hall.
She has been present at the mayor’s weekly press briefings and has fielded questions about several ongoing federal investigations.
At the time, Zornberg released a statement saying “investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation. As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”
Adams has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he is cooperating with the investigations.
Edward Caban announced his resignation as New York City police commissioner Thursday, less than a week after federal agents raided his home and the homes of other top aides to New York City Mayor Eric Adams. CBS News New York’s Marcia Kramer has more.
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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing mounting questions over his ability to govern after federal investigators seized phones from multiple officials in his administration, compounding scrutiny of a Democrat who was already ensnared in an apparently separate criminal probe.
Federal agents on Wednesday took devices from Adams’ police commissioner, his schools chancellor, two deputy mayors and several other advisers.
None of the officials involved have been charged with a crime, but the wave of searches added to a cloud of suspicion around Adams, a former city police captain who has fashioned himself as a champion of law and order.
They’ve also raised questions internally about the administration’s ability to stay focused on serving the nation’s largest city.
In a private call Friday with senior staff, the city’s Emergency Management Commissioner, Zach Iscol, offered a blunt assessment of the impact of the investigations on public safety.
“This is not good,” he said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Associated Press. “There’s a lot going on in the city and the thing that I’m most concerned about is city leadership being distracted.“
The agency, which is responsible for the city’s emergency procedures, falls under the portfolio of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks, whose home was visited by law enforcement Wednesday. Iscol said on the call that he had not spoken to City Hall leadership as of Friday morning.
The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment and it was not immediately clear whether federal authorities were seeking information linked to one investigation or several.
In addition to Banks, federal agents on Wednesday seized devices from Police Commissioner Edward Caban; First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Banks’ brother, David Banks, the city’s schools chancellor; and Timothy Pearson, a top mayoral adviser and former high-ranking New York Police Department official.
The seizures came nearly a year after federal agents seized Adams’ phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. Investigators also searched the homes of a top Adams campaign fundraiser and a member of his administration’s international affairs office.
In February, federal authorities searched two properties belonging to his director of Asian affairs as part of a separate investigation overseen by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
Then earlier this summer, Adams, his campaign and City Hall all received subpoenas from federal prosecutors requesting information about the mayor’s overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government.
The most recent round of searches appear to be unrelated to the Turkey inquiry and the investigation by Brooklyn federal prosecutors, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information about the investigations.
“There is a stench of corruption around the mayor,” said Douglas Muzzio, a retired political science professor at Baruch College with deep knowledge of New York politics. “You’ve got to believe that at some point, the feeling that the government is not working is going to start pervading the public consciousness.”
Federal investigators appear to have been interested in Adams’ inner circle as far back as this winter. John Scola, an attorney representing four city employees who have accused Pearson of sexual harassment, said three of his clients received visits in February from FBI agents, who wanted to know about Pearson and his work with City Hall.
Pearson previously worked alongside Phil Banks before he was assigned to lead a new mayoral unit tasked with overseeing city agencies.
Those who worked with Pearson said he had an unusual suite of responsibilities that gave him wide latitude over police promotions, pandemic recovery efforts and certain homeless shelters for migrants. He is currently facing a separate city investigation for his role in a brawl at one of those shelters.
Throughout the various FBI activities, Adams has forcefully maintained that he has followed the law and that he would continue to focus on his duties as mayor.
Asked repeatedly at news conferences about the investigations, Adams has said his mantra is to “stay focused, no distractions and grind.”
Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the mayor, said nothing would hamper the administration’s ability to govern.
“For the better part of a year, the mayor has been absolutely clear that, as a former member of law enforcement, he will always follow the law, and in the same time he has stayed focused on delivering for the people of the city,” Levy said in a statement Friday, pointing to recent drops in crime and increases in job numbers and other city initiatives.
Since the Wednesday morning searches, the mayor has personally visited a tunnel emergency, held a public event about the first day of school, and met with residents concerned about e-bikes. On Friday, he held his regularly scheduled senior staff call at 8 a.m., then met with the mayor of Lisbon, Levy said.
In a statement, Schools Chancellor David Banks said: “I remain focused on ensuring they have safe, academically rigorous, and a joyful school year. I am confirming that I am cooperating with a federal inquiry. At this time, I cannot comment any further on that matter.”
Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for Philip Banks, confirmed that a search was conducted, but otherwise declined to comment. The NYPD’s media relations office also confirmed a federal investigation involving members of the department, but declined to make Caban available for comment. A phone message left for Pearson’s attorney was not returned.
But news of the latest investigations has provided Adams’ foes with fresh and potent lines of attack ahead of what is expected to be a heavily contested primary election season for the Democratic mayor.
Brad Lander, a Democrat who serves as the city’s comptroller and is one of a handful of challengers to Adams in next year’s primary, said the fact that investigations are swirling around much of the mayor’s top staff could create “a level of both distraction and anxiety about trustworthiness and consequences for all New Yorkers.”
“New Yorkers want to know their leaders are focused on their problems and not their own problems, and the staff of agencies also need focused leadership helping them confront the challenges New Yorkers have,” Lander said.
Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller who is expected to run against Adams next year, said the investigations are becoming a serious impediment to the day-to-day process of governing.
“We New Yorkers are not stupid,” he said. “We know that this government is paralyzed by the investigation. I think the mayor needs to step up and tell New Yorkers, in a real way, everything he knows about what’s going on.”
NEW YORK (WABC) — The FBI conducted searches at the homes of two of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ closest aides, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News, and subpoenaed the cellphones of at least seven people in the NYPD.
The Hamilton Heights home of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and the Hollis, Queens home of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks were searched as part of an ongoing investigation, the sources said.
The searches began Wednesday morning but news broke of the raids on Thursday afternoon. It is likely they both occurred at dawn Wednesday.
The FBI seized evidence, including electronics from Wright, as part of the searches, according to sources.
Wright shares her Hamilton Heights home with her partner, Schools Chancellor David Banks, who is the brother of Phil Banks.
No charges have been filed and the investigation continues by the FBI and U.S. Attorneys Office in Lower Manhattan.
Wright and Banks are the highest-ranking Adams administration officials to have their homes searched by federal investigators.
In total, seven people in the NYPD received subpoenas for their phones, which they turned over, an official said.
At least four were NYPD executives, the rank of captains or above. At least three others in the NYPD also had their phones subpoenaed.
An NYPD spokesperson released the following statement:
“The Department is aware of an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York involving members of service. The Department is fully cooperating in the investigation. Any questions regarding the investigation should be directed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.”
“I think the most important thing that I must do is to send the right message to my team and all the employees in the city, we’re going to comply with whatever rules, and we’re going to follow the law, and we’re going to make sure that whatever information is needed, we’re going to turn over that information, and that is what we have been doing since the beginning,” Adams said.
Federal officials have previously executed search warrants at the homes of:
Rana Abbasova, the mayor’s international affairs aide
Winnie Greco, a special adviser to the mayor and director of Asian affairs
Adams reiterated that he is not aware of “any wrongdoings or misgivings” from anyone on his team and they will continue to cooperate.
“I wake up every morning with the same feeling, commit yourself to the city, and for the entire years of my life, I follow the rules and procedures,” Adams said. “And you know, I’m confident that everything is reviewed. We’re going to comply with whatever information that’s needed and to make sure that this has come to a completion.”
The mayor’s chief counsel Lisa Zornberg released a statement saying: “Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation. As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”
A source familiar with the matter said the searches do not appear to be related to the investigation into whether Adams accepted donations from Turkey in exchange for official favors.
The FBI declined to comment and a spokesman for the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Outdoor tables saved thousands of New York City restaurants from ruin when they were forced to close their dining rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But four years into an experiment that transformed New York’s streetscape — briefly giving it a sidewalk cafe scene as vibrant as Paris or Buenos Aires — the freewheeling era of outdoor dining has come to an end.
Over the weekend, restaurants hit a deadline to choose between abiding by a strict set of regulations for their alfresco setups or dismantling them entirely — and thousands chose to tear down the plywood dining structures that sprouted on roadways in the pandemic’s early days.
Fewer than 3,000 restaurants have applied for roadway or sidewalk seats under the new system, a fraction of the 13,000 establishments that participated in the temporary Open Restaurants program since 2020, according to city data.
Mayor Eric Adams said the new guidelines address complaints that the sheds had become magnets for rats and disorder, while creating a straightforward application process that will expand access to permanent outdoor dining.
But many restaurant owners say the rules will have the opposite effect, dooming a vestige of the pandemic that gave them unusual freedom to turn parking spaces into rent-free extensions of their dining rooms with minimal red-tape.
“They’ve found a middle ground to do one thing while saying another thing,” said Patrick Cournot, the co-founder of Ruffian, a Manhattan wine bar. “They’ve managed us out, essentially.”
Ramshackle plywood dining structures seemed to sprout from New York City’s streets almost overnight in the early days of the COVID pandemic.
With its crowded sidewalks and traffic-choked streets, the city had never really been known previously for an outdoor dining scene. But with customers banned from congregating indoors for months, the city gave restaurants a green light to expand dining areas onto public sidewalks and roadways.
Simple sheds for outdoor seating were soon replaced or expanded into more elaborate constructions, which have remained standing long after the days of social distancing and disinfected groceries. Restaurants added planters, twinkling lights, flowers and heating lamps so people could dine outdoors well into the cold weather. Other outside dining spaces appeared inside heated igloos, or with open fire places and under tiered rooftops.
Now, these structures must conform to uniform design standards, with licensing and square footage fees that could total thousands of dollars a year, depending on size and location.
But the most significant change, according to many restaurants, is a requirement that the roadside sheds be taken down between December and April each year.
That’s a deal-breaker for Blend, a Latin Fusion restaurant in Queens that once won an Alfresco Award for its “exemplary” outdoor set-up.
“I understand they want to keep it consistent and whatever else, but it’s just too much work to have to take it down every winter,” said manager Nicholas Hyde. “We’re not architects. We’re restaurant managers.”
Blend’s 60 outdoor seats “kept us alive” during the pandemic and remained well-used with diners who “since COVID just want to be able to enjoy themselves outside,” Hyde said. But after looking over the application, they decided to remove the curbside structure, opting instead to apply for sidewalk seating that can remain year-round.
Of the 2,592 restaurants that have applied for the new program, roughly half will forgo roadway set-ups in favor of sidewalk-only seating, according to the city.
Karen Jackson, a teacher, was going to lunch indoors Tuesday at Gee Whiz diner in Tribeca, one of the restaurants that took its outdoor shed down ahead of the deadline.
Jackson said she has mixed feelings, recalling how having coffee outside in a shed was one of the few entertainment options available early in the pandemic.
“Some of them were really cute,” but others were unattractive and rat-infested, Jackson said.
“Unfortunately I think the places with more money were able to build the cute sheds and the places that were struggling couldn’t,” she said.
Andrew Riggie, the executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, said the city should examine why so few eligible restaurants have applied, and consider how costly it will be to take down, store and rebuild the structures each year.
Applications for roadway dining structures must also undergo a review from local community boards, where some of the fiercest debates over outdoor dining have played out. Opponents have complained that the sheds eliminate parking, contribute to excessive noise and attract vermin.
On the Lower East Side, a row of sheds owned by a sushi counter, a coffee shop, a Mexican eatery and a Filipino restaurant stand side-by-side.
Paola Martinez, a manager at Barrio Chino, the Mexican restaurant, acknowledged the trash headaches and neighborhood conflict — on one particularly busy night, an angry neighbor hurled glass at the structure from an upstairs window, she said. But her restaurant has applied to stay in the roadway.
“It attracts a lot more people to the area,” she said. “It’s been great for business.”
City officials say restaurants who missed the deadline are welcome to apply in the future, while those that haven’t will soon be fined $1,000 each day their set-ups remain.
Watching contractors take a crowbar to his once-vibrant dining shed, Cournot described a sense of relief. He said the sheds had come to symbolize an incredibly challenging period when a coworker died from the virus and a drop in sales nearly ended his East Village wine bar.
“When people say it’s the end of an era, I think it’s the end of a uniquely awful era for restaurants in New York,” Cournet said. “Like going through any kind of extended group trauma, the positives that we feel collectively are a little bit of a mirage.”
New York is one of the signature cities in the world. The marijuana industry sees it as one of the top global markets. The state government had a strong plan to roll out recreational and changed in within a few weeks of launch. Chaos ensued and the issuing of licenses basically became a trickle. But is New York finally getting its marijuana act together?
The chaos allowed around 2,000 illicit dispensaries to open in the state, with around 2,500 in greater New York City. There were even unlicensed retailers within 3 blocks of NYC’s iconic City Hall. After trying to force landlords to shutter the stores and then begging social media companies to unplatform them, the government had to act. The state legislature passed new laws to crack down on the unsanctioned shops. Previously, the city’s power to step in had been limited and the legal market was bogged down in red tape.
The state is proud they have closed roughly 1,000 illicit stores in the state with over 750 NYC alone. Over 41,000 violations have been issued, totally $65,671,487 in penalties. The city estimates it has already seized a total value of $41,443,792 in products, whose fate remains unclear.
In an added complication, it seems part of the products sold came from the California black market. The closures could benefit the Golden State’s efforts to wrangle their mess. The Empire State has less than 200 retailers so this can be a huge boom for them. The illicit market was very profitable in NYC, with some estimates of $1.5 billion in sales in 2023.
Governor Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams celebrated the success of the crackdown on Wednesday.
“In the three months since launching ‘Operation Padlock to Protect,’ our administration has delivered major results on a major quality of life and public safety issue,” Adams said. “For too long, illegal shops have contributed to a feeling that anything goes on our streets.”
Is New York finally getting its marijuana act together, the industry is certainly hoping it is.
New York City’s mayor issued an emergency order Saturday suspending parts of a new law intended to ban solitary confinement in local jails a day before it was to take effect, citing concerns for the safety of staff and detainees.
Mayor Eric Adams declared a state of emergency and signed an order that suspended parts of the law that set a four-hour time limit on holding prisoners who pose safety concerns in “de-escalation confinement” and limit the use of restraints on prisoners while they are transported to courts or within jails.
The four-hour limit could only be exceeded only in “exceptional circumstances.” In those circumstances, prisoners would be released from de-escalation confinement “as soon as practicable” and when they no longer pose an imminent risk of serious injury to themselves or others, according to the mayor’s order.
Adams also suspended a part of the law that prohibited jail officials from placing a prisoner in longer-term “restrictive housing” for more than a total of 60 days in any 12-month period. His order says jail officials must review a prisoner’s placement in restrictive housing every 15 days.
“It is of the utmost importance to protect the health and safety of all persons in the custody of the Department of Correction and of all officers and persons who work in the City of New York jails and who transport persons in custody to court and other facilities, and the public,” Adams wrote in his state of emergency declaration.
City Council leaders did not immediately return messages seeking comment Saturday.
But council spokesperson Shirley Limongi issued a statement sharply criticizing Adams.
“Each day Mayor Adams’ Administration shows how little respect it has for the laws and democracy, it sets more hypocritical double standards for complying with the law that leave New Yorkers worse off. In this case, our city and everyone in its dysfunctional and dangerous jail system, including staff, are left less safe. The reality is that the law already included broad safety exemptions that make this ‘emergency order’ unnecessary and another example of Mayor Adams overusing executive orders without justification,” the statement said.
The bill had been introduced by New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who argued solitary confinement amounts to torture for those subjected to lengthy hours in isolation in small jail cells.
Williams and other supporters of the new law, including prominent members of New York’s congressional delegation, have pointed to research showing solitary confinement, even only for a few days, increases the likelihood an inmate will die by suicide, violence or overdose. It also leads to acute anxiety, depression, psychosis and other impairments that may reduce an inmate’s ability to reintegrate into society when they are released, they said.
Adams has insisted there has been no solitary confinement in jails since it was eliminated in 2019. He said solitary confinement is defined as “22 hours or more per day in a locked cell and without meaningful human contact.” He said de-escalation confinement and longer-term restrictive housing are needed to keep violent prisoners from harming other prisoners and staff.
Jail officials, the guards’ union and a federal monitor appointed to evaluate operations at city jails objected to parts of the new law, also citing safety concerns.
The law places a four-hour limit on isolating inmates who pose an immediate risk of violence to others or themselves in de-escalation units. Only those involved in violent incidents could be placed in longer-term restrictive housing, and they would need to be allowed out of their cells for 14 hours each day and get access to the same programming available to other inmates.
Adams’ state of emergency declaration will remain in effect for up to 30 days or until it is rescinded, whichever is earlier, with 30-day extensions possible. The order suspending parts of the new law will be in effect for five days unless terminated or modified earlier.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City is turning to AI-powered scanners in a new bid to keep guns out of its subway system, but the pilot program launched Friday is already being met with skepticism from riders and the threat of a lawsuit from civil liberties advocates who say the searches are unconstitutional.
The Evolv scanner — a sleek-looking weapons detector using artificial intelligence to search riders for guns and knives — was on display at a lower Manhattan subway station where Mayor Eric Adams announced the 30-day trial.
“This is good technology,” Adams said at Fulton Center near the World Trade Center.
“Would I rather that we don’t have to be scanned? Yes,” he added. “But if you would speak to the average subway rider, they would state that they don’t want guns on their subway system, and if it means using scanners, then bring the scanners on.”
Adams, a self-described “tech geek,” has stressed that the scanners are still in the experimental phase. The machines, already in use at baseball stadiums and other venues, will be deployed to a small number of stations and only a fraction of riders will be asked to step through them. The city has not entered into a contract with Evolv, and Adams said other companies were welcomed to pitch their own gun-detection innovations.
The scanners, about 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall, feature the logo of the city’s police department and a multicolor light display. When a weapon is detected, an alert is sent to a tablet monitored by a pair of NYPD officers. The system is not supposed to alert everyday items, such as phones and laptops — though a reporter’s iPad case set it off Friday.
The scanners drew immediate protest from civil liberties advocates. The New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society said they would sue the city if the technology is rolled out widely, alleging the searches violated the constitutional rights of riders.
“City officials have admitted that these scanners are primarily to combat some riders’ ‘perceptions’ that they are unsafe on the subway — this is not a justifiable basis to violate the Constitution,” said NYCLU attorney Daniel Lambright.
The scanners also spurred concerns from riders who said it isn’t practical or plausible to subject millions of commuters to security screenings.
“It’s not going to work,” said Dre Thomas, 25, shaking his head at the device. “It’d have to be at every point in the subway. I don’t see how that’s possible. It seems to me like another way to waste taxpayer money.”
Wyatt Hotis, 29, said he thought the scanners were a good idea but “not the root of the issue” when people getting pushed onto the tracks were a bigger safety concern. Hotis instead suggested adding guardrails and barriers to the platforms, along with more officers to patrol them.
Margaret Bortner, among the first riders to go through the scanner, described the 30-second process as painless — but didn’t see the need to have them at every station.
“There are more important things officers should be doing,” she said.
Though there have been high-profile incidents, like a 2022 shooting on a Brooklyn train that left 10 people wounded, crime in the New York City subway system has fallen in recent years. Overall, violent crime in the system is rare, with train cars and stations being generally as safe as any other public place.
So far this year, subway crime is down 8% through July 21 compared with the same period in 2023, according to police data. Last year, there were five killings in the subway, down from 10 the year prior, according to police.
Adams has long discussed the possibility of adding weapons detectors to the subway system. He suggested this week that “eventually, every turnstile is going to be able to identify if someone is carrying a gun,” but doing so could require the city to deploy thousands of police officers to respond to gun alerts.
Experts have also expressed doubts about the feasibility of adding the technology to the city’s sprawling subway system, which includes 472 stations with multiple ways in and out. Fulton Center, the subway hub where the mayor spoke, illustrates the challenges of deploying the detectors in a system designed to be as accessible as possible.
There are multiple entrances spread out over several blocks, with dozens of turnstiles used by as many as 300,000 riders a day. During rush hour, they are often sprinting to catch a train. Anyone who wanted to bring a gun in without passing through a scanner could simply walk to another entrance or a nearby station.
The CEO of Evolv, Peter George, has himself acknowledged that subways are “not a great use-case” for the scanners, according to the Daily News.
Evolv has said that its scanning system uses artificial intelligence to screen up to 3,600 people per hour, quickly detecting the “signatures” of guns, knives and explosives while not alerting cell phones and other metal devices.
The company has faced a spate of lawsuits in recent years, along with federal probes into its marketing practices. Evolv told investors last year that it was contacted by the Federal Trade Commission and in February said it had been contacted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as part of a “fact finding inquiry.”
Earlier this year, investors filed a class-action lawsuit, accusing company executives of overstating the devices’ capabilities and claiming that “Evolv does not reliably detect knives or guns.” The company has claimed that it is being targeted by a misinformation campaign by those “incentivized to discredit the company.”
New York City has experimented with a variety of security measures to ensure the protection of its vast subway system. In 2005, the NYPD ran a pilot project aimed at examining the feasibility of using explosive detection technology in the subways.
Then, the department began doing random searches of people’s bags as they entered the subway system. That effort was also rolled out with much fanfare, but such bag checks — while not completely abandoned — are rare today.
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Associated Press reporter Karen Matthews contributed to this report.
Mayor Adams and Rev. Al Sharpton called for unity and cooled-down political rhetoric following the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
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Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday pleaded for the nation to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric that he says led a gunman to make an attempt on the life of former President Donald Trump, grazing his ear but killing one rallygoer and critically injuring two others.
“What happens when a 20-year-old reaches a point where they believe the only way to settle their political differences and disputes is to use an AR-15 or AK-47 or any other form of handgun or weapon? That sends a terrible message,” Adams, a Democrat, said at a press conference at City Hall on Sunday with Joe Borelli, the top Republican leader in the City Council, and the Rev. Al Sharpton, among others. “Political violence is not how we settle how we peacefully transfer power in this country.”
The mayor called the attempted assassination, caught on numerous television cameras and cell phone videos, a “chilling, chilling visualization,” and said he and those at the press conference would send out an open letter calling for an end to political violence.
The motives and political views of the suspected gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, have not been established. Crooks, who was on a rooftop outside Trump’s rally venue in Butler, PA, was killed by Secret Service agents who returned fire.
Mayor Adams contended, as he has in the past, that social media algorithms are leading young people down the path of political radicalization.
“The rhetoric has got to cool,” said Borelli, the minority leader in the City Council. “Let’s use our anger and our political differences as the founders intended, by having debates, by standing on our soapboxes, by offering different ideas, and by encouraging people to vote.”
But when asked for examples of heated rhetoric following the attempted slaying of the 45th president, Sharpton implicitly nodded to various Republican officeholders who have insinuated Democrats incited the violence, though he wouldn’t name anyone specific.
“Violence is wrong, no matter who you oppose,” said Sharpton. “We must have a nation that celebrates the diversity of our views and the democracy of our decisions. We cannot settle our political differences with bullets, we settle them with ballots.”
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is assisted by guards during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in Butler, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 13, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
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Mayor Eric Adams announced that the NYPD is “surging officers to certain sites across the five boroughs” after the apparent shooting during Trump’s rally in Butler, PA.
The former president and Republican presidential nominee suffered an apparent minor wound near his right ear, but was said to be fine — though published reports indicated that a bystander was killed and the suspected shooter had been “neutralized.” ABC News reported that the incident is being investigated as a potential assassination attempt.
Mayor Adams was one of numerous New York Democrats who condemned the apparent act of political violence, saying it was unacceptable.
“The events that unfolded at today’s rally in Pennsylvania are horrific. No matter our disagreements, we must all agree that violence of any kind is unacceptable,” Mayor Adams said in a statement. “I am praying for the safety of former President Trump and anyone else who may have been injured in the attack in the incident today.”
Fabien Levy, deputy mayor for communications, noted that Trump Tower in Midtown, which was once the former president’s primary residence, will receive extra NYPD details along with 40 Wall St., Foley Square and City Hall.
NYPD officers stationed outside Trump Tower on Jan. 20, 2021.Photo by Dean Moses
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of Brooklyn and New York’s highest-ranking Congressional representatives, condemned the act of violence against Trump and expressed outrage.
“I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former President Trump is safe,” Schumer said on X (formerly Twitter). “Political violence has no place in our country.”
“My thoughts and prayers are with former President Trump. I am thankful for the decisive law enforcement response,” Jeffries added in his X post. “America is a democracy. Political violence of any kind is never acceptable.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul also said she was “praying for the safety and health of former President Trump, and all who are attending this event in Pennsylvania.”
“Any violence against a fellow American is disgusting and unacceptable,” Hochul wrote on X. “We must express political disagreements peacefully, civilly and respectfully.”
Brooklyn/Staten Island Congress Member Nicole Malliotakis, the lone Republican in NYC’s Congressional delegation, said on her official X account she would be praying for the former president “and for the safety of everyone at the Butler, PA rally.”
