Mayor Eric Adams Faces Crisis as U.S. Investigations Reach Inner Circle
As federal agents seize the phones of the mayor’s top aides, multiplying inquiries threaten to destabilize Mr. Adams’s ability to run New York City.
Federal agents on Wednesday zeroed in on the highest ranks of Mayor Eric Adams’s administration, searching a home and seizing the phones of the New York City police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the schools chancellor and others, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The actions were unrelated to a separate corruption inquiry focused on the mayor and his campaign fund-raising, some of the people said. But the revelation that not only the mayor but also many of the city’s most senior officials are embroiled in federal investigations further destabilizes an administration that is already reeling from other legal problems.
The investigations also raise questions about Mr. Adams’s ability to continue managing the nation’s largest city. And they threatened to further weaken his political standing as he faces a hotly contested Democratic primary next year in which he already was set to face several serious challengers.
Among the other officials the federal investigators sought information from were the deputy mayor for public safety and a senior adviser to the mayor who is one of his closest confidants, the people said. Both men have had other legal challenges.
In addition to the police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, several other department officials, including Mr. Caban’s chief of staff and two Queens precinct commanders, also had their phones taken by federal agents, two of the people said.
Tarik Sheppard, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said he could not confirm the agents had subpoenaed the commissioner’s phone, but he said: “We will cooperate with the U.S. attorney’s office, and any of these questions on what was done need to be referred to them because this is not a joint investigation.”
This has shades of Kwame Kilpatrick brewing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/05/nyre ... h-nyc.html