Mayor Adams Faces Indictment in Widening Federal Probe

Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted in a widening federal corruption probe, according to a bombshell report first disclosed in the New York Times.

He is the first mayor ever to be criminally indicted while in office.

The indictment is sealed according to the Times, so until it is unsealed in federal district court Thursday morning, it is unclear what the charge or charges will be against Adams. But sources are telling THE CITY, a not for profit news service, that the indictment will charge Adams as an unregistered foreign agent for accepting payments from foreign governments and then taking action in his official role as mayor. Another source tells Straus News that when the indictment is unsealed it may include up to five names, including Adams.

Two prominent Adams’ fundraisers, Winnie Greco, the current director of Asia Affairs and Brianna Suggs, a chief fundraiser of the 2021 election campaign, will be named in the indictment, the New York Post reported.

As recently as his Sept. 24 press avail, Adams was downplaying the swirl of federal investigations that seemed to have ensnared people in his administration and resulted in flurry of high level resignations after raids on at least a dozen members of his administration.

As news of the indictment broke on Sept. 25, Adams remained defiant releasing a video statement through a private attorney. “My fellow New Yorkers, it is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes. If so, these charges will be entirely false based on lies.

“But they would not be surprising. I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target—and a target I became,” he said in the pre-recorded video.

He said if indicted, he will “push for an immediate trial to prove my innocence.”

Just over a week ago, he said at a tumultuous press briefing that he was not going to answer questions about the growing number of federal probes. And he insisted he was not a target. “You know what I know,” he said to reporters on Sept. 17.

When asked about the turnover and widening federal probes at his press availability a week later on Sept. 24, he insisted he has “never had more fun” being mayor and brushed aside calls from some quarters for him to resign. He insisted the turnover was not unusual in city government. And when asked if he had any plans to step down he said then: “I’m stepping up, not stepping down. I have a city to run that I will continue to run.”

There are believed to be at least five federal probes afoot revolving around foreign influence, potential fundraising violations, and shakedowns by friends and associates of people close to Adams. Federal agents have raided at least a dozen people in the administration and that has triggered a dizzying round of high level resignations.

The resignations included his Police Commissioner Ed Caban on Sept. 12, eight days after police raided his Rockland County home and seized his phone. Education Chancellor David Banks resigned on Sept. 24 after federal agents on the same day as the Caban move raided the home that Banks shares with his romantic partner Sheena Wright, who is the first deputy mayor to Adams. For the past two press availabilities, Wright had been conspicuous by her absence.

In between the departures of Caban and Banks, the chief legal counsel to the mayor, Lisa Zornberg, resigned on Sept. 15 reportedly because Adams resisted her recommendations on what to do in the widening crisis.

On Sept. 4, when federal agents raided Ed Caban’s home, they also raided the home of his twin brother, James Caban, a one-time cop who went into the consulting business representing bars and restaurants that had encountered police problems. Caban was forced out of the NYPD in 2001. The New York Post reported that James Caban was accorded protection and a police cruiser on the ostensible grounds that he needed protection least he be confused for his twin brother.

A Brooklyn juice bar owner said that mayoral aide Ray Martin had tried to shake him down and steer business to James Caban’s firm. Martin was fired shortly after the disclosure came to light.

According to the Associated Press, James Caban “unequivocally denies any wrongdoing.” His brother Ed Caban said he resigned because he did not want to be a “distraction” to the NYPD.

Another Banks brother, Philips Banks was named the deputy mayor of public safety. His cell phone was also seized in a raid on his home which also took the phone of the youngest Banks brother, Terrence Banks, who also ran a consulting business.

Both David and Terrence Banks told AP that they did not believe they were targets of the federal probes.

Adams was quick to name a replacement for David Banks on Sept. 25, tapping Melissa Aviles-Ramos to replace him as education chancellor.

Tim Pearson, another longtime Adams aid, had involvement with awarding contracts connected to the migrant crisis. His electronic devices were also seized by federal investigators.

The Associated Press reported that Molly Schaffer, the city director of Asylum Seeker Operations, received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury, but did not have her phone seized.

Adams first appeared in the cross hairs of federal investigators in November. At the time, he was in Washington D.C. to meet with other big city mayors about the migrant crisis. but when he heard that a top aid Brianna Suggs, had her home raided, he immediately cancelled the long planned meeting with the other mayors and returned to New York. As a 21 year-old chief fundraiser, Suggs raised $18 million for Adams in his successful election campaign.

A few days after the Suggs raid, Adams was separated from his security detail and told to turn over his own phone and an iPad to federal agents.

In the another more recent wrinkle, the man picked to replace Ed Caban as interim police commissioner, Tom Donlon, a former top FBI agent, said federal investigators seized material from his home over the weekend, but he said it was related to a 20 year old case and not tied to the NYPD.

Only days before the indictment, as the investigations swirled, he was asked where he saw himself a year from now.

“I’m not buried, I’m planted. I’m ready for the next journey in my life. And so a year from now, I see myself again raising my right hand, being called the mayor of the City of New York.”