When federal agents seized the phones of some of New York City’s highest-ranking officials this week, the administration of Mayor Eric Adams, already reeling from other legal problems, was further destabilized.
The agents took the phones of the city’s police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the schools chancellor and others. They also searched the home and seized the phone of a consultant who is a brother of the schools chancellor and one of Mr. Adams’s deputy mayors.
The actions were separate from the corruption inquiry that has been focused at least in part on whether the mayor and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal donations.
Here is what we know about the searches and phone seizures this week and the investigations.
Which officials are now embroiled in federal investigations?
The latest round of searches, seizures and subpoenas focused on five people in Mr. Adams’s orbit. Neither the mayor nor those people have been accused of a crime.
On Wednesday, agents seized the phones of the first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright, and her partner, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor. Mr. Banks’s brother, Philip Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, also received a visit from agents who seized his phones, as did Timothy Pearson, a senior adviser to Mr. Adams and one of his closest confidants.
The investigators also searched the home of a consultant, Terence Banks, a third Banks brother who formed a government and community relations company to close a gap “between New York’s intricate infrastructure and political landscape.”
The agents also seized the phones of Edward A. Caban, the city’s police commissioner, his chief of staff and a chief in Queens and two precinct commandeers.
What about the other investigations?
Over the past year, federal investigators have searched the homes of several people close to Mr. Adams.
In November, the Brooklyn home of Mr. Adams’s then chief-fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, was searched by federal agents as part of an inquiry into whether Mr. Adams and his 2021 election campaign had conspired with the Turkish government.
The same day her home was raided, federal agents also searched the New Jersey homes of Rana Abbasova, a former liaison for Mr. Adams to the Turkish community, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on the mayor’s transition team. Ms. Abbasova has turned against the mayor and is now cooperating with the investigation.
In February, two houses in the Bronx owned by Winnie Greco, a close aide to Mr. Adams, were searched as part of a separate investigation led by a different U.S. attorney’s office.
The focus of that inquiry was unclear, but Ms. Greco is a longtime ally of the mayor’s and a prominent fund-raiser for his campaign with close ties to New York’s Chinese community. Mr. Adams appointed her as his director of Asian affairs.
What are the authorities examining?
There appear to be at least four separate inquiries being conducted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The actions by federal agents on Wednesday appear to be connected to two investigations. The precise nature of the inquiries is unclear but one is focused on the senior City Hall officials and the other on the police commissioner and one of his brothers. Those inquiries are both being conducted by prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan.
The same office is also conducting the investigation into, among other things, whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations during the 2021 election. The full scope of the investigation is unclear.
Mr. Adams has started a legal-defense fund to pay for expenses related to the election inquiry.
The search of Ms. Greco’s homes was conducted as part of a separate inquiry by the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.
How does it all relate to the mayor?
Mr. Adams has tried to distance himself from the investigations and from those in his circles who have been charged. On several occasions has said that he is cooperating with the investigations.
Days after the F.B.I. searched Ms. Suggs’s Brooklyn home, agents seized phones and other devices from Mr. Adams as he left an event in Manhattan.
Not long after, Mr. Adams was asked at a news conference about his potential for being charged with a crime.
“I cannot tell you how much I start the day with telling my team, ‘We’ve got to follow the law, got to follow the law,’ almost to the point that I am annoying,” he said.
Last year, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, obtained an indictment charging six people, including a retired police inspector who once worked and socialized with Mr. Adams, with conspiring to funnel illegal donations to the mayor’s 2021 campaign.
Eric Ulrich, Mr. Adams’s former buildings commissioner and senior adviser, was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on 16 felony charges, including conspiracy and taking bribes. He and three others indicted alongside him, helped organize a 2021 fund-raiser for Mr. Adams.
The post What We Know About the Investigations Involving Eric Adams’s Top Aides appeared first on New York Times.
