The Justice Department has asked prosecutors to drop the criminal charges that had loomed over Mayor Eric Adams, but what about all of the continuing investigations involving his close associates?
The short answer: Many of the cases have been thrown into uncertainty, and the next steps will largely be decided by prosecutors.
The Adams administration has been engulfed by at least five separate federal corruption inquiries. Over the past six months, several City Hall officials have resigned or have had their phones seized by federal agents, destabilizing the highest echelons of New York City’s government.
For the people in the mayor’s orbit who may be cooperating against him in hopes of reducing their own criminal exposure, prosecutors could decide to drop any charges against them as well, to avoid any claims of unfair treatment, legal experts said.
“Now that the main guy is gone, there will be some level of pressure to reconsider the less-culpable people and decide whether it makes sense to continue to prosecute them,” said Mark Chutkow, a former federal prosecutor in Detroit who supervised corruption cases against local officials.
Rana Abbasova, the mayor’s former liaison to the Turkish community, has been cooperating with prosecutors after federal agents searched her home, The New York Times has reported.
Cenk Öcal, a former executive at Turkish Airlines, and Brianna Suggs, the mayor’s former chief fund-raiser, also had their homes searched.
None of these three people has been publicly charged.
Prosecutors often provide defendants who testify against bigger targets with some leniency. But even if the target is no longer facing criminal charges, prosecutors could still give cooperating witnesses the benefits promised in plea deals, including seeking no prison time when the cooperators are sentenced.
Outside of the potential cooperators, there are still separate investigations into the mayor’s associates that can proceed if federal prosecutors determine that these associates committed crimes unrelated to the charges that have been dismissed against the mayor, legal experts said.
One inquiry is focused at least in part on government contracts and a consulting firm run by Terence Banks, whose brothers were senior officials under Mr. Adams. The brothers, Philip B. Banks III, the former deputy mayor for public safety, and David C. Banks, the former schools chancellor, resigned last year after their phones were seized amid the bribery investigation involving Terence Banks.
All three Banks brothers have not been charged with any crimes.
Another investigation involves Edward A. Caban, who resigned as New York City’s police commissioner after federal agents seized his phone. That inquiry is examining a nightclub security business owned by Mr. Caban’s twin brother, James Caban.
The Caban brothers have not been charged with any crimes.
In a different New York office, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are investigating Winnie Greco, the mayor’s former director of Asian affairs, whose homes were raided by federal agents last year. Ms. Greco has not been charged with any crimes.
Any dismissal of the federal charges against Mr. Adams also should not affect the continuing state case against his former chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, legal experts said.
In December, state prosecutors in Manhattan charged Ms. Lewis-Martin in a bribery scheme involving money for a new Porsche for her son. She and the other defendants in the case have pleaded not guilty.
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