After perhaps the most challenging week of his political career, Mayor Eric Adams visited two Black churches in Brooklyn on Sunday and compared himself to Job, a righteous biblical figure who endured immense suffering but whose blessings were ultimately restored.
The mayor never directly addressed the several federal investigations swirling around his administration. Last week, authorities took the phones of his first deputy mayor, his schools chancellor, his deputy mayor for public safety, his police commissioner and his senior adviser.
Yet he used his appearances at the Black churches — a friendly environment that the mayor has often used for political messaging — to liken the investigations to the burdens placed on Job.
“Job lost it all, and even his wife questioned him. ‘Where’s your faith? Where’s God now?’ His friends rebuked him,” Mr. Adams said from the pulpit at Power and Authority Evangelical Ministry in East New York.
“And I wish I could tell you that I had one moment in my life that was a Job moment. But I did not have one. I had many,” the mayor said.
The visits to Changing Lives Christian Center and to Power and Authority Evangelical Ministry — just a few blocks apart in an election district where, in the 2021 Democratic primary, Mr. Adams won more than 76 percent of first-round votes — seemed designed to shore up support among his base.
In media appearances on Friday, he insisted he was unbothered by the avalanche of law enforcement activity last week, which appeared to stem from two distinct investigations out of the Southern District of New York. Those federal prosecutors are also investigating Mr. Adams and his election committee’s fund-raising. As part of yet another federal investigation, out of the Eastern District of New York, the authorities in February searched two houses belonging to the mayor’s director of Asian affairs.
In interviews Friday on PIX11 and on WABC’s “Cats and Cosby,” a show hosted by the billionaire John Catsimatidis, who has been friendly to the mayor, Mr. Adams repeatedly referred to the investigations euphemistically as “reviews,” even though city historians and the mayor’s rivals said the number of simultaneous inquiries was rare if not unprecedented.
Neither Mr. Adams nor any of his aides have been charged with crimes, and the mayor denies wrongdoing.
The investigation into Mr. Adams and his campaign first came to light in November, when agents descended on the Brooklyn home of his chief fund-raiser, Brianna Suggs, and searched the homes of Rana Abbasova, an aide in his international affairs office, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive. Ms. Abbasova is cooperating with investigators.
Days later, federal agents approached Mr. Adams after he left an event at New York University and took his phones.
At Changing Lives Christian Center, when Mr. Adams again mentioned a “Job moment,” he leaned heavily on his life story.
“And when you come out of your Job moment and your faith is intact, you will receive blessing tenfold,” Mr. Adams said. “Only God can make you go from being dyslexic, arrested, rejected and now I’m elected to be the mayor of the most powerful city on the globe.”
After his remarks, four pastors from the church surrounded Mr. Adams, laid their hands on his shoulders and prayed for him. “Father, we know that when you are a public servant, that, Lord, the forces of evil wants to come against you,” said Paul B. Mitchell, the senior lead pastor.
On Friday, the idea that Mr. Adams was being targeted also was raised by former Gov. David Paterson, who said on WABC radio that Mr. Adams might be under federal investigation because he was the “first elected official in the country to object to the placement of migrants in your city.” He gave no evidence for that assertion.
Mr. Adams has criticized President Biden and the federal government for not doing enough to help the city manage the influx of more than 200,000 migrants.
Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University, said she would not be surprised if the mayor’s political base was skeptical of the investigation, especially because the mayor has yet to be charged or named as a target.
“Right now there’s a lot of smoke,” Ms. Greer said. “And smoke does not always lead to fire.”
After the service at Changing Lives Christian Center on Sunday, parishioners expressed support for the mayor, who will run for re-election in 2025.
“When you’re in the political life and limelight, there’s things that are going to be thrown at you,” said Elizabeth Armstrong, 62, a nurse. “And it may not necessarily be him, but the people around him, that makes his job a little harder.”
Ms. Armstrong said she would vote for Mr. Adams next year.
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