‘I’ve never seen anything so widespread before.’ Political operatives note unprecedented federal action in Adams admin raids

Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was investigated for corruption by agencies including the city Department of Investigation, the state attorney general’s office and the office of then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara. Federal prosecutors declined to charge de Blasio officially, but in an unusual public rebuke in 2017, said he exchanged favors and influence for campaign donations. The statement followed years of probes.

During Mayor Ed Koch’s third term in 1986, the Queens Borough President Donald Manes, a Koch ally, killed himself, and Democratic Party bosses in Brooklyn and the Bronx were both convicted in connection to a major corruption scandal involving the Parking Violations Bureau. Koch later said he considered suicide himself during that time. The federal prosecutor in the case was future Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

But Giuliani wasn’t immune to scandal. His ally and political powerbroker Raymond Harding sketchily secured City Hall jobs for his two sons during Giuliani’s administration, one of whom went on to embezzle hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city. Harding later flipped on then-state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, saving himself from doing prison time for corruption.

Scandal is as perennial as the grass in New York City mayoralties, and yet, no one can seem to remember a federal investigation involving another mayor’s inner circle as sprawling, public and invasive as the ones that have apparently ensnared the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. 

“I’ve never seen anything so widespread before,” said political consultant George Arzt, who started out as a journalist covering Mayor Robert Wagner in the 1960s and was press secretary to Koch. “You could go after one person, maybe two people, but, you know, most of the top brass of the administration… It’s a very unprecedented move by the federal government.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, federal agents raided the homes and executed search warrants on multiple Adams administration officials, The City first reported. The homes of First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and her partner schools Chancellor David Banks, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks and Police Commissioner Edward Caban were all raided early in the morning, with multiple devices seized. Timothy Pearson, a high-ranking mayoral adviser, was also reportedly raided. The feds also reportedly executed search warrants on other, lower-ranking NYPD officials and on Terence Banks, brother to David and Philip Banks. It was not immediately clear why the feds conducted those searches. 

The raids this week followed seizure of the mayor’s phones and home raids of two other aides in the past year or so. There are reportedly at least three different ongoing federal investigations into the mayor’s inner circle. 

The mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing. In a statement, his chief counsel Lisa Zornberg said, "Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation. As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law."

“This is certainly unusual,” said Sid Davidoff, another longtime operative and former aide to Mayor John Lindsay who has previously come to Adams’ defense. “We want our mayor to run the city. This is a distraction, and we hope that they come to a conclusion soon on whatever it is that they're investigating.” 

The list of scandal-plagued mayors is long. Mayors Jimmy Walker and Bill O’Dwyer were both pushed out due to corruption. Walker, who admitted to accepting bribes, was forced to resign by then-Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt. O’Dwyer resigned amid a massive police corruption scandal in 1950 and was given an ambassadorship to Mexico by President Harry Truman. Of course, Walker and O’Dwyer didn’t have data-rich smartphones and laptops for the feds to seize. 

In an interview on Fox 5 New York Thursday evening, Adams, who has been touched by investigations in every elected position he has held, said his administration is complying with the latest probe, but he declined to go into any specifics. 

“I would love to engage in a good conversation around this, but it would just be irresponsible for me,” the mayor said. “You know, as a former law enforcement person I know, allow the reviews to take their course, and that is what I'm doing.”