Live Updates: Eric Adams Is Indicted in New York
The indictment makes Mr. Adams the first sitting New York City mayor to face criminal charges.
Mayor Eric L. Adams has been indicted on federal criminal charges, according to people with knowledge of the matter, and will be the first mayor in New York City history to be charged while in office.
The indictment is sealed, and it is unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams will face.
A retired police captain, Mr. Adams was elected as the city’s 110th mayor nearly three years ago on a campaign pledge of reducing crime and bringing professionalism and “swagger” to the largest municipal government in the country.
But the mayor staffed top positions with friends and loyalists, and his inner circle has been engulfed by numerous federal investigations that have increasingly targeted the highest ranks of city government. Earlier this month, federal agents seized phones from numerous top city officials, including a top aide to Mr. Adams, the schools chancellor and the police commissioner. The commissioner, Edward A. Caban, and the schools chancellor, David C. Banks, later resigned.
Federal authorities seized Mr. Adams’s electronic devices last November, just days after they searched the Brooklyn home of his chief fund-raiser. His aides have claimed he has been cooperating with the authorities, while Mr. Adams has maintained that he did nothing wrong.
The indictment raised immediate questions about Mr. Adams’s ability to serve as mayor, adding to the growing pressure for him to step down. Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove him from office.
Several federal corruption investigations have reached top people around Mr. Adams, with some of the highest-ranking officials in his administration coming under scrutiny. Read more about the investigations here.
The swarm of federal inquiries in the lead-up to the indictment of Mr. Adams plunged his administration into a free fall, further diminishing his political stature. It raised doubts about his re-election chances next year and his ability to engage with other political leaders. Read more about the challenges in City Hall here.
City Hall Bureau Chief
Mayor Eric Adams has lost his police commissioner, his schools chancellor and his health commissioner over the last two weeks. Now other top officials in his administration will have to decide whether to stay after the mayor’s indictment.
City Hall Bureau Chief
Mayor Eric Adams once called himself the “the future of the Democratic Party” and the “Biden of Brooklyn.” Now the mayor’s prospects of winning a second term — and serving out the remainder of his term — are in jeopardy.
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The expected surge of calls for the mayor’s resignation appears to have begun. Councilman Shekar Krishnan, from Queens, on Wednesday night added his name to that list of electeds, saying, “City Hall is in free fall.”
The charges against Mayor Eric Adams stem from a broad public corruption investigation that began in 2021 and examined whether the mayor and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government that year to receive illegal foreign donations.
Additionally, the federal inquiry examined whether Mr. Adams pressured New York Fire Department officials to sign off on a new high-rise building for the Turkish consulate despite safety concerns. Agents also investigated valuable flight upgrades they believe the mayor received from Turkish Airlines.
It’s one of several federal corruption investigations that have ensnared Mr. Adams’s administration. Here are some key events that led up to the indictment of the mayor:
Nov. 2, 2023: The F.B.I. raids the home of the chief fund-raiser to Mayor Eric Adams.
Federal agents raided the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs, a recent college graduate who had been in charge of Mr. Adams’s fund-raising operation when he ran for mayor in 2021. Mr. Suggs was 23 years old when the mayor picked her for the job, and many Democratic officials who worked in fund-raising were shocked that he had chosen someone for the role with so little professional experience.
The agents seized three iPhones and two laptop computers from Ms. Suggs’s home; they also took papers and other evidence, including something agents identified as a “manila folder labeled Eric Adams,” as well as seven “contribution card binders” and other materials, according to the search warrant documents.
Nov. 2, 2023: The F.B.I. raids the homes of an aide in the mayor’s international affairs office and a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on his transition team.
Investigators also searched the New Jersey homes of Rana Abbasova, an aide in Mr. Adams’s international affairs office, and Cenk Öcal, a former Turkish Airlines executive who served on his transition team, according to people familiar with the matter.
Ms. Abbasova was the mayor’s longtime liaison to the Turkish community when Mr. Adams was Brooklyn borough president. Mr. Öcal was the general manager of the New York office of Turkish Airlines until early 2022.
Nov. 6, 2023: The F.B.I. seizes the mayor’s phones and iPad.
In early November, F.B.I. agents approached Mr. Adams and his security detail after he had attended an event in Manhattan. The agents asked the security team to step aside before climbing into the mayor’s S.U.V. with him and taking his devices, pursuant to a court-authorized warrant. The devices were returned to the mayor within a matter of days, according to two people familiar with the situation. Law enforcement investigators can make copies of data on seized devices.
A lawyer for the mayor, Boyd Johnson, said at the time that Mr. Adams had not been accused of wrongdoing and had “immediately complied with the F.B.I.’s request and provided them with electronic devices.”
Mr. Johnson also said that Mr. Adams had already “proactively reported” at least one instance of improper behavior.
Nov. 28, 2023: Adams announces that his chief fund-raiser is out.
Weeks after agents searched Ms. Suggs’s home, Mayor Adams said during a weekly press briefing that she was no longer managing his political fund-raising. He declined to say why he had removed her from the position. Ms. Abbasova was also placed on leave after City Hall learned she had “acted improperly,” according to a spokesman for the mayor.
Feb. 5, 2024: A retired police inspector pleads guilty to funneling illegal funds to the mayor’s campaign.
Dwayne Montgomery, a former police inspector, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor conspiracy, admitting to directing straw donors — people who make campaign contributions using someone else’s money — to contribute to the mayor’s campaign. Mr. Montgomery was indicted in July 2023, along with five others, including four construction executives and a bookkeeper. Mr. Montgomery agreed in his plea not to organize or host any fund-raisers or to solicit contributions for a campaign, for one year.
The mayor was not implicated in the indictment nor accused of any wrongdoing.
Feb. 29, 2024: The F.B.I. searches the homes of the mayor’s Asian affairs adviser, who was a prominent fund-raiser for his campaign.
Agents searched two houses that belonged to Winnie Greco, an aide who was a prominent fund-raiser and who had close ties to the Chinese community in New York City. She became the mayor’s director of Asian affairs when he took office in 2022. The searches were part of an investigation conducted by prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn and it was unclear what the investigation was focused on and whether it was related to the mayor.
Agents also executed a search warrant at the New World Mall in Flushing, Queens, where Mr. Adams had made regular appearances, including to deliver remarks at a Lunar New Year gala.
July 2024: Federal prosecutors serve a new round of subpoenas to the mayor, his election committee and City Hall.
The subpoenas sought information in a number of areas, including travel by the mayor, his aides and others, and fund-raising. It was unclear what prompted the new subpoenas.
Sept. 4, 2024: Federal agents seize the phones of the police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the schools chancellor and others.
Top city officials who had their phones seized included the police commissioner, Edward A. Caban; the first deputy mayor, Sheena Wright; her partner, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor; the deputy mayor for public safety, Philip Banks III; and a senior adviser to the mayor, Timothy Pearson.
The seizures appeared to be separate from the corruption investigation focused on the mayor and his campaign fund-raising, but the actions further destabilized his administration.
Terence Banks, a consultant who is the brother of both the schools chancellor and the deputy mayor of public safety, had his home searched and his phone seized. Agents seized the phones of his brothers because they believed they might find evidence of bribery and other crimes, including fraud and violations of the Travel Act, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Sept. 12, 2024: The police commissioner resigns.
Mr. Caban, the New York police commissioner, resigned at the request of City Hall, which asked him to step aside after federal investigators seized his phone. Media coverage about the investigations had “created a distraction for the department,” Mr. Caban said in an email to members of the Police Department.
Lawyers for Mr. Caban said in a statement that federal prosecutors had told them that he was not a target of the investigation and that he intended to fully cooperate with the government.
Sept. 15, 2024: The mayor’s chief counsel resigns.
Lisa Zornberg resigned from her post as the mayor’s counsel and chief legal adviser. She had been one of the mayor’s fiercest defenders, encouraging New Yorkers not to rush to judgment. She formerly worked as a senior Manhattan federal prosecutor in the office that is currently conducting three separate corruption investigations into the mayor and some of his senior aides.
Sept. 16, 2024: Two former Fire Department chiefs are arrested on bribery charges.
Brian E. Cordasco, 49, and Anthony M. Saccavino, 59, ran the Department’s Bureau of Fire Prevention until earlier this year. They were arrested and accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to speed up the fire-safety approval process for building projects across the city.
There was no indication that the case is related to any of the federal corruption investigations swirling around the mayor, his campaign and some of his most senior aides.
Sept. 21, 2024: Federal agents search the home of the interim police commissioner.
Thomas G. Donlon, who took the interim role after Mr. Caban resigned, said federal agents searched his home and seized materials that were unrelated to the Police Department. According to two federal officials with knowledge of the matter, the materials were classified documents that had been in Mr. Donlon’s possession for years.
Sept. 23, 2024: The city’s health commissioner says he will resign.
Dr. Ashwin Vasan, who led New York City out of the coronavirus pandemic, became the third top administration official to resign in September amid the investigations. His decision will go into effect early next year. Dr. Vasan said he decided to step down because he wanted to spend more time with his family. A City Hall spokesman said the departure was unrelated to the federal inquiries, and the commissioner affirmed that in a brief interview with The Times.
Sept. 23, 2024: It is reported for the first time that federal prosecutors are looking into the mayor’s dealings with five countries besides Turkey.
The other countries are Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan and the demand for information was made in expansive grand jury subpoenas issued in July to City Hall, the mayor and his campaign. This information had not been previously reported.
Sept. 24, 2024: The schools chancellor says he will resign.
David C. Banks, the chancellor of the New York City public schools system, said that he would resign from his role at the end of December. The announcement came weeks after federal agents seized his phone.
Sept. 25, 2024: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becomes the most prominent elected official to call for Adams’s resignation.
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of Queens and the Bronx, said in a statement to The New York Times that she could “not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City.”
“The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening government function,” she said. “Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration.”
“For the good of the city,” she added, “he should resign.”
The call from Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, a national leader of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, came after a handful of other New York lawmakers urged Mr. Adams to step down.
Sept. 25, 2024: News of Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment is made public.
Eric Adams will be the first sitting New York City mayor to face criminal charges.
It took nearly 11 months from the time that federal agents raided the home of Mayor Adams’s chief fundraiser, when this investigation first burst into public view, until a federal grand jury voted to indict him. Since then, public developments in this and other federal investigations into his administration have at times been slow. More recently they have come fast and furiously.
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City Hall Bureau Chief
Mayor Eric Adams has been determined to put the federal investigations into him and his inner circle behind him. Now they threaten to derail his mayoralty.
Reporting on New York City Hall
It is eerily silent at City Hall. Many reporters, expecting news of an indictment, stayed late trying to nail down the details, but some have since left.
Adams was already going to face a contested Democratic primary next June. This news is likely to cause other mayoral aspirants to jump into the race.
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SKIP ADVERTISEMENTCalls for Adams to resign are likely to surge in the wake of this indictment. Today, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the first member of Congress to call for the mayor’s resignation.
Mayor Adams is the first mayor in New York City history to face indictment.
Eric L. Adams, a retired police captain who was elected as New York City’s 110th mayor nearly three years ago on a promise to rein in crime, has been indicted following a federal corruption investigation, people with knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
The indictment remained sealed on Wednesday night, and it was unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams will face. But when they are made public, he will become the first New York City mayor to be criminally charged while in office.
The indictment promised to reverberate across the nation’s largest city and beyond, plunging Mr. Adams’s embattled administration further into chaos just months before he is set to face challengers in a hotly contested mayoral primary.
Representatives of Mr. Adams and his campaign said they had no immediate comment.
Brendan R. McGuire and Boyd M. Johnson III, partners at WilmerHale who represent the mayor, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Representatives of the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, the F.B.I. and the city Department of Investigation declined to comment.
The charges represented an extraordinary turnabout for Mr. Adams, 64, a former state senator and Brooklyn borough president who took office as the city was rebounding from the pandemic and confronting a massive influx of migrants from the southern border.
Until federal investigations closed in on him, Mr. Adams’s life had seemed a classic New York success story.
Raised by a working-class mother in Brooklyn and Queens, he overcame dyslexia and run-ins with the police, and then joined the Police Department himself. He worked initially as a transit officer, and sought to make changes from within. During a two-decade career there, he rose to the rank of captain and served as a vocal, and sometimes contentious, advocate for Black officers.
Retiring to pursue a life in politics, Mr. Adams dreamed for years of becoming New York’s mayor, an ambition he realized by embracing diverse constituencies across the city, and an accomplishment he has said was divinely ordained.
As mayor, Mr. Adams vowed to return “swagger” to a city still emerging from the pandemic, and he surrounded himself in City Hall with friends and associates whose loyalty to him sometimes exceeded their policy expertise. Several had troubled pasts.
And some of his closest aides and advisers would themselves come under federal investigation as prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan began examining his inner circle.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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