The State of Eric Adams
Four agencies are investigating City Hall, and two top officials left last week
America’s biggest metropolis is facing a full-blown political meltdown.
Nagging questions about the company Mayor Eric Adams keeps have exploded into a crisis engulfing his administration. Homes of several high-ranking city officials were raided this month. The New York Police Department commissioner resigned on Thursday. Adams’s own phones were seized last year as part of an investigation into whether his campaign received potentially illegal Turkish campaign contributions.
As the probe expands, some allies are walking away. Lisa Zornberg, the chief lawyer at City Hall, tendered her resignation Saturday saying she “concluded that I can no longer effectively serve in my position.” She was formerly criminal division chief of the federal prosecutor’s office now involved with several of the investigations.
Adams hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, and it is unclear where the investigations will lead or if indictments will follow. He has said he is cooperating with investigators and expects all his associates to follow the law.
But the uncertainty leaves the first-term mayor weakened as he prepares for his 2025 re-election run and pursues signature initiatives, such as reducing crime and eradicating rats.
“This is a lot of smoke—if we were in a building, I would leave. However, we have yet to see fire,” said Christina Greer, a Fordham University political science professor. “We already know that he likes to surround himself with unsavory characters.”
I teamed up with colleagues Jim Fanelli, Cory Ramey and Joseph De Avila to write about the multiple probes touching members of the mayor’s inner circle, as well as longtime associates who have had brushes with the law.
THE QUESTION: Eric Adams is the second Black person to serve as New York City’s mayor. Who was the first?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: The Salt and Gila rivers converge in Phoenix.