Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor, has never shied away from his ties to people with checkered pasts.
He has defended mentoring a Rolls-Royce-driving bishop with a rap sheet, appointing a friend implicated in a past corruption probe as a top aide in his administration, and dining and partying with felons. […]
Now, America’s biggest metropolis faces a political meltdown. Questions about the company Adams keeps have […] engulfed his administration. Homes of several high-ranking city officials were raided this month. The New York Police Department commissioner resigned on Thursday. Adams’s 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.
Police corruption: Last week an Adams administration staffer was fired due to bribery allegations (after a Brooklyn bar owner told a local NBC news station that he was informed his problems would go away if he made a payment to the police commissioner’s twin brother).
At least four agencies—the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service and the city Department of Investigation—now have probes going.
Adams hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, and it is unclear where the investigations will lead or if indictments will follow. Still, 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.
[…] Adams has said he is cooperating with the investigations. The mayor insists he is focused on his responsibilities, saying Tuesday, “Every member of the administration knows my expectation that we must all follow the law.”
Adapted from WSJ Online; CorruptionLedger edits in blue. Omissions (for brevity) in blue.