New York City officials with close ties to Mayor Eric Adams, including leaders of the NYPD, have been the targets of raids by the FBI this week.
Federal investigators confiscated electronic devices, subpoenaed cellphones, and reportedly inquired about emails from high-ranking NYPD executives. The latest investigations made nearly a year of inquiries into NYC leaders, with Adams himself the subject of one last November.
So what exactly is going on in the Big Apple? Why are some of the most powerful leaders in the United States’s biggest city being investigated, and who are they?
Here’s everything we know about the FBI’s investigations into New York City leaders.
Who’s been targeted?
Three brothers connected to the embattled mayor were targeted by the FBI on Thursday. David Banks is chancellor of New York City schools, appointed by Adams. He is in a romantic relationship with First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright. The pair’s home was raided and their phones were seized early Wednesday morning.
Additionally, Philip Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, had his home raided and his phone confiscated that morning. A third brother, Terence, recently left the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and opened a consulting firm called the Pearl Alliance. He also was a target of the agents’ investigation.
It remains unclear why the FBI executed the search warrants. Adams’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, indicated the mayor’s office was in the dark as well in a statement to Politico Thursday.
“Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation,” she declared. “As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.”
Adams deflected when questioned about the FBI’s latest actions on Thursday.
“The goal is to follow the law. And that is what this administration always stood for, and what we’re going to continue to stand for,” he said to reporters while walking out of City Hall. “Whatever information that’s needed, we’re going to turn it over, and I’m going to continue to be the mayor of the City of New York, the greatest city on the globe.”
The Banks brothers and Wright weren’t the only New Yorkers agents had their eyes on this week. The FBI also subpoenaed Tim Pearson, a senior adviser to Adams, for his cellphones.
The agency searched the residences or cellphones of multiple members of the NYPD who were connected to Adams as well.
How are NYPD leaders involved?
A total of seven NYPD officials were targeted by the agency, according to ABC7. NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban had his home searched. His phone was also subpoenaed by federal agents, who did the same to two NYPD lieutenants who worked in the commissioner’s office, two precinct commanders in Queens and Manhattan, a lieutenant in the 10th Precinct, and NYPD Chief Raul Pintos, per WPIX-TV.
The FBI’s scrutiny of NYPD officials appears to be separate from its investigation into Adams, who was investigated last November over whether his campaign conspired to obtain illegal foreign donations from entities tied to the Turkish government.
It remains unclear why the FBI leaders were targeted.
An embattled city government
Much of the scrutiny into Adams surrounds the federal probe into his 2021 mayoral campaign. The FBI’s investigation into whether Adams or his affiliates worked with the Turkish government to funnel foreign money into the campaign’s coffers became public on Nov. 2, 2023. At the time, federal agents raided Brianna Suggs’s and Rana Abbasova’s homes. Both women were affiliated with Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign.
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Adams was elected mayor of New York City in 2021. The former NYPD police captain oversees over 8 million people in the largest city in America.
The FBI investigations into him and his associates appear to have hurt his favorability ratings. Only 16% of “likely” voters said they would vote for him in one survey.
