New York
Surge of Questions Casts Doubts on Adams's Capacity to Lead New York
The revelation that much of Mayor Eric Adams’s inner circle is under federal investigation stunned city officials, and some worried their work could be affected.
Updated 2024-Sep-30 22:00
Mayor Eric Adams sits before a microphone, his hands stacked in front of him.
Right after the news was revealed on Thursday Mr. Adams had plans to participate in a roundtable discussion at City Hall at 2 p.Regarding the safety of electric bikes. Robert Holden a City Council representative from Queens expressed that he had been attempting to schedule the meeting for half a year.
Upon hearing news of the raids he feared that the mayor would call it off. Adams attended and heard from crash victims and members of Transportation Alternatives a street safety organization.
Adams was accompanied by Ingrid Lewis Martin a senior consultant and Jenifer Rajkumar a state legislator from Queens who was always by Mr.He showed patience he listened Mr. He didn t talk a lot. He desired to listen to both perspectives.
However despite his efforts to concentrate Mr. Adams is unlikely to avoid the problem and his critics are unlikely to forget about it.
Jumaane Williams the public advocate stressed that the investigations impact New Yorkers trust in government and urged the mayor to offer prompt and transparent explanations to regain that trust.
As the news broke on Thursday that federal agents had seized the phones of five of Mayor Eric Adams’s top officials City Hall officials hastily convened an emergency meeting.
The roughly 50 members of the administration who participated in the 3:45 p. M. Call were told by the mayor’s chief of staff Camille Joseph Varlack that she understood that the developments would provoke anxiety.
But she asked that they stay focused on serving New York City according to two staff members who were on the call.
A few hours later Mr. Adams addressed the F. B. I. ’s seizures for the first time resorting to what has become his go to response in the face of mounting problems: He would stay focused no distraction and grind he said in a television interview on Fox 5.But the remarkable avalanche of investigations and raids that struck at the heart of the mayor’s circle is no ordinary distraction and it raised immediate questions about the mayor’s ability to manage the nation’s largest city amid an investigative onslaught now affecting much of his senior leadership.
On Wednesday federal agents seized the phones of the city’s police commissioner first deputy mayor schools chancellor deputy mayor for public safety and a senior adviser and searched at least one of their homes.
The nature of the investigations by the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is unclear but it appears that one is focused on the senior City Hall officials and the other involves the police commissioner.
The investigations are distinct from the same office s ongoing inquiry into the mayor and his campaign finances.
Separately the U. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York is pursuing an investigation that in February prompted federal agents to search two houses owned by the mayor’s director of Asian affairs.
Mr. Adams has not been accused of any crimes and he has repeatedly said that as a retired police captain he has a particular fealty to the law.
But the investigations have cast a pall over City Hall and prompted a feeding frenzy for his critics.
They come at a time of already acute vulnerability for the mayor once considered a rising Democratic star whose stature has precipitously fallen.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month the mayor was barely a presence without even a modest speaking role.
When asked how he could assure New Yorkers he wasn t distracted Mr. Adams highlighted the opening of schools for nearly one million students as a significant accomplishment emphasizing that the federal investigation into his campaign finances lasted for 10 months.
And we still observe a range of developments from historic employment rates to a drop in criminal activity.
Maya Wiley who ran against Mr. Adams for mayor in 2021 and acted as counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio during his federal inquiry stated that the investigations would definitely impact the duties of top officials.
