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      Sheena Wright, Eric Adams’s Deputy Mayor, Resigns

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      Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor of New York City, became the seventh senior leader to leave the administration in the past few weeks.Sheena Wright, a longtime ally of Mayor Eric Adams, has resigned from her post as first deputy mayor, according to people with knowledge of the matter, making her the seventh senior official to leave the administration during a time of crisis in New York City government.Ms. Wright is expected to be replaced by Maria Torres-Springer, the mayor’s current deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force, according to those people. One of the people said Ms. Wright planned to serve until the end of the month. Mr. Adams is expected to make the announcement before his regular Tuesday media availability.“We are grateful for First Deputy Mayor Wright’s years of service to the city and all she has done to deliver for children, families, and working-class New Yorkers,” Mr. Adams said in a statement that was expected to be circulated on Tuesday. “She is an exceptional leader who assembled a strong team and constantly demonstrated a bold vision for this city.”News of Ms. Wright’s departure comes two weeks after federal prosecutors unsealed a five-count corruption indictment against the mayor.It also follows the resignation announcements of her brother-in-law, Philip B. Banks III, the deputy mayor for public safety, and her husband, David C. Banks, the schools chancellor.On Sept. 4, federal investigators seized the phones of both men, Ms. Wright, and several other senior administration officials. With Ms. Wright’s resignation, all of those people have since stepped down or announced plans to.Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s OrbitFour federal corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Tim Pearson, Adams Confidant, Resigns Amid Corruption Investigations

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      Few people in city government were closer to Mayor Eric Adams than Timothy Pearson, who had a role in handling migrant shelter contracts.One of Mayor Eric Adams’ closest aides and confidants resigned on Monday, less than a week after the mayor was indicted on corruption charges — and nearly a month after federal agents seized the aide’s phones in a separate corruption inquiry, according to a resignation letter his lawyer said had been sent to the mayor.The aide, Timothy Pearson, had a broad portfolio that included dealing with contracts for migrant shelters and focusing on public safety. He is the fifth senior member of the mayor’s administration to announce his departure in the past three weeks.In the letter, Mr. Pearson thanked the mayor and lauded the administration’s accomplishments.“As I look ahead to the next chapter of my life, I’ve decided to focus on family, self-care and new endeavors,” he wrote.A retired Police Department inspector, Mr. Pearson is also a defendant in four sexual harassment lawsuits filed by subordinates, and he is the subject of two separate inquiries by the New York City Department of Investigation. He was among the several senior administration officials whose phones were seized by federal investigators on Sept. 4.Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s OrbitFour federal corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries.Some members of the Adams administration had for weeks been pressing for the resignations of Mr. Pearson and others whose phones had been seized.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      NYC Fire Department Chief to Plead Guilty to Bribery Charge, U.S. Says

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      Brian E. Cordasco was one of two former high-ranking officials arrested earlier this month and charged with soliciting and receiving bribes to speed up safety approvals.A former chief of the New York Fire Department, who was arrested earlier this month and accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to speed up the fire-safety approval process, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of bribery conspiracy, federal prosecutors said on Monday.The former chief, Brian E. Cordasco, had been involved in plea negotiations with the government before deciding to plead guilty, according to a letter federal prosecutors sent on Monday to Judge Lewis J. Liman of Federal District Court in Manhattan. Prosecutors hoped to schedule a plea hearing for early October.Lawyers for Mr. Cordasco did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.Mr. Cordasco and Anthony M. Saccavino, another retired chief who was also arrested in September, were responsible for overseeing fire safety approvals of large-scale building projects. From 2021 to 2023, the former chiefs solicited and received bribes that involved 30 different projects citywide, according to the six-count indictment.The retired fire chiefs were both charged with bribery and bribery conspiracy; honest services wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy; and making false statements, including to the F.B.I. during interviews in February. Mr. Saccavino has pleaded not guilty to the charges.The alleged scheme happened during a time when there were long waits, exacerbated by the pandemic, for projects that needed site inspections and approval for fire safety plans. The Fire Department’s policy in most cases has been to review plans and do inspections in the order in which they were requested.The projects Mr. Cordasco and Mr. Saccavino fast-tracked included a high-end restaurant in Manhattan, an apartment building in Brooklyn and two hotels near Kennedy Airport in Queens, according to prosecutors.In February, both men were placed on modified duty and removed from their positions at the Fire Department’s Bureau of Fire Prevention after searches of their homes.In 2023, the Fire Department paid Mr. Cordasco $257,296 and Mr. Saccavino $263,478, prosecutors said.In the letter filed Monday, prosecutors said that they had made an offer to Mr. Cordasco under which he would plead guilty to count one and that they understood from his lawyers that he intended to accept that offer.Decisions to plead guilty are subject to change, and a defendant like Mr. Cordasco could decide at the last minute that he wants to fight the charges.The decision comes shortly after Mayor Eric Adams of New York was charged with bribery and fraud in a federal corruption investigation. Mr. Adams was charged with five counts, including one count of bribery related to accusations that he solicited free and heavily discounted foreign luxury travel in exchange for helping to obtain approval by Fire Department officials of a new Turkish consulate.There was no indication that the case involving Mr. Cordasco and Mr. Saccavino was related to any of the federal corruption investigations swirling around the mayor, his campaign and some of his most senior aides.Tracking Charges and Investigations in Eric Adams’s OrbitFour federal corruption inquiries have reached into the world of Mayor Eric Adams of New York. Here is a closer look at the charges against Mr. Adams and how people with ties to him are related to the inquiries. More

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      Lie-Flat Seats and Chilled Champagne: Testing Eric Adams’s Upgrade Life

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      Life is grand in the Bentley Suite at the St. Regis Istanbul, with its marble floors and walk-in closet, its 24-hour butler service, and its views stretching all the way to the blue waters of the Bosporus.The Bentley suite at the St. Regis Hotel in Istanbul is named for the luxury car, and the light fixture over the bed is said to evoke the undulations of the Nürburgring racetrack in Germany. The light sculpture suspended above the vast bed, where New York Mayor Eric Adams slept in 2017, is said to evoke the undulations of the Nürburgring racetrack in Germany. The complimentary chocolate-covered strawberries on the coffee table are dusted with crushed pistachios and nestled on a bed of delicately crumbled cookies. The curved leather sofa has two built-in Champagne coolers that light up and open at the press of a button.The sofa in the Bentley Suite has two embedded Champagne coolers that open at the touch of a button.If you were to think about New York City (but why would you?) while reclining on your private balcony and gazing at the Gucci store across the street, you might be struck by the notion that the suite is roughly three times the size of your first apartment.The suite comes with a terrace with views over the city. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Eric Adams Indictment: Read Charges NYC Mayor Faces

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      Federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Thursday unveiled a five-count indictment against Mayor Eric L. Adams of New York, charging him with bribery conspiracy, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. Mr. Adams, who is up for re-election in 2025, insisted he was innocent and says he intends to fight the case, which is led by […] More

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      These Are the People Running for NYC Mayor Against Adams

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      Now that Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted, his path to re-election in New York is likely to become much more difficult.Mr. Adams is running for a second term in a competitive Democratic primary next June. Already, four prominent Democrats have entered the race, arguing that Mr. Adams is a poor manager and has not addressed the city’s affordability crisis. And even more challengers may enter the race.So far, the field includes Brad Lander, the city’s left-leaning comptroller who recently pledged to end street homelessness for severely mentally ill people, and Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller who has focused on affordable housing and whose 2021 mayoral campaign was derailed by allegations of sexual misconduct.There is also Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is proposing free “universal after-school” programs, and Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who has focused on affordability and is friendly with unions.Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens who is weighing entering the race, wants to stop rent increases that have taken place under Mr. Adams. And former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 after facing a series of sexual harassment allegations, is also considering running, and has focused this year on combating antisemitism.If Mr. Adams resigns, the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor and might run for the job on a permanent basis. Mr. Williams is a left-leaning former City Council member from Brooklyn who has been a fierce critic of Mr. Adams, assailing the mayor’s aggressive policing strategy.Mr. Adams’s approval rating was already dismal before his indictment. In a Quinnipiac poll taken last December, only 28 percent of New Yorkers approved of the job he was doing — the lowest rating for any New York City mayor in a Quinnipiac survey since it began polling the city in 1996.Mr. Adams, a former police officer who ran for mayor on a public safety message, won by a slim margin in the 2021 Democratic primary. He beat his closest challenger, Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, by roughly 7,200 votes. More

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      Eric Adams Is Indicted After Federal Corruption Investigation

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      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.The indictment remained sealed on Wednesday night, and it was unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams will face. But the federal investigation has focused at least in part on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.When the indictment is made public, Mr. Adams will become the first New York City mayor to face a federal charge 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.And, if it contains allegations of conspiring to commit crimes with foreign nationals, it will have landed on the same week that the city was playing host to leaders from across the world at the United Nations General Assembly, including Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.In a statement, Mr. Adams said he had done nothing wrong.“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” he said. “If I am charged, I am innocent, and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Who Has Called for Mayor Eric Adams to Resign?

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      Even before news of Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment was made public on Wednesday, prominent elected officials had already called for his resignation, most notably Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. But after the news of the mayor’s indictment, the calls for his resignation promptly surged. Mr. Adams is not required to resign.Scott Stringer, the former New York City comptroller who is among the Democrats running against Mr. Adams in next year’s Democratic primary, said on Wednesday night that the mayor needed to “resign for the good of the city,” repeating a line used by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.“There is simply zero chance that the wheels of government will move forward from this full steam ahead,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “Instead, we are left with a broken down train wreck of a municipal government.”Brad Lander, the current New York City comptroller, who is also running for mayor, echoed the sentiment.“Mayor Adams, like all New Yorkers, deserves due process, the presumption of innocence, and his day in court,” he wrote on X. “However, it is clear that defending himself against serious federal charges will require a significant amount of the time and attention needed to govern this great city. The most appropriate path forward is for him to step down so that New York City can get the full focus its leadership demands.”Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is also running for mayor against Mr. Adams, joined the chorus. “We need a leader who is fully focused, without distraction, on the enormous challenges we face — from housing affordability to public safety,” Mr. Myrie wrote on X. “A mayor under the weight of a serious indictment can no longer do that — and today I am calling on him to resign.”Councilman Shekar Krishnan, who represents a district in Queens, said Mr. Adams “will absolutely be unable to lead from inside a courtroom. He must resign.”State Senator John Liu, another Queens Democrat, said New Yorkers “need a mayor who is able to devote full time and full energy to putting the city on the right track, including recruitment and retention of top leadership for the city.” He added: “Mayor Adams is simply unable to do that for the foreseeable future and therefore, for the good of all New Yorkers, must resign immediately.”Other elected officials who have called for Mr. Adams to step down include State Senators Gustavo Rivera, Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport; City Councilmembers Tiffany Cabán and Alexa Avilés; and Assemblymembers Emily Gallagher and Phara Souffrant Forrest. More