Eric Adams under pressure to oust top aide and close friend amid federal probes

NEW YORK — Pressure is building on Mayor Eric Adams to fire one of his key aides and longtime friends, Timothy Pearson, who is ensnared in a mushrooming corruption scandal.

Several advisers to Adams have encouraged him to oust Pearson, according to three people briefed on the conversations who were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive personnel matter.

One of the five advisers — Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg — abruptly resigned over the weekend after the mayor declined to heed her advice and fire Pearson and others, two of those people told POLITICO. The Daily News first reported that development.

Adding to the pressure was a New York Post editorial Monday night urging Adams to boot Pearson. The influential tabloid — which has been generally supportive of Adams’ mayoralty — called on him to fire NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban on Sept. 5. Four days later, POLITICO reported , Adams met privately with Caban to discuss the possibility of him resigning, someone familiar with that meeting said. Caban stepped down on Sept. 12.

Pearson’s phone was seized in a sprawling federal corruption probe earlier this month. Agents are reportedly looking into, among other things, the businesses run by the brothers of Caban and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks — and whether they benefited from their associations with city officials.

But his time in City Hall has been clouded by scandal, including an alleged assault at a migrant shelter and a series of sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him.

The advisers recognize Adams may not follow their guidance. He is exceedingly loyal, even to the most problematic aides — to a degree that at times frustrates his advisers. He chafes at public criticism, of the current sort aimed at Pearson.

City Hall did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the pressure against Pearson.

He and Pearson have a long and deep history. Pearson was his commanding officer when the two worked in the NYPD and he stuck up for Adams when the then-rabble rouser had few allies on the force, two of the people said. As a Black police officer, Adams challenged the system’s endemic racism from within its ranks.

“NYPD is a brotherhood. It’s a bond,” former City Hall Chief of Staff Frank Carone told POLITICO about Adams’ relationship with Pearson in 2023. At the time, he likened the relationship between Adams and Pearson to two people who had “play[ed] on a championship football team.”

But as a leading adviser to the mayor, who earns more than $240,000 a year, Pearson has been a hindrance.

He caused bad headlines for the administration during its first year when The New York Times uncovered that he was working in City Hall while also collecting a salary as a security executive at Resorts World in Queens — one of the casinos in the midst of the fierce competition for a full gambling license.

City Hall defended the questionable agreement, but Pearson still resigned days later from his casino job.

He was allowed to maintain another financially beneficial arrangement in which he technically was employed by the city’s semi-independent Economic Development Corporation, enabling him to keep his $124,000 annual police pension, on top of his salary.

Pearson, who operates in relative obscurity in his public-sector job, has been granted wide latitude over the city’s vast asylum-seeker operation, putting him in charge of lucrative contracts. Earlier this year POLITICO reported he allegedly delayed the opening of a migrant facility as he tried to secure a security contract for an ally who raised money for Adams’ mayoral run.

He also oversees an office Adams set up to ensure quality control over municipal services. While in that nebulous office, Pearson was hit with four separate lawsuits , alleging a pattern of sexual harassment and professional retaliation leading a hostile work environment.

Pearson’s lawyer, John Flannery of Wilson Elser, has said he denies the allegations in all of the suits.

The city is paying for Pearson’s legal representation since the allegations are about his behavior on the job.

But that decision earned criticism that it reeked of special treatment, when other city employees in similar situations have had to pay for their own lawyers.

The leader of the Law Department — Sylvia Hinds-Radix — pushed back against City Hall’s preference to help Pearson, but lost the battle, POLITICO reported . She ended up leaving the job, partly over that dispute.

And just last week, according to the New York Times , Pearson allegedly abused his authority by threatening security guards at a migrant facility and then having them arrested.