Adams' defense begins to emerge – a day after latest FBI raids become public

NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ supporters were planning to hold a big campaign kick off next weekend at Gracie Mansion, his official residence.

On Friday, invitees who volunteered for his last campaign got an email alerting them otherwise: “Apologies for the inconvenience but Saturday, September 14th’s event has been POSTPONED.”

The sudden change of plans comes one day after it became public that federal agents executed search warrants on some of Adams’ top appointees, including his first deputy mayor Sheena Wright and NYPD commissioner Edward Caban.

The FBI’s interest marks two new separate investigations into people trying to profit off family members in government, NBC New York reported Friday . That would mean there are at least four federal probes touching the mayor’s inner circle, which further threatens Adams’ reelection and comes at a time when he is already on shaky ground.

That has quickly led all the potential mayoral candidates — including Adams himself — to game out in real time the best way to respond.

Adams’ team isn’t ignorant of the impact.

“It’s clear as day you don’t want what happened [Thursday] to happen when you’re heading into reelection,” a person close to his political operation who was granted anonymity to speak freely told POLITICO.

Adams himself is doing his best to downplay it, and insists it’s still business as usual in City Hall.

“As a former law enforcement person, the goal is to follow the law,” Adams told reporters Thursday. “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 fact he had to underline that he would remain mayor represented a remarkable fall from the highs of his 2021 election. A moderate Democrat and retired police captain, Adams at the time dubbed himself the Biden of Brooklyn and was hailed by many as the future of the party.

Now, two and a half years into his term — and after criticizing President Biden just months into it for his response to the migrant crisis — Adams finds himself once again in the position of having to weigh whether to accuse Biden’s Justice Department of investigating him for political reasons.

As they were when the first federal investigation into Turkish influence broke in November, Adams’ camp has so far been careful in raising accusations that the mayor is being politically targeted — potentially because of his race — and letting other people speak for him.

City Hall followed that playbook Friday, directing reporters to speak with a community leader in Queens, Bishop Mitchell Taylor.

“Because he’s a Black man, he’s being berated. This is racially infused,” he told POLITICO. “Have you ever seen this before? I haven’t.”

Adams is the city’s second Black mayor. U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, whose office is leading the investigation, is also Black.

With that dynamic in mind, Taylor, who is Black, suggested federal prosecutors should say more about the investigations.

“There’s instruments being hit, cymbals and drums but you’re not producing a chorus,” Taylor said. “The public deserves to know what we’re talking about, instead of running around here, snatching devices and not talking about it.”

Gov. David Paterson, a frequent defender of the mayor, raised the question of whether the investigations were political retribution from the Justice Department for Adams’ criticism of the administration’s migrant policy. He presented the theory without evidence in an interview on WABC radio and Adams didn’t refute it.

“I would hope that none of what’s taking place is attributed to me fighting on behalf of the city,” Adams said. “That’s what I was elected to do.”

Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a steadfast ally who leads the Brooklyn Democratic Party, similarly told The New York Times that a constituent recently asked her, “why is the federal government harassing these Black folks?” — attributing it to someone else, rather than saying it herself.

In her own statement to POLITICO, Bichotte Hermelyn sounded like Adams, saying voters were focused on his achievements, and simply “see this as an inquiry where federal investigators are being thorough.”

Adams is facing serious blowback across the political spectrum from the latest probes, though.

Progressive activists at New York Communities for Change are calling on him to resign . The conservative New York Post editorial board is calling on Police Commissioner Edward Caban to resign . And on that point, Democratic City Council Members Lincoln Restler , a progressive, and Bob Holden , a conservative, agree.

Adams is up for reelection in 2025. And some of the candidates planning to run against him are going all in on the attack.

“If he’s not distracted by all this, he’s delusional, and if this is what his focus looks like, he needs new lenses,” former City Comptroller Scott Stringer said in a statement Friday, playing off of one of Adams’ political mantras: “stay focused, no distractions and grind.”

Comptroller Brad Lander, another mayoral challenger, hit a similar note in a post on X Thursday. “Amidst an unending stream of stories about the Adams Administration being raided and investigated by federal law enforcement,” he wrote, “it is clear that New Yorkers are not getting the steady leadership we deserve.”

Both Bichotte Hermelyn and Taylor separately criticized Adams’ mayoral challengers for jumping to conclusions on the investigations.

Meanwhile the only top Black challenger to Adams, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, took an understated approach and avoided criticizing the mayor.

“You’ve probably seen the headlines today, and have questions about what’s happening in City Hall,” Myrie wrote in a fundraising email Friday. But instead of dwelling on those headlines, Myrie has pointed to his focus on implementing free afterschool programs for students.

That could be a beneficial political strategy, especially given that ranked-choice voting will be in effect in next year’s Democratic primary.

Myrie represents the same state Senate district in Central Brooklyn that Adams once did, and doing his best to avoid antagonizing Adams’ base could broaden his own support — and open up a path to victory if he can become their first or second choice.

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is thought to be considering a run if Adams is politically damaged enough, would also need to win over Black voters who are loyal Adams supporters to win.

Cuomo hasn’t said anything publicly about the recent news and would be unlikely to attack the mayor harshly, given his own claims of political prosecution around his sexual harassment investigations.

For now, Adams is protected by the lack of details shared by law enforcement, according to a political consultant who worked against Adams in 2021. The consultant, who was granted anonymity to speak about political dynamics, said if the election were tomorrow, Adams would win because his challengers haven’t made a good case yet.

“He could also use the narrative: I’m a Black man, they’re coming after me — the powers that be,” they said. “This has been going on a long time, I’m innocent, I haven’t been accused of anything.”

Emily Ngo contributed to this report.