NYC scandal claims another top aide to indicted Mayor Eric Adams

New York Mayor Eric Adams lost his last close City Hall ally Friday as the pressure of a federal bribery indictment and multiple investigations forced an administrative bloodletting at the top of America’s biggest city.

Philip Banks III, the city’s deputy mayor for criminal justice and a former top police official, was the last of a tight coterie of mayoral aides and NYPD officials to quit or retire after weeks of law enforcement raids punctuated by Adams’ historic indictment last month.

Banks “stated he wants to transition to some other things with his life and he doesn't want this to be a constant burden on the work that we're doing in the city,” the embattled mayor told NY1 Spectrum News Monday morning. “And I accepted his resignation.”

“I wish my good friend well,” he said.

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Eric Adams hangs on

Adams has refused to step down since U.S. Attorney Damian Williams accused him of taking illegal campaign donations and free international trips from the Turkish government in exchange for official favors.

The mayor has pleaded not guilty. Federal prosecutors said in court last week Adams could face additional charges and that it was likely others will be charged in the cascade of scandals engulfing his administration.

A Marist poll released Friday found that 69% of New York City residents, including 71% of Democrats, want the mayor to resign, while 30% said he should complete his term.

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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove the mayor, but pushing an elected official from office before trial would be politically dangerous. Adams is close to the Rev. Al Sharpton, a Democratic power broker, who has warned Hochul against moving on the mayor. As long as New York City keeps running, three people familiar with Democratic party discussions told USA TODAY, elected officials won't push for his resignation.

Hochul has "been a real partner and she will continue to do that," Adams told NY1. "And I thank her for that."

"The governor has been very clear that she wants to see the city cleaned up," Jay Jacobs, the state Democratic chair, said in an interview. The governor's office didn't return an email seeking comment.

City Hall: A family affair

The mayor, a former police captain and state senator, built his administration around the Banks family and close friends from his time in the NYPD ? many of whom were served with federal search warrants and subpoenas last month.

Adams gave Deputy Mayor Banks the city's criminal justice portfolio despite his having been named an unindicted co-conspirator in a previous NYPD corruption scandal.

Banks' brother, Schools Chancellor David Banks, recently announced his retirement. According to published reports, David Banks’ partner, Sheena Wright, has told insiders last week she will resign as first deputy mayor. A third Banks brother, government affairs consultant Terrence Banks, was forced to hand over his phone to investigators last month.

The NYPD, meanwhile, is reportedly the target of a federal probe into nightclub enforcement.

Edward Caban resigned as police commissioner two weeks after his devices were seized, and federal investigators then raided the Manhattan home of Thomas Donlon, the interim police commissioner, reportedly in search of decades-old documents from his time as a high-ranking FBI official. Caban’s twin brother James ? a former police officer who was fired in 2001 ? also had his phones seized.

Adams has claimed, to the annoyance of his fellow Democrats, that the charges against him are White House payback for his criticism of the Biden administration's immigration policies.

Asked Monday on Fox5's "Good Day New York" if he still believed that, Adams replied, "Listen, I said I was a target, a target I became."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NYC Mayor Eric Adams loses another aide to corruption scandal