Governor Kathy Hochul held a series of meetings on Tuesday with key political leaders when he plans to withdraw mayor Eric Adams from his office, an unprecedented stage that reflects growing troubles inside the town hall .
The Governor’s scheduled sit -down – with a cohort of influential black leaders and other senior officials – come when Adams, a democrat, faces questions to find out if he lost the Ability to govern independently The City following a Ministry of Justice moves to abandon its corruption case so that it can better help the repression of the immigration of President Donald Trump.
What you need to know
- Governor Kathy Hochul held a series of meetings on Tuesday with key political leaders when she plans to withdraw mayor Eric Adams from his office
- The sit-downs planned by the governor present themselves while ADAMS faces questions to find out if he has lost the ability to govern the city independently following a move from the Ministry of Justice to abandon his affair corruption
- Hochul has the power to withdraw Adams from the office. But she hesitated to do so, arguing that such a decision would be undemocratic, while pushing the city in an unusual legal process
Hochul, also a democrat, has the power to withdraw Adams from office. But she hesitated to do so, arguing that such a decision would be undemocratic, while pushing the city in an unusual legal process.
But her political calculation seemed to change Monday evening after four of the main deputies of Adams announced their resignation, who, according to her, “raises serious questions on the long -term future of this administration of the mayor”.
Two people familiar with the governor’s calendar, but who were not allowed to publicly disclose details on meetings, said that Hochul had spoken on Tuesday with the American representative Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Controller Brad Lander, the president of Municipal Council Adrienne Adams, the Reverend Al Sharpton and the American representative Gregory Mee about the future of Adams.
“Mayor Adams is responsible for demonstrating in a decisive way to the residents of New York that he has the ability to continue to govern in the best interest of New Yorkers rather than taking orders from the Trump administration,” said Jeffries in Brooklyn on Tuesday.
“Following the resignations of the four assistant mayors and federal prosecutors, I am deeply concerned about the future of the management of our city and I hope that our system of checks and balances will protect the interests of the inhabitants of New York “, Meeks written in a press release. “Here is the essential – no elected person, whether the president or the governor – should unilaterally decide the fate of our mayor or a duly elected person. We must join the process set out by our laws in New York and let The judicial process takes place at the hearing (Wednesday).
Hochul asked for information during a series of individual meetings on Tuesday with the best politicians at his Midtown office on Tuesday.
“There are two ways to understand, whether or not there is a crime or that there is enough outcry of the city that you have lost the public’s confidence. And the question is: if there is no crime and you are going to public confidence – how do you assess public confidence? Said Sharpton, after his plate with the governor.
“We are going to wait and see what the judge says, tomorrow, agree, so that we do not fix a precedent,” added Sharpton.
After his meeting, Sharpton said that the governor had told him that she “would see what the judge decides tomorrow and would continue to deliberate with other leaders”. He did not say explicitly if he had exhorted the mayor to start the referral process, but he said that he had supported Hochul’s decision to wait Wednesday court hearing.
The controller and the chairman of the Council are members of the so-called “Inability Committee”, an organization of five people authorized by the charters of the city to withdraw a mayor who is deemed unfit to serve.
Lander, who also presents himself to the Democratic primary, said that he would summon the panel if the mayor does not describe an emergency plan to direct the city by the end of the week.
“Friday, I asked the mayor an emergency plan to find out how he plans to provide the services that New Yorkers expect when these assistant mayors leave their offices, and that’s a critical thing,” said Lander To journalists after meeting with Hochul.
Hochul had also spoken by telephone with another member of the committee, the president of the district of Queens, Donovan Richards, according to the two sources.
Adams did not approach the growing calls to move at an independent press conference on a police officer who was shot down on Tuesday morning. Leaving the hospital, he offered a laconic response to journalists who asked why he had not asked questions for weeks: “Because you all have liars”.
The town hall of Adams has turned into a political crisis in the most populous city in the country.
The winds of the scandal began to blow in November 2023, when the mayor of the first period The phones were seized As part of a federal survey on its campaign fundraising in 2021. He refused any reprehensible act.
During the following year, the multiple key Aids and allies in its administration have been examinedAnd some have resigned. Then Adams himself was charged On corruption and other charges, accused of having favored for the Turkish government after obtaining illegal campaign donations and whimsical trips.
He Pleaded not guilty And said he was politically targeted for criticizing the immigration policies of President Joe Biden. Adams, a centrist democrat, started Get closer to the president to train then Donald Trump While the Republican ran last year to recover the White House.
After Trump won, Adams’ openings intensified – and Trump started publicly floating the possibility of forgiveness For the mayor, suggesting that Adams had been “treated quite unfair”. Adams Flied for Florida to meet Trump Before taking office, and the mayor abandoned a planned observation of Martin Luther King in New York after obtaining a last minute invitation to the inauguration of Trump. Meanwhile, Adams reported the opening to the softening of city policies which limit cooperation with the federal immigration authorities.
Adams insisted that he was looking for the interests of the city, not his, to cultivate a relationship with the president.
But the argument was tested when Trump’s Ministry of Justice ordered prosecutors this month to abandon the accusations against Adams, at least for the moment. The acting deputy prosecutor general Emil Bove said that the case had “the unduly restricted capacity of the mayor Adams to devote total attention and resources” to illegal immigration and violent crimes. Both are Trump priorities.
The order has stimulated an extraordinary confrontation between the Bove named Trump and several career prosecutors and supervisors of public corruption affairs, which resigned rather than realizing What they saw as a politically based on accusations. In the end, two main lawyers from the Ministry of Justice filed the required documents Friday to ask a judge to put an official end to the case. A The hearing has been defined For Wednesday.
In the meantime, a wider storm has started to swirl on the assertion of a prosecutor now form that Adams lawyers have offered his cooperation on immigration policy in exchange for rejecting the case. Adams lawyers have denied any quid-quo offer, while saying that they told prosecutors when asked, that the case had the efforts to apply the mayor’s immigration .
A choir of Democrats from New York has now called Adams to leave or be ousted, saying that it had sold the city to save itself.
Adams and its allies are considering replacements – among them: longtime lawyer Randy Mastro.
Sources told NY1 that he was in the running to replace Maria Torres-Springer as first deputy mayor, Anne Williams-Isom as deputy mayor of health and human hospitals or Meera Joshi as deputy mayor for operations.