“'You need to resign,' I say, 'I need to reign,'” said Eric Adams - after being federally charged with conspiracy, bribery, and receiving illegal foreign campaign donations. Adams told the taxpayers he may have defrauded out of $10 million that he saw this coming. But based on the year he and his circle have had, who didn’t?
Multiple media outlets tracked investigations into his inner circle, ranging from nightlife and business to policing and city hall. Local outlet Hell Gate mockingly dubbed it Adams’ “Table of Success.”
Before Adams’ indictment, his Masonic brother, Police Commissioner Edward Caban, stepped down when the feds seized his phone -- after he let over 400 misconduct cases involving stop-and-frisks, wrongful property searches, and beatings get tossed out without even a glance at the evidence.
Investigators had also searched or seized the phones of Adams’ former chief fundraiser, deputy mayors, cops, advisers, and other associates. Cases like civil rights-violating cop Dwayne Montgomery, who pleaded guilty to straw donor dealings, or Timothy Pearson, who matches Adams in both sexual harassment lawsuits and election corruption allegations, foreshadowed this downfall.
Adams’ administration has subjected Black communities to over-policing, defunded public services, and corruption. The raids, resignations, and convictions following Adams and those he brought to high places are simply his chickens finally coming home to roost.