Oct. 8 (UPI) — A former aide to New York City Mayor Eric Adams was charged Tuesday with witness tampering and destroying evidence related to a federal investigation that led to Adams’ indictment on bribery charges.
U.S. prosecutors said that Mohamed Bahi, a community affairs liaison who quit Monday, told campaign donors and a businessman to lie to federal agents in June.
He also allegedly deleted an encrypted messaging app from his cellphone in July at the same time the FBI, equipped with a warrant, searched his home.
Also Tuesday, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright resigned her city hall job, the seventh senior official to quit Adams’ administration as federal probes into City Hall widen.
Wright’s departure followed resignation announcements of Schools Chancellor David Banks, who is her husband, and Philip B. Banks III, a deputy mayor who is Wright’s brother-in-law.
The role of first deputy mayor who acts as the mayor’s second-in-command, will be filled by Maria Torres-Springer, the city’s current deputy mayor for housing, economic development and work force, effective Tuesday.
Adams told reporters that he thinks Bahi’s departure may have a “chilling” effect on the city’s diverse and immigrant population.
“I need to stay focused on running the city,” Adams said early Tuesday afternoon during a news conference over questions of the ongoing investigation. “That’s what I’m going to do.”
Wright is one of five senior Adams administration officials whose homes were raided Sept. 4 by federal authorities as part of the investigation that dates as far back as at least 2016.
In a statement, Adams called his former top deputy mayor an “exceptional leader” who had assembled “a strong team and constantly demonstrated a bold vision for this city.”
“I’m concerned this could be a real chill,” Adams said Tuesday on the potential impact the federal probe could have on the city’s diverse population.
“I’m hoping they don’t go back into a shell,” he added, or believe “this is a moment where they shouldn’t participate” in the New York City’s vast community.
Other notable names who left city government include New York’s former Police Commissioner Edward Caban, Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, and advisers Tim Pearson and Lisa Zornberg.
David Banks — head of the nation’s largest school system — is also set to depart ahead of a planned retirement. He blame Adams for the situation.
Tuesday’s events took place as Adams tried to reassure the city he is still able to govern despite the nature of the federal charges facing him.
A former police officer and borough president, Adams faces five criminal counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery and receiving campaign contributions from foreign nationals and a Turkish government official; wire fraud; bribery: and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national.
“People enjoy confiding in me and speaking with me,” Adams said Tuesday afternoon. “You speak with me, it stays with me. I don’t go around talking.”
His sprawling 57-page indictment lists 23 specific “overt acts” related to just the conspiracy charges alone.
Only two of New York City’s more than 100 mayors have resigned, the last in the early 1950s. According to state law, New York’s governor holds the power to remove the city’s mayor.
On Tuesday, the mayor said he is “not going to go into” what possible private talks he’s had so far with Gov. Kathy Hochul, who previously indicated she will wait to see what Adams decides before making a decision whether to remove Adams.
Adams still is running as a candidate for a second term as New York’s mayor in next year’s Nov. 4 election.
“I’m not campaigning right now,” he told reporters Tuesday. “I’m doing it as the mayor.”
