Governor Kathy Hochul may be using the power of her position to call for Mayor Eric Adams to resign as federal charges of fraud, bribery and others have been made against him, yet Adams has stated he does not plan on stepping down anytime soon.
CNN reported that Hochul allegedly told the mayor to clean house during a private phone call with him this past week, according to multiple sources familiar with the call. While the sources say she did not explicitly call for him to resign, she emphasized that he needs to work to regain the trust of New Yorkers.
Currently, Adams is facing five federal counts of bribery, corruption, wire fraud and soliciting and accepting donations from foreign nationals. On Friday, he pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Sources familiar with the calls said Hochul spoke with Adams Thursday evening prior to her publicly releasing a statement saying Adams should “review the situation” and find a path forward that would reassure New Yorkers their leaders are serving them well.
Since then the governor has also told Adams he should fire some of his aides in his administration who have been federally investigated, sources reported to CNN. Still, Adams has resisted calls to fire the aides, who are all members of his inner administration, and in some cases, close friends.
The aides include Deputy Mayors Sheena Wright and Phil Banks and senior adviser Tim Pearson, who resigned from his post Monday. After Adams resisted calls to fire the aides, Chief counsel Lisa Zornberg also resigned.
Yet, both Hochul and Adams have asserted that there has been no official call for him to resign since the rumors of the private phone call.
“I’ve talked to the mayor about what my expectations are, and I don’t give out details of private conversations,” Hochul told reporters Monday.
During an unrelated press conference on Monday, Adams addressed his calls with the governor and confirmed she had not asked him to resign, but didn’t go into detail about what was discussed.
On Thursday federal prosecutors added witness tampering to the previous charges and indicated that there may still be more charges to come and new defendants are “likely.” Reportedly, Adams urged any possible witnesses in the investigation not to tell the truth to the FBI when questioned.
Adams is expected back in court November 1 and then again in December. While the defense has requested a speedy trial as early as March, the judge has not yet set a date.
