Several of NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ deputies looking to resign amid Trump DOJ indictment dismissal fallout, sources say
NEW YORK – Several of Mayor Eric Adams’ top deputies told him over the weekend they’re either considering or planning to resign over concerns about how his ability to govern could be impacted by the terms President Donald Trump’s Justice Department is placing on the dismissal of his corruption indictment, according to sources familiar with the matter.
After speaking again Sunday, however, three of the top aides – First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi and Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom – agreed to put off their resignations for now in order to devise exit strategies, the sources told the Daily News.
The three are still planning to step down, though, stressed the sources, who described the current situation as being a matter of “when, not if.”
Torres-Springer, Adams’ second-in-command, and her two fellow deputies first relayed in conversations on Friday and Saturday that they are looking to leave.
Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom didn’t immediately return requests for comment Monday.
According to two other sources familiar with the matter, Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy has also told Adams he’s considering resigning. Levy didn’t return calls and texts Monday.
City Hall press secretary Kayla Mamelak, whose boss is Levy, wouldn’t discuss what he or the other deputy mayors told Adams over the weekend, saying she won’t “get into the details of a private conversation for him or any other DM.”
NBC4, which first reported that Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom told the mayor in a Friday meeting they intend to step down, also cited a source familiar with the matter as saying Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker has communicated a desire to exit the administration.
The dramatic developments come after a Friday night meeting, first reported by Politico, was called so that Adams’ deputies could share their thoughts about a recent decision by Trump’s Department of Justice to seek the dismissal of the mayor’s corruption case with some highly unusual strings attached.
A dismissal motion – which Trump political appointees in Washington, D.C. filed Friday night after several federal prosecutors in Manhattan refused to do and instead resigned – asks the presiding judge to drop the case “without prejudice.”
That means the case can be resurrected at any time, and Trump’s DOJ leaders specifically wrote in a memo they want the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office to “review” Adams’ case for a new prosecution after November’s mayoral election.
In the interim, the DOJ honchos wrote that dropping the case will help Adams play a bigger role in Trump’s hardline deportation agenda – a caveat that has led both allies and critics of the mayor to reason that the president’s looking to pressure him into doing his bidding.
The deputy mayors echoed those concerns in Friday’s meeting, held at the mayor’s Gracie Mansion residence, including saying they are uneasy about whether Adams can be acting independent of Trump given the terms of his dismissal, sources familiar with the matter said.
Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, who chairs the Council’s Finance Committee and supported Adams’ 2021 campaign, has stopped short of calling on him to resign.
But Brannan said this weekend’s turmoil is proving a serious obstacle to steady leadership at a time of multiple crises, with budget season around the corner as Trump’s administration looks to strip federal funding from New York City.
“Budget hearings start in two weeks. There is too much at stake and it’s only going to get worse so none of this is a good sign,” Brannan said of the forthcoming deputy mayor resignations. “We can’t afford a crisis of confidence right now.”