Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams’ first Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright will be stepping down from her position following his federal indictment on bribery and corruption charges, according to multiple outlets.
New York federal prosecutors secured their indictment against the Democratic mayor on Sept. 25, nearly a year after FBI agents seized his electronic devices and raided his top fundraiser’s home in November 2023. Multiple anonymous sources have now told the New York Post and Politico that Wright will be allegedly forced to resign soon after her house was also raided by authorities in September.
Despite Wright denying the allegation to The Post, sources speaking to Politico claimed Adams was pushing out Wright due to “existing tension.”
On Sept. 5, both Wright and another aide for Adams, Phil Banks, had their homes raided by federal agents, which came just weeks before Adams’ was charged with one count of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals,” one count of wire fraud, two counts of soliciting a contribution by a foreign national and one count of bribery.
Federal authorities claim in a 57-page indictment that for over a decade Adams allegedly “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.”
Early reports indicate Adams is vetting potential replacements, including Anthony Shorris and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer from former Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration, as well as Adams’ chief of staff, Camille Joseph Varlack, according to The Post.
Adams pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 27, with his lawyer Alex Spiro stating the mayor would be filing a motion to dismiss the case.
“Second thing that happened in court today is that we let the court know that next week we’ll be filing a motion to dismiss. We expect these charges to be dismissed. You all remember the Brian Benjamin case, similar, shaky theory, that case was dismissed,” Spiro said outside of the courthouse. “Same prosecutors, same theory, but the spectacle of this — so exciting to them — that they wanted to bring another one of these cases. This case isn’t even a real case. This is the airline upgrade corruption case.”
Wright’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Featured Image Credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York
