Eric Adams faces pressure to resign as New York Democrats plot next moves
CNN
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the rank-and-file transit cop who rose to the city’s most powerful office, is no longer the master of his political destiny.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the rank-and-file transit cop who rose to the city’s most powerful office, is no longer the master of his political destiny. Indicted on federal corruption charges unsealed Thursday, Adams’ fate will be decided in the coming days and weeks, as the defiant mayor dials up his attacks on prosecutors who say he brazenly stole from the city he promised to secure. Adams maintains his innocence and says he is focused on being mayor. Whether he remains in that job, however, is an open question. Interviews with nearly a dozen Democratic operatives and donors, lobbyists and city officials yielded a picture of a mayor on the brink and a city government near paralyzed by weeks of upheaval. Rumors surrounding the mayor’s assorted legal troubles, including four ongoing federal investigations, dominated New York political chatter over the past few weeks, with leading operatives openly speculating about when – not if – the charges would be brought and how Adams would respond. “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target – and a target I became,” the mayor said Wednesday night after The New York Times first reported on the indictment. Without directly addressing Adams’ comments, Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, insisted on Thursday morning after he unsealed the indictment that the charges were damning and unassailable.
Senate Democrats grilled Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his various controversial statements including his stance on vaccines during his confirmation hearing to be President Donald Trump’s health and human services secretary, and most left feeling overwhelmingly unsatisfied by the answers they received.
A Nigerian man has been extradited to the US to face charges in the “sextortion” of a South Carolina teen who died by suicide in 2022. Prosecutors allege the scammer posed as a young woman, persuaded 17-year-old Gavin Guffey to send him nude photos and then threatened to publicize them if Guffey didn’t send money.