New York City’s First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright resigned from her post on Tuesday after her home was reportedly raided by the FBI in early September, becoming the latest senior official to step down. Administration of Mayor Eric Adams Because he’s facing federal corruption charges.
Wright’s reported resignation came just days after her husband, New York City Public Schools Chancellor David Banks, announced that he would do so. Resign earlier than expected in October. The New York Times, citing sources, said Wright is expected to be replaced by Maria Torres-Springer, the current deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce.
Asked about the matter Tuesday morning, the mayor’s office told Fox News Digital that “no announcement is final until it is made.”
On Monday, Vinny Greco, the mayor’s Asian affairs director, also resigned from his role New York Post.
His attorney Steven Brill — who did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment Tuesday — told City Greco “officially resigned… of his own volition.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Sheena Wright attend Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023 on December 31, 2022 in New York City. (Getty Images for Noam Galai/Dick Clark Productions)
The same day, Rena Abbasova, an employee who worked in the international affairs office for Adams, was fired from her job, with sources telling Fox News that she was let go because she was a “key cooperating witness” in the federal investigation. Adams.
Senior New York City Hall official Mohammed Bahi also stepped down on Monday. This morning, federal prosecutors announced they have unsealed a complaint accusing him of “tampering with witnesses and destroying evidence in connection with the federal investigation into unlawful contributions to a particular 2021 mayoral campaign.”
“If there were no vulnerabilities here, no one would have to resign,” Paul Mauro, a former NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor, told Fox News Digital. “Obviously, a lot of them are trying to make the point that ‘Oh, I was going to go anyway’ — but these are all the people in (Adams’s) closest inner circle and it’s that team. What he put together to run the city and his premature departure, when he normally would be preparing for re-election, I don’t see how you can argue that. It’s business as usual, it’s very clear that something heavy is going on.”
Majority of New York City residents want convicted Mayor Eric Adams to resign: poll
New York City Mayor Eric Adams poses with his Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, left, and advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin during his weekly in-person news conference in the City Hall Blue Room on March 5, 2024 in New York. (Luiz C. Ribeiro/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Adams is faces a five-count indictment On charges of fraud, bribery and corruption, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
The 64-year-old mayor is accused of soliciting illegal campaign donations from foreign organizations and falsifying paperwork to hide it. As part of the conspiracy, he allegedly defrauded taxpayers of $10 million over the past decade and often took free or deeply discounted vacations from his foreign beneficiaries.
Adams said in a video statement that any charges filed against her would be “based entirely on lies, on lies”, and indicated that her criticism of the Biden administration’s disastrous border policies has made her a target of retaliation.
Eric Adams likely to face more charges
New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives in federal court on October 2 in New York City after being charged with bribery and illegally soliciting campaign contributions from a foreign national. (Reuters/Caitlin Ochs)
The mayor was quoted as saying the new York Times “We are grateful for First Deputy Mayor Wright’s years of service to the city and all she has done for children, families and working-class New Yorkers,” a statement circulated Tuesday said.
He reportedly said, “He is an extraordinary leader who has assembled a strong team and consistently demonstrated a bold vision for this city.”
The mayor’s office said on its website that Wright has worked in the administration since January 2022, first as deputy mayor for strategic initiatives and then as first deputy mayor through January 2023.
“During his tenure in the Administration, he helped launch the first phase of the MyCity portal, a one-stop-shop where New Yorkers can easily apply for and track city services and benefits. He helped the city Has helped work on key issues: blueprint for child care and early childhood education in New York City – most notably, clearing the backlog of waiting lists for vouchers and providing access to low-cost, high-quality education to families of 36,000 children. Allowing them to apply for child care,” his biography reads.
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It says Wright, a graduate of Columbia University and Columbia Law School, “also previously served as the first female president and CEO of the United Way of New York City.”
Fox News’s Alexis McAdams, Michael Ruiz and Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
