Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she had no plans, for now, to remove embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office, but will push to limit his authority and appoint a deputy inspector to oversee his office and affairs amid his corruption case controversy.
While the New York governor does have the power to oust the NYC mayor from office, Hochul said during a Thursday afternoon press conference that she would not opt to do so “at this time,” given her “concerns about disruption and chaos that such a proceeding could bring to the residents” of New York City.
“New York is facing a grave threat from Washington,” Hochul said in Manhattan. “The Trump administration is already trying to use the legal jeopardy facing our mayor as leverage to squeeze and punish our city.”
She added that she feared firing Adams could set a “dangerous precedent” — though noted the mayor would need to bring in strong managers, and she hadn’t ruled out removing Adams at a later date.
“You can ask him how he feels about these proposed changes,” Hochul said of the mayor.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio weighs in on Gov. Kathy Hochul putting in guardrails on Mayor Eric Adams amid controversies surrounding his bribery and corruption case and his relationship with the Trump administration.
Rather than removal, Hochul said she wants to leave Adams’ political fate in the hands of voters, with a mayoral election taking place later in 2025. She previously had been reluctant to oust him, arguing that doing so would be undemocratic, while thrusting the city into a complex, court-like removal process that has never been used before against a sitting mayor of the country’s most populous city.
The governor laid out her plan to limit Adams’ authority at City Hall and increase oversight at City Hall, which would empower other state and city officials to keep the mayor in check. The new “guardrails” she plans to ask the state legislature to implement would include:
- Establishing a new state deputy inspector general with oversight authority to solely investigate New York City affairs
- More money for the state comptroller to step up examinations of the city’s finances
- Setting aside additional money for city officials (such as the city comptroller, NYC public advocate and city council speaker) to hire outside counsel to sue the federal government, if necessary, should Adams refuse to do so
- A new rule that would ban the mayor from firing the head of the city’s Department of Investigation
A spokesperson for the New York City Council said in response to Hochul’s comments that once the details of the governor’s plans are shared, they will be reviewed.
“The loss of confidence in Mayor Adams by his own staff, colleagues in government, and New Yorkers has undermined his Administration’s ability to effectively govern,” the spokesperson said. “As Speaker Adams said earlier this week, New Yorkers need a city leader who is totally committed to protecting and improving their lives and provides management that is trusted as uncompromised.
“I want to reassure New Yorkers: Your city is still working for you,” said Hochul, adding that her goal is to “reestablish trust” with city residents.
She said she reached the decision after days of consulting with her closest advisors, and that her focus is on restoring normalcy for New Yorkers. The governor sought opinions from numerous state political figures regarding Adams’ ability to independently govern following the Justice Department’s move to drop his federal corruption case so he could help with Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
The governor also took a moment to call out those who lobbied for her to remove Adams, saying there is a due process and that lengthy, complicated process would have impacts on the city.
Hochul — a centrist Democrat, as is Adams — has faced questions about the mayor’s future since his indictment in September on bribery and other charges.
After four of Adams’ top deputies quit on Monday, the governor said she had “serious questions about the long-term future of this mayoral administration.” The deputies resigned after an extraordinary series of developments in Adams’ federal criminal case (more on that below).
New York mayors have both worked and tussled with state oversight. It has a particular history in the United States’ most populous city, which has had to submit its financial plans to a state-created board for review since a 1975 fiscal crisis.
Adams was asked about the development at an unrelated briefing Thursday. He remained silent, then walked away without addressing the question as his spokesperson hastily ended the event.
In a statement released later in the evening, Adams questioned whether the governor had the power to institute such restrictions on City Hall, but showed willingness to work with Hochul.
“While there is no legal basis for limiting New Yorkers’ power by limiting the authority of my office, I have told the governor, as we have done in the past, that I am willing to work with her to ensure faith in our government is strong,” a statement from Adams read. “I look forward to continuing those conversations.”
New York City Mayor Adams left a press conference earlier after being question by a reporter about the impact of Gov. Hochul’s reported decision to put checks on his power.
Adams has remained defiant in the face of growing calls to resign, insisting that New Yorkers are undeterred by the turmoil at City Hall as he makes his reelection pitch to voters.
“I will never surrender, never step down,” he said Wednesday, following his court hearing. “I’m going to step up and fight.”
The development comes as Adams awaits word on a judge weighing whether to dismiss his federal corruption case, and two days after Hochul, a Democrat, held a series of meetings with key political figures as she considers removing Adams. It would be an unprecedented step that reflects the growing turmoil inside City Hall for months.
Adams is awaiting a decision from the judge tasked with determining whether to drop the charges against him. That would happen without prejudice, meaning charges could be revived at a later time. Judge Dale E. Ho delayed a determination after a hearing on Wednesday but said the high-profile nature of the case compels him to move fast.
Those who met with the governor earlier in the week, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the group’s position will likely heavily depend on the nature of that ruling.
Mayor faces a political crisis
Adams’ mayoralty spiraled into a political crisis after the Justice Department ordered prosecutors on Feb. 10 to drop the bribery and other charges against him. Adams has pleaded not guilty.
Several career prosecutors and supervisors of public-corruption cases resigned rather than carry out what they saw as an improper, politically based dismissal of the charges.
One of those who resigned was the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who wrote that Adams’ lawyers offered his cooperation on immigration policy in exchange for getting the case dismissed. The Adams attorneys have denied any quid-pro-quo offer, while saying that they told prosecutors, when asked, that the case was impeding the mayor’s immigration enforcement efforts.
Ultimately, two senior Justice Department lawyers filed the requisite paperwork Friday to ask a judge to put a formal end to the case. That request spurred the hearing set for Wednesday.
The winds of scandal first started to blow around Adams in November 2023, when the first-term mayor’s phones were seized as part of a federal investigation into his 2021 campaign fundraising. He denied any wrongdoing.
Over the ensuing year, multiple key aides and allies in his administration came under scrutiny, and some resigned. Then Adams himself was indicted on bribery and other charges, accused of doing favors for the Turkish government after getting illegal campaign donations and fancy overseas trips.
Adams has said there was nothing improper about his trips. He has characterized any help he provided to Turkish officials in dealing with the diplomatic building as just the routine work of an elected official helping people navigate bureaucracy.
He claimed he was being politically targeted for criticizing then-President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Adams started drawing closer to then-former President Trump as the Republican ran last year to reclaim the White House.
After Trump won, Adams’ overtures intensified — and Trump started publicly floating the possibility of a pardon for the mayor, suggesting Adams had been “treated pretty unfairly.” Adams flew to Florida to meet with Trump before he took office, and the mayor ditched a planned Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance in New York after getting a last-minute invitation to Trump’s inauguration. Meanwhile, Adams signaled openness to softening city policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Anthony Izaguirre, Jake Offenhartz and Jennifer Peltz of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
