Every Recent NYC Mayoral Administration Has Been Investigated, But No Mayor Has Been Charged
Past probes have resulted in indictments and convictions against lower-level city employees — and ended the career of at least one mayor.
Shortly after news broke that the FBI had raided the home of Brianna Suggs, a chief fundraiser for Mayor Eric Adams, Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn jumped to the mayor’s defense. The longtime Adams supporter questioned whether he’d been unfairly targeted because of his race.
“I’m concerned about whether these investigations are just targeting him because he’s a Black mayor,” said Bichotte Hermelyn, who as chair of the Kings County Democratic Committee backed Adams’ candidacy. “You have people who try to take people down who are really trying to help the city.”
A closer look at New York City history over the last 45 years, however, indicates that every mayoral administration, from Ed Koch onward, has at one point or another become the target of sprawling corruption investigations by law enforcement. That includes David Dinkins (the city’s first Black mayor), Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio and now Adams himself.