Gov. Hochul began a series of meetings with elected officials and faith leaders Tuesday over the question of whether she should use her powers to remove Mayor Adams from office amid questions about the terms under which the Trump administration is moving to dismiss his corruption indictment.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who last week said the terms of the dismissal effectively make the mayor “hostage” to Trump’s hardline immigration policies, said Hochul plans to wait until a hearing scheduled for Wednsday on the dismissal.
“The governor said to me she is going to see what the judge decides tomorrow and keep deliberating with other leaders,” Sharpton said as he left the building.
Others slated to meet with the governor include U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Queens Borough President Donovan Richards. U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries plans to meet with her within the next few days, his spokesperson said.
As governor, Hochul has the power to remove Adams from office, but that power has never been used in the state’s history. Hochul announced the meetings late Monday, following a tumultuous day at City hall that saw four of Adams’ deputy mayors say they were resigning.
“If they feel unable to serve in City Hall at this time, that raises serious questions about the long-term future of this Mayoral administration,” Hochul said late Monday.
The extraordinary turn of events was touched off by a memo last week by Emil Bove, acting deputy attorney general, who ordered the Southern District of New York to dismiss the charges against Adams, though he left open the option of reinstating them. A key reason given by Bove was so Adams could aid Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city.
Both critics and former allies have characterized this as Trump’s administration holding the mayor “hostage” with the pending threat of prosecution if he fails to follow through for Trump.
The move created a cascade of resignations within the Southern District, including that of acting now-former U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned after refusing to file the motion.
Adams declined to address questions about the Hochul meetings as he showed up at Bellevue Hospital Tuesday morning after a police officer was shot in the shoulderwhile executing a warrant.
Pressed as to why, Adams snapped back and said it was because “y’all liars.”
City comptroller Brad Lander, who is also running for mayor, is also expected to meet with Hochul Tuesday afternoon.
“Nothing has happened like this in our lifetimes,” Lander said at a press conference ahead of his meeting. “It is an unprecedented leadership vacuum to have these four deputy mayors submit their resignation.”
Lander said he planned to speak with Hochul about the need for a “contingency plan” from the mayor to restore trust in the city’s leadership. If no plan is presented, the comptroller said he’d move to convene an “inability committee” — a five-person panel of which he is a member to vote on whether the mayor should be removed due to an incapacity to govern — by Friday.
The meetings come after the resignations of four deputy mayors. First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer and three others resigned after they told Adams they were concerned about whether he could govern the city after Trump’s Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss his federal corruption case late last week.
Protesters lined up outside Hochul’s 3rd avenue office.
“There can be no hour longer that we have a mayor who is corrupt who is a turncoat who deliberately and publicly has switched sides, not only on the city, but on the state and the promises that he has ran on. We no longer can take that,” Darius Gordon, Executive Director MET Counsel on Housing said outside the office.
