Another top aide to New York City mayor quits in wake of corruption indictment

[October 01, 2024]  By JAKE OFFENHARTZ

NEW YORK (AP) — Another top adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams resigned Monday, even as the Democrat's lawyer criticized the federal corruption case against him and asked a judge to toss out bribery charges.

Timothy Pearson, one of the mayor’s closest confidants, submitted his resignation Monday evening, weeks after federal agents seized cellphones, documents and cash from his Long Island home, said his attorney, Hugh H. Mo.

Pearson, a retired police inspector who served in the department alongside Adams, had a broad role that included overseeing contracts and security at migrant shelters while also maintaining significant influence over the police department.

He has not been publicly accused of wrongdoing by prosecutors or charged with a crime.

Adams, a Democrat, pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he accepted lavish travel benefits and illegal campaign contributions from a Turkish official and others, and in return performed favors including pushing through the opening of a Turkish consulate building.

The mayor’s attorneys filed a motion Monday saying that the cheap flights to overseas destinations, seat upgrades, free meals and free hotel rooms he got were not bribes under federal law.

“Congressmen get upgrades. They get corner suites. They get better tables at restaurants. They get free appetizers. They have their iced tea filled up,” his attorney, Alex Spiro, said at a news conference. “Courtesies to politicians are not federal crimes.”

While not disputing that Adams accepted flight upgrades and deeply discounted or free travel, Spiro said his client had never promised to take action on behalf of the Turkish government in exchange for the perks, which prosecutors say were worth more than $100,000.

“There was no quid pro quo. There was no this for that,” Spiro said.

Besides the case against Adams, prosecutors are conducting investigations into several top city officials. The drumbeat of searches and subpoenas in recent weeks has prompted the resignation of the city’s police commissioner and schools chancellor.

Even before the federal scrutiny, Pearson had been seen as a political liability for Adams.

While serving as an adviser to the mayor, he was also collecting a paycheck as an executive at a casino seeking a state contract — an arrangement that ended after it was revealed by The New York Times two years ago.

His role in a brawl at migrant shelter last fall, where he was accused of physically attacking security guards, is being probed by the city’s Department of Investigation. And he faces multiple lawsuits accusing him of sexually harassing female subordinates while leading a new unit created by Adams to monitor other city agencies.

“A lot of allegations have been swirling in the media for months,” Mo said. “There are no merits to these allegations.

In recent months, Adams has repeatedly defended Pearson, describing him as a “good friend." That staunch support had created fissures within City Hall, according to multiple people who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel decisions.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams participates in a news conference in New York, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

City Hall's chief legal counsel, Lisa Zornberg, recently resigned after Adams refused her advice to fire Pearson and another aide, one of those people said.

In a statement Monday, Adams said Pearson had spent 30 years “keeping New Yorkers safe” in both the public and private sector. “We appreciate Tim’s decades of service to this city and wish him well,” Adams said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat who has the power to remove Adams from office, told reporters Monday that she had spoken to the mayor about “what my expectations are” but also indicated she wasn't ready to give up on his administration.

“I am giving the mayor an opportunity now to demonstrate to New Yorkers — and to me — that we are righting the ship, that we have the opportunity to instill the confidence that I think is wavering right now and to power forward with an effective government,” she said.

At a news conference Monday, Spiro initially said Adams was not legally obligated to disclose any of the trips or upgrades he received from Turkish officials and businesspeople, but later acknowledged that he was not an expert in the city’s rules.

He also said a former Adams staffer had lied to prosecutors to make it seem like the mayor had firsthand knowledge of illegal donations.

“Eventually New Yorkers, being New Yorkers, are going to wise up to all this,” Spiro said.

Prosecutors say that after Adams won the Democratic mayoral primary in 2021, a Turkish official who had been involved in arranging his discounted travel asked him to expedite the opening of the country's new diplomatic facility in New York, which fire safety inspectors said was not safe to occupy.

Adams then sent a series of text messages to the fire commissioner pushing for him to open the building, the indictment said.

In another corruption case, federal prosecutors told a judge Monday that ex-fire chief Brian Cordasco intends to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge stemming from allegations that he took bribes from certain people and companies to expedite fire inspections and approvals.

Cordasco and another former chief of the department’s fire-safety division, Anthony Saccavino, were arrested earlier this month. Both pleaded not guilty.

That indictment made no reference to projects linked to the Turkish government, but did refer to a “City Hall List” allegedly used by the department to prioritize inspections. At a news conference after the arrests, Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams declined to say whether the case against the pair was related to “any other investigation we may or may not be doing.”

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