New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s administration is unraveling.
Late Saturday night, the mayor abruptly announced the resignation of his top lawyer and most ardent public defender. Days earlier, his police commissioner stepped down under pressure as a quartet of federal probes targeting numerous members of Adams’s inner circle hits a boil.
The stunning departure of chief counsel Lisa Zornberg, a former federal prosecutor, opened up a new and troubling chapter in the political and legal crisis now gripping City Hall.
“I am tendering my resignation, effective today,” Zornberg wrote in a short letter, “as I have concluded that I can no longer effectively serve in my position.” Adams in a statement thanked her and said he would name a temporary replacement in the coming days.
“These are hard jobs and we don’t expect anyone to stay in them forever,” Adams added in a bid to downplay the remarkable nature of Zornberg’s decision.
Adams has been fending off allegations that corruption and malfeasance permeate the highest ranks of his administration for months, first stemming from an active federal investigation into corruption and illegal campaign donations linked to Turkey and foreign travel, according to a source familiar with the matter. Adams is now entering an already fraught 2025 re-election bid under the cloud of at least four separate federal investigations – a political and legal onslaught that New York Democrats broadly expect to ramp up in the coming weeks and months.