Four of Mayor Adams’ top deputies submitted resignations Monday after telling him they’re concerned about his ability to govern following an unusual decision by President Trump’s Justice Department to drop his corruption indictment with politically charged strings attached, the Daily News has learned.
The departures of First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, Deputy Mayor for Operations Meera Joshi, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker and Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Anne Williams-Isom deal a crippling to blow to Adams. Between them, Torres-Springer, Joshi, Williams-Isom and Parker oversee some of the city’s most critical agencies, including the Departments of Social Services, Health, Sanitation, Transportation, Parks, Fire and Correction, and it’s unclear who will fill their shoes.
Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom, who have served in city government for decades, announced their resignations in a joint Monday afternoon message sent to agency commissioners and other top officials. The message didn’t provide an exact date for their exits, but said they “stand ready to ensure a smooth transition of our duties” while also suggesting they’re leaving out of concern that they might violate their oaths of office if they stay.
“Due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks and to stay faithful to the oaths we swore to New Yorkers and our families, we have come to the difficult decision to step down from our roles,” they wrote in the message obtained by The News. “While our time in this administration will come to a close, our support for the incredible public servants across the administration with whom we have stood shoulder to shoulder and our championing of this great city and all it stands for will never cease.”
Parker, who became deputy mayor just four months ago, confirmed his resignation in a statement provided by City Hall, in which he said he’s “confident that the administration will continue on our mission to deliver for the people of this city.” He didn’t spell out a timeline for his departure, either, and Adams’ office wouldn’t provide more details.
Torres-Springer, Adams’ second-in-command who has been seen as a steady hand since his September indictment, and her two fellow female deputies first relayed in private conversations with Adams on Friday and Saturday that they planned to step down due to concern about his reliance on Trump in getting his legal troubles resolved.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Chauncey Parker told Adams Sunday that he wanted to leave, too, a development first reported by NBC4.
Additionally, Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy has said he’s considering resigning, the sources also said.
Earlier Monday, City Hall press secretary Kayla Mamelak, whose boss is Levy, wouldn’t discuss what Levy told Adams over the weekend, saying she won’t “get into the details of a private conversation for him or any other DM.”
The resignations leave gaping holes in the municipal bureaucracy, and Adams said in a written statement he’s “disappointed to see them go,” but added he’s understanding of their concerns “given the current challenges.”
Still, speaking to reporters, Adams sought to downplay the latest resignations by comparing the situation to how nearly a dozen top city officials entangled in their own corruption probes stepped down after his September indictment.
“People departed when I was indicted, people said that’s the end of the administration. People say that, you know, people have lost confidence,” he told reporters outside a Brooklyn church where he delivered remarks as the mass resignation news broke. “Go back and do an analysis from the day that I was indicted to what we have accomplished, that is my ability to lead through turmoil and I will continue to do that.”
The dramatic developments come after a Friday night meeting, first reported by Politico, was called so Adams’ deputies could share their thoughts about a recent decision by Trump’s Department of Justice to seek the dismissal of the mayor’s corruption case.
A dismissal motion — which Trump political appointees in Washington, D.C., filed Friday night after several federal prosecutors in Manhattan refused to do it and instead resigned — asks the presiding judge to drop the case “without prejudice.”
That means the case can be resurrected at any point, and Trump’s DOJ leaders specifically wrote in a memo they want the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office to “review” Adams’ case for a new prosecution after November’s mayoral election.
Barry Williams/ New York Daily News
Eric Adams speaks at Rehoboth Cathedral Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 in Brooklyn, New York. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
In the interim, the DOJ honchos wrote that dropping the case will help Adams play a bigger role in Trump’s hard-line deportation agenda — a caveat that has led both allies and critics of the mayor to reason that the president’s looking to pressure him into doing his bidding.
The deputy mayors echoed those concerns in Friday’s meeting, held at Adams’ Gracie Mansion residence, including telling him they are uneasy about whether he can act independently of Trump given the terms of his dismissal, sources familiar with the matter said.
Though they didn’t elaborate, the resignation message from Torres-Springer, Joshi and Williams-Isom hinted at the recent developments in the mayor’s criminal case in stating they are leaving “due to the extraordinary events of the last few weeks.”
As of Monday afternoon, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Dale Ho had yet to rule on the Trump DOJ’s request to throw out Adams’ indictment, which charges him with taking bribes and illegal campaign cash, mostly from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for political favors.
This weekend’s behind-the-scenes machinations came as pressure has been mounting on Adams himself to resign.
Publicly, Adams has maintained he’s staying put since last week’s DOJ order roiled New York’s political establishment. On Sunday, he told parishioners at a church in Queens he’s “going nowhere” and urged them to “shut up” any criticism of him they come across.
But some of New York’s most powerful elected officials have recently come out calling for his resignation, including City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado and State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
“He now must prioritize New York City and New Yorkers, step aside and resign,” Speaker Adams, who endorsed the mayor’s 2021 campaign, said after Monday’s mass exodus. “This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor.”
Some have taken it a step further, like Queens-Bronx Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an influential progressive Democrat who said Thursday that Gov. Hochul should use her unique authority to remove Adams from office if he doesn’t willingly leave.
In a statement late Monday, Hochul said she had spoken to Torres-Springer after her resignation and that she’s convening “key leaders” at her Manhattan office Tuesday to discuss a “path forward.”
“If [the deputy mayors] feel unable to serve in City Hall at this time, that raises serious questions about the long-term future of this mayoral administration,” she said, acknowledging she holds the power — never used in New York’s 235-year history — to remove a mayor.
“The alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored. Tomorrow, I have asked key leaders to meet me at my Manhattan office for a conversation about the path forward, with the goal of ensuring stability for the City of New York.”
After Adams was first indicted this fall, Hochul rejected calls to remove him and signaled she was relying on Torres-Springer to rebuild public trust in his administration. At the time, several top aides to Adams, including ex-NYPD Commissioner Ed Caban, ex-Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks, ex-Schools Chancellor David Banks and ex-First Deputy Mayor Shenna Wright, had resigned after being ensnared in federal corruption investigations of their own.
Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, who chairs the Council’s Finance Committee, joined Speaker Adams on Monday in calling on the mayor to resign, saying the new turmoil is proving too serious of an obstacle at a time of multiple crises, as Trump’s administration looks to strip federal funding from the city just as it begins drafting this year’s local budget.
“Budget hearings start in two weeks. There is too much at stake and we’ve got too much work to do,” said Brannan. “Mayor Adams must resign.”
With Roni Jacobson
Originally Published: