New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks said Friday his attorney has assured him that he is not a target of a federal investigation that saw his home searched and phones seized by the FBI last week.
Banks made the remarks during his first news conference since last week’s federal action, in which authorities raided the homes of several of Mayor Eric Adams’ top aides. He opened the press briefing, about kicking off the first school year, by briefly addressing and taking questions on the federal raids, which he referred to as the “elephant in the room.”
The Schools Chancellor gave a short accounting of the incident, noting that FBI agents showed up at the Harlem home of himself and his partner — First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright — last Wednesday. They searched Banks’ and Wright’s residence for about a half-an-hour and seized both his personal and Department of Education-issued cell phones.
He revealed that the FBI has not yet returned his phones to him.
Banks said the lawyer he retained after the raid — Xavier Donaldson — “has been told that I am absolutely not a target in whatever this investigation is about.”
“I have always lived my life with integrity, every day of my life,” he continued. “And anybody who knows me knows that. My staff knows that. The folks that I have with for many many years know that as well.”
However, Banks would not say if the FBI itself has confirmed that he is not a target. He also dodged several other reporter’s questions seeking more details about the investigation.
Banks said he would describe the raid as a “lesson in life,” when pressed by a reporter on how he would respond if asked about it by public school students.
“There are some times where your name may be associated with something, it doesn’t mean it had anything to do with you at all,” he said. “Sometimes kids will be accused of things, and they are, even in our schools, that they were not a part of and had nothing to do with.”
Banks and Wright were hardly the only Adams administration officials to have their homes searched and electronics confiscated by federal authorities last week.
Banks’ brother Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks, Adams’ senior adviser Tim Pearson and now-former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban were also hit by federal law enforcement. Caban resigned from his perch atop the NYPD on Thursday, bowing to pressure from City Hall, following the raids.
Also reportedly under federal scrutiny is David and Phil Banks’ brother — Terence Banks — who runs a lobbying outfit called the Pearl Alliance that appears to be at the center of one of the federal probes that sparked the raids. That investigation is digging into a possible bribery scheme involving city contracts, the New York Times reported.
The AP reported on Friday afternoon that Terence Banks, who worked in the MTA for 25 years, was hired by an education tech company called 21stCentEd in 2022 to help expand the company’s presence in the city’s public schools. The outlet reported that the company secured a meeting with the Schools Chancellor a month after hiring his brother and has won $1.4 million in city contracts since then.
