Mayor Eric Adams’ chief counsel said Tuesday that law enforcement has not contacted City Hall following FBI raids last week at homes owned by one of the mayor’s closest aides, Winnie Greco — and have received “no indication” that hizzoner is the target of federal prosecutors.
“After last week’s events, we’ve had no outreach at all from law enforcement and we have no indication that the mayor is a target of any pending investigation,” Lisa Zornberg told reporters during the mayor’s weekly news conference on March 5.
When asked directly if he had spoken to federal prosecutors about the raids, Mayor Adams said he had not. The mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
“These inquiries are going to take their course, that’s how it’s done,” Adams said. “Listen, I’m a former member of law enforcement and I know that there’s a process and let the process take its course. My job is to continue to state, ‘we follow the rules, we follow the law’ and be as cooperative as possible.”
Zornberg had responded Tuesday to a question about a series of FBI raids on two Bronx homes, and a Queens office space, owned and used by Greco, who serves as Adams’ director of Asian affairs.
The searches took place at Greco’s two houses on Gillespie Avenue in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx and at the New World Mall in Flushing, Queens — where she previously worked out of offices rented by Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign, according to a report by the news site THE CITY.
The raids are part of an ongoing investigation by the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, but the focus of the probe — or if the mayor’s involved — remains unclear, according to a report from the New York Times. The paper also reported that the inquiry is separate from an investigation into Adams’ 2021 campaign helmed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.
Greco was placed on medical leave after being taken to the hospital following the raids, when she experienced a medical episode, according to City Hall.
“The person you’re speaking about, my understanding is that she is still on sick leave, and she had been placed in an ambulance that was called by law enforcement after the incident and that’s what I can say,” Zornberg said, referring to Greco, in response to a reporter.
Once Greco has recovered, an administration source said, she will be placed on unpaid leave for the duration of the probe and will only be paid if she has vacation time accrued.
Greco is the third person close to Adams to have their homes searched by federal agents in the past few months.
The other two, his former chief campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs and City Hall staffer Rana Abasova, had their homes raided as part of the federal investigation out of Manhattan, which is looking at whether the mayor’s 2021 campaign worked with Turkey to receive illegal foreign contributions.
But Adams insisted that the twin federal probes ensnaring some of his closest aides have not shaken his confidence in what he said is his core belief: that he and those who work for him must “follow the law.”
“What I have confidence is in my constant belief from my days of law enforcement: ‘follow the law,’” he said. “That’s what I have conference in. I’m confident in the instruction I give people who are around me, I say the same thing. I say ‘allow the inquiry to run its course’ … Those who know me know that my statement is clear: ‘follow the law.’”
