Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to announce a plan to limit embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams' authority and appoint a deputy inspector to oversee his office and affairs amid his corruption case controversy, according to a source familiar with the governor's plans.
A source with direct knowledge tells NBC News that Hochul is set to announce that she will not remove Adams from office "right now" but will impose strict “guardrails” on his administration.
The governor has planned a 4 p.m. press conference to announce the details, the source said. (We'll stream that in the player above when it's time). Details on the plan, including any limitations, weren't clear early Thursday afternoon.
Adams was asked about the development at an unrelated briefing Thursday. He remained silent, then walked away.
The development comes as Adams awaits word on a judge weighing whether to dismiss his federal corruption case, and two days after Hochul, a Democrat, held a series of meetings with key political figures as she considers removing Adams. It would be an unprecedented step that reflects the growing turmoil inside City Hall for months.
Adams, also a Democrat, is awaiting a decision from the judge tasked with determining whether to drop the charges against him. That would happen without prejudice, meaning charges could be revived at a later time. Judge Dale E. Ho delayed a determination after a hearing on Wednesday but said the high-profile nature of the case compels him to move fast.
Those who met with the governor earlier in the week, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, said the group's position will likely heavily depend on the nature of that ruling.
Mayor faces a political crisis
Adams' mayoralty spiraled into a political crisis after the Justice Department ordered prosecutors on Jan. 10 to drop the bribery and other charges against him. Adams has pleaded not guilty.
Several career prosecutors and supervisors of public-corruption cases resigned rather than carry out what they saw as an improper, politically based dismissal of the charges.
One of those who resigned was the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who wrote that Adams’ lawyers offered his cooperation on immigration policy in exchange for getting the case dismissed. The Adams attorneys have denied any quid-pro-quo offer, while saying that they told prosecutors, when asked, that the case was impeding the mayor’s immigration enforcement efforts.
Ultimately, two senior Justice Department lawyers filed the requisite paperwork Friday to ask a judge to put a formal end to the case. That request spurred the hearing set for Wednesday.
The winds of scandal first started to blow around Adams in November 2023, when the first-term mayor’s phones were seized as part of a federal investigation into his 2021 campaign fundraising. He denied any wrongdoing.
Over the ensuing year, multiple key aides and allies in his administration came under scrutiny, and some resigned. Then Adams himself was indicted on bribery and other charges, accused of doing favors for the Turkish government after getting illegal campaign donations and fancy overseas trips.
He claimed he was being politically targeted for criticizing then-President Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Adams, a centrist Democrat, started drawing closer to then-former President Donald Trump as the Republican ran last year to reclaim the White House.
After Trump won, Adams’ overtures intensified — and Trump started publicly floating the possibility of a pardon for the mayor, suggesting Adams had been “treated pretty unfairly.” Adams flew to Florida to meet with Trump before he took office, and the mayor ditched a planned Martin Luther King Jr. Day observance in New York after getting a last-minute invitation to Trump’s inauguration. Meanwhile, Adams signaled openness to softening city policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
