Sheena Wright, Mayor Eric Adams’ top deputy mayor and one of several senior officials to have her home searched and phone seized as part of ongoing federal investigations, resigned on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The first deputy mayor had been expected to leave City Hall as early as last week, but her resignation became official on Tuesday morning. She joins a growing list of senior officials to exit the Adams administration as half a dozen separate investigations surround many top members of the mayor’s staff.
Wright, who has been in her role since Jan. 2023, was among multiple senior New York City officials, including the mayor himself, to have her phone seized as part of the ongoing investigations. Her Harlem home was searched — and devices seized while warrants were executed there — early last month.
Wright shares that home with outgoing NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks. Banks recently announced retirement plans that would transition him out at the end of the year, but he later said Adams sped up the timeline. Now he’ll be out by mid-October.
Wright has denied any wrongdoing, but she also faces questions about a vote to grant a city contract to her brother-in-law’s former security firm.
A source close to Adams told NBC New York there are three leading contenders when it comes to possible replacements for Wright: Maria Torres-Springer, who currently serves as the deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce; Jessie Tisch, the current sanitation commissioner; and Camille Joseph Varlack, the current chief of staff for Mayor Adams.
Adams’ right hand, Wright’s resignation comes a week after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated there would be more changes, following the abrupt resignation of another senior aide, Tim Pearson. Former NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban has also resigned. City Hall’s chief counsel was the first to jump ship.
But Wright isn’t the first resignation this week. Philip Banks III, brother of recently ousted NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks, resigned his position of deputy mayor of public safety Sunday night.
After news of Philip Banks’ resignation, three other staffers were out as well at City Hall on Monday. Rana Abbasova, who was linked to the indictment of Adams, was terminated, according to a source. Abbasova had been on leave from her position. Winnie Greco, the mayor’s director of Asian affairs whose home was raided by the FBI, and Mohammed Bahi, of the mayor’s community affairs unit, both resigned from their posts.
Banks and Wright were married over the final weekend of September in a private ceremony on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He told TV station Fox 5 on Wednesday that neither he nor Wright were “targets” of any investigation. He denied that they wed so they could invoke spousal privilege, a legal concept that protects communications between married couples and shields them from having to testify about anything happening during their marriage.
“I think anybody that would criticize me has probably never been in love,” Banks told the station. “The reality is that Sheena and I have been together for quite some time. We’ve been planning our marriage for a while.” Banks said he and Wright were motivated to get married because of their parents’ ages and health issues, “and any suggestion otherwise to me is just ridiculous on its face.”
Despite pleading not guilty, a majority of New Yorkers think Mayor Eric Adams has likely broken the law, and the Marist poll shows an even greater number think he needs to step down. The poll results came as Adams again visited with clergy in an effort to stem the tide of bad news. NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst reports.
Despite polls showing more than two-thirds of New Yorkers want him to resign, Adams has vowed to stay in office after pleading not guilty last week to charges that he accepted about $100,000 worth of free or deeply discounted international flights, hotel stays, meals and entertainment, and sought illegal campaign contributions from foreign interests.
If Adams does not resign, 63% of New Yorkers would want Hochul to take steps to remove him, the poll found. In response to the Marist poll, the mayor said Friday that voters will come around when they hear his side of the story.
At a hearing last Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten said prosecutors are pursuing “several related investigations” and that it is “likely” additional defendants will be charged and “possible” that more charges will be brought against Adams.
The Justice Department defines a “target” of an investigation as someone who prosecutors or a grand jury have gathered substantial evidence against that links the person to a crime — as opposed to a “subject,” someone whose conduct is merely within the scope of the investigation. Those definitions are fluid and can change as new information develops.
