Mayor Eric Adams faced reporters by himself on Tuesday \u2014 without his usual dais of aides, lawyers and deputies or theme song \u2014 to answer a barrage of questions in his first official press conference since pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a city to run and I have an amazing team to do,\u201d he said standing in City Hall\u2019s rotunda, a change from the usual Blue Room used for his weekly press briefings. \u201cMy deputy mayors, my chief advisor, my commissioners, my legal team \u2014 they need to be focused on running the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alone at the podium, he repeated a defiant message that\u2019s grown more insistent over the past week, even after the mayor was hit with a five-count indictment that includes charges of conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, New Yorkers are hit with bad news, every day. And the message is that when you reach an obstacle, just throw up your hands and give up?\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s not who I am. And if that\u2019s who I am, then I should have never, have put myself in this position to be mayor. I can\u2019t be any clearer: obstacles don\u2019t stop me, they strengthen me. And that has been my life story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the indictment was first unsealed last Thursday, Adams has stood with religious and civil-rights leaders outside Gracie Mansion and visited churches, including one Monday night in Corona, Queens.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot worry about the road if God is at the steering wheel,\u201d he said Tuesday, leaning heavily on his faith. \u201cThat\u2019s who\u2019s driving me. And I\u2019m going to be here for this city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adams has also tried to fill his daily schedule with business-as-usual appearances, and on Tuesday he announced he planned to nominate Muriel Goode-Trufant, his current interim corporation counsel, for the role permanently.<\/p>\n
That top city lawyer job had been vacant for months after Sylvia Hinds-Radix stepped down, and his previous nominee, Randy Mastro, withdrew following a bruising hearing in the City Council.<\/p>\n
Adams answered questions on the resignation of key advisor Tim Pearson, who submitted his resignation letter Monday announcing his departure at the end of this week \u2014 noting that he didn\u2019t push Pearson out.<\/p>\n
\u201cTim made the decision that he wanted to focus on another aspect of his life and deal with those items he had to deal with,\u201d the mayor said about Pearson\u2019s departure. \u201cAnd he made the determination that it was time for him to go on with that. And I respect that. He served his city as a police officer and in private and public life. And he\u2019s moving on to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Adams dodged questions on whether the city would still pay for Pearson\u2019s legal fees as he fights four lawsuits from former colleagues alleging sexual harassment and retaliation, or who \u2014 if anyone \u2014 might replace him as head of the shadowy Office of Municipal Service Assessment that Adams created as Pearson\u2019s domain.<\/p>\n
Separately on Tuesday, Adams\u2019 private attorney, Alex Spiro, filed a motion asking a judge to impose sanctions against the office of Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, charging federal prosecutors with illegally leaking protected grand jury material to the New York Times and other media outlets.<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges facing him, Mayor Adams remained defiant and optimistic, pledging to continue serving the city and pushing forward despite the obstacles.<\/p>\n
A: The article does not mention a resignation, but rather Pearson\u2019s departure at the end of the week.<\/p>\n
A: According to a spokesperson for the city Law Department, the city is still evaluating the matter and has not yet made a determination.<\/p>\n
A: The article does not mention a replacement at this time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mayor Eric Adams faced reporters by himself on Tuesday \u2014 without his usual dais of aides, lawyers and deputies or theme song \u2014 to answer a barrage of questions in his first official press conference since pleading not guilty to federal corruption charges last week. Unfazed by Indictment \u201cI have a city to run and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.thecity.nyc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/1E2A2381-scaled.jpg?w=1920&resize=1920,1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1094,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions\/1094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/new-york\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}