This story was originally published on Ross Barkan’s Substack Political Currents. It has been republished here with permission.

There has been no New York mayor in the past half-century like Eric Adams. No one this flamboyant, this brazen, this imperiled, and this unpopular. Last week, federal agents searched the homes of multiple senior officials in his administration, including Police Commissioner Edward Caban and Deputy Mayors Sheena Wright and Philip Banks. Investigators also seized the phone of senior Adams adviser Tim Pearson. On Thursday, Caban resigned, which means that in the span of three years, Adams has appointed three different police commissioners.

There are, at a minimum, three federal probes into Adams and his administration. One is examining whether Adams and his campaign conspired with the government of Turkey. Another is focused on top City Hall officials, and the third includes Caban, Caban’s brother, and other police officials. The IRS is also involved in that investigation, according to reports, as it centers on a nightclub security business owned by the commissioner’s twin brother, James Caban, a former police officer who was fired from the department in 2001. The theme, in most of these probes, seems to be petty bribery and graft.

No charges have been filed, and it’s not clear Adams himself will be indicted. Adams’ predecessor, Bill de Blasio, was investigated as well, and indictments never came. De Blasio didn’t face down this many probes, however, and his administration was staffed with more qualified and competent policy hands. Adams has been a fast-and-loose operator since his days in the state Senate, and it’s possible, in the final months of 2024, he has beaten his waxen wings too close to the sun. We will know soon. Federal prosecutors don’t typically like to........

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