"When things happen in the administration, the real question is do you have the ability to stay focused and provide the services that the city is expected, and that's what we're doing every day. I like Lisa a lot, and she's made it clear that Eric, I'm here, that even, that I'm not with the administration, feel free to reach out to me, communicate with me." Welcome to New York One's off topic on politics. I'm New York One investigative reporter, Courtney Gross. Another week, another resignation. This time, the mayor's chief counsel was abruptly stepping aside. Saturday night, Lisa Zornberg, the top lawyer at City Hall, called it quits. This comes after federal search warrants were executed on top Adams administration officials earlier this month, and the city's top cop also stepped down. Is the administration in crisis? We'll discuss. And on top of top-level resignations, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District unveiled big indictments against two former FDNY chiefs this week for allegedly accepting bribes to speed up fire safety approvals. The pay-to-play scheme made big waves for the Adams administration, which cannot seem to evade the literal or perceived air of corruption. The indictment was brought by U.S. Attorney Damien Williams, so we will also discuss who he is and what role he plays in the ongoing investigations into the Adams administration. Okay, lots to get to. Here for it is our Bobby Cusa. We missed Bobby Cusa last week, but it was such a breaking news day that we-- I didn't even know you guys taped the podcast without me until the next day. Bobby was standing outside of one PPE because Eddie Caban, the police commissioner, resigned, and we were just like didn't have-- we needed people in the newsroom, so we grabbed Dean, we grabbed Bob, and we were like, "You know what? We're doing the pod without you, Bobby. I'm sorry." Breaking news takes precedent over my ego. Yeah, sorry, Bobby. And our city hall reporter, Kelly Mena, is here the expert on Adams. Well, I wouldn't say expert, but I've been around with him for a long time, so I am here. We can call you an expert, I think you are. Okay, so it was last week when police commissioner Eddie Caban, which we talked about before, abruptly resigned after we reported his phone was seized by federal investigators. Then two days later, Saturday night, at what time, like 10.30? 10.30 at night. I was sleeping. I was going to say that I was out, so I thought I was out. I was sleeping. Enjoying a weekend for us. Nice. Yeah, I was enjoying my sleep. Anyway, Lisa Zornberg, the mayor's chief counsel at city hall, she resigned. In a very short resignation letter, Zornberg wrote, quote, "I have concluded I can no longer effectively serve in my position. I wish you nothing but the best, respectfully, signed." Lisa Zornberg obviously addressed. That's a curse. A curse letter. Addressed to the mayor. It is one. Three lines. Three sentences. I was just going to say that when I read it the next morning, I thought of when Michael Jordan said I'm back. Lisa reminded me of the same exact thing, it was so short that I was just like, "Wow." And I also felt like in my head, I always like come up with like, I guess narratives. I'm like, she wrote it so fast, she probably didn't even like put all of her stuff in a box. She was like, "Just have it. Give it away. I don't care what you do with it." Does she still have her city issued phone? Who knows? So she is kind of, I mean, you may know her, you being listener, folks, may know her because you know, we take the mayor's press conference most weeks his off topic, we take it live on New York One and we all sit and analyze it. We talk about it a lot on the podcast and she is just a figure in that press conference. She was always there defending the mayor. Kelly, we know you were, I mean, I guess we can say this because she's gone, but you were going to sit down with her. We were planning it. She was planning an interview with you. Yes. Yes. So we were planning to sit down with her to talk about just about herself. Like she's become such an, it will became such an interesting character of the administration because at first she wasn't really public. She wasn't really talking. But then as the off topics became this whole performance, I would say, every Tuesday, she really became a vocal supporter and kind of bulldog for the mayor. Anytime you got to ask questions about any lawsuits, whether it was having to deal with the city or something else, and she had some strange analogies, I would say, at times and would bring up old presidents and her children. So I really wanted it deep to delve a little bit deeper into like how much does she plan these type of interactions? I mean, one of the last times she was at an off topic, she spoke for 15 minutes straight about solitary confinement and had all these slides and the whole shebang. So I thought, let's pick her brain and think about what makes her tick. What does she like? How does she prepare for some of these off topics? But we never got the chance. I'm surprised they agreed to do the interview. I was told multiple times from multiple city hall aides that Lisa Zornberg was actually really excited to sit down and talk with us just about herself. I should preface. We weren't going to go into any of the cases facing the mayor, but we were just going to talk to her. You know, she has an interesting background. She did clerk for Justice Sotomayor. So that would be led the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District. That's right. She's a big deal. Yeah. Federal prosecutor. So we wanted to delve into why would she join the public sector when she was so prominent and did so well, you know, on the other side? So, sorry, not the public sector, but join the mayor's administration when she's been so successful on the federal side. So that was kind of the idea of it. Sit down with her a couple of minutes. And they were really excited about it, but unfortunately I came back and she was basically gone. Well, maybe it'd be more interesting now, but it's probably going to be much harder. I might have to go all the way to her house. Yeah. I have a feeling. I think that the reporters that have knocked out her door, I think on Long Island somewhere. Yes. I think I saw a reporter somewhere that her husband said she's not doing interviews. You got to get out of here. As you expect. Maybe in a year. We'll see what happens in a year. So she really has become or she was a character within the administration, this sort of forward facing person that was a ardent defender of the mayor, particularly while he was under fire from the US attorney's office or is under the administration is under a whole scope of investigations, we know. And what has been reported is that she left abruptly is Saturday night because he is not listening to her, he being the mayor regarding certain personnel decisions. Can I just say, when I heard the news on Saturday night? Were you sleeping? Bobby? Over you out. I was definitely not out. That doesn't happen very often. But I don't remember why I was looking at Twitter for some reason on Saturday night. This is the sad state of my life. And my side, it was the first, I don't know about you guys, but this was the first time through this whole saga of the FBI raids and the mayor having his phone seized and all this is the first time where I was like, oh, this is bad. Oh, wait. This is really bad because the fact that I kind of think of her as the conscience of the administration, she's supposed to keep mayor Adams on the straight and narrow and keep them out of trouble. You know, she knows how the US attorney's office works. And for her just to leave abruptly without explanation on a Saturday night, you know something went down. Well, and I was going to say that it was City Hall who put out a press release, who put out a statement and let basically everybody know kind of like, I guess they were pre emptying the idea of like they don't want this to look bad. So let's put out a statement. It was very crazy. It praised Zornberg for everything that she did for the administration and basically the mayor saying she wanted to go back into private practice. And that's why she left. They kind of said that was the explanation. And I thought that was interesting because as we know, City Hall doesn't just put out press releases when people leave, you know, when Sylvia Heinz radix resigned, they didn't put out a press release. That's the former corp council. Yes. So it was a very fascinating I, I think it's a sign of something. I'm not sure, you know, and to your point, Courtney, I think what has been reported. I don't know. I mean, I haven't reported this out myself, but she apparently wanted the mayor to fire some top officials in City Hall, namely Tim Pearson, the advisor to the mayor, top advisor to a top advisor to the mayor and Phil Banks, who is the deputy mayor. Along with Winnie Greco as well, who's Winnie Greco is part of an investigation that we don't really talk about a lot on the podcast. I don't even, I can't recall her exact title for the administration, honestly. She, she's a liaison, I think where the Chinese community is something, something, an arrangement of that. But yes, she's also under federal investigation. Her home from you as attorney, yes, her home of a district also been rated. So yeah, we actually, yeah, don't talk a lot about her, but she's very close to the mayor. It's been for a long time. Brooklyn Borough Hall days, yeah, she, there's some questions about, you know, her involvement with, I mean, there's been some good reporting by the city and, you know, another obviously news outlet that's reported on some straw donor stuff. She may or may not be involved in and some connections related to contract. So she had her home rated by the FBI also. Yep. So, you know, the mayor obviously has not fired anybody. I mean, the police commissioner left last week, but he hasn't fired Tim Pearson or Phil Banks or Winnie Greco. And if, if Lisa Zornberg wanted him to fire those people, there was probably some reason before. Yes. And like you said, she was the head of the criminal division at the US Attorney's Office, like you said, which is a high ranking job. And you know how I know that because I watch, because I watch billions, he does watch billions on Showtime, which I know. No, but I've been on it a couple of times. Courtney Gross had a cameo on billions. Couple of. Fun fact. Fun fact. I tried to, I mean, I shouldn't, we're digressing here a little bit, but I did try to, I watched it, I think through the second season. And I think by the first episode, I'm in is in the fourth season or something. I got, sorry, bored and I should go back and rewatch it because I wanted to get to the point where I was on it. What do you do? What do you do? I just played myself on TV. Oh. But in the show, you know, the head of CRIM, as they call it, was like a big deal, right? I mean, that's one of the highest ranking jobs in the department. So she was basing your knowledge, not on the many, many graphs and trials that you've covered but on a fictional show. But she knows how this, she knows how this stuff works, right? So she knows what people's legal exposure is. And I think, and, and Kelly asked the mayor this on Tuesday, why aren't you listening to Lisa Zornberg, who is kind of an expert in this stuff? That's exactly what I asked him. I was like, Lisa Zornberg, former federal prosecutor, you have her, she's on the taxpayer dollars. This is a great person to have. Why doesn't her opinion weigh heavier than anybody else in your administration? And the mayor's response was, I listened to everybody's advice. Sometimes I take it and sometimes I don't. So I guess in this case, he chose not to follow that advice. And I think that that's been a pattern for him hit for, for the mayor as well because we've also heard reports that the former corporation council left for similar reasons that there was some disagreements about how the mayor was handling certain lawsuits within that where the administration was facing. So what's interesting is I was doing reporting at the end of last week. And you know, a couple of sources were like, and I think this has been reported in other outlets as well, we're saying like be patient, like this is not, you know, Eddie Caban is not the only person that's going to leave the administration, you know, sort of hold off way and see. And my understanding was that Tim Pearson was potentially going to be next. And now for our listeners who don't know who Tim Pearson is, I don't think we've really talked about him that much on the show, but he is a, an advisor to the mayor regarding public safety is somewhat of his exact title. He joined the administration technically joined the city payroll in May of 2022, shortly after the mayor took office, they have known each other for 30 years. This guy is a former inspector in the NYPD. His job responsibilities within the city are somewhat amorphous. They happen to have another job while he started working for the city. Yes. Well, they, they argue that he was volunteering with the city, but at the same time he was head of security for resorts, World New York City, which is the casino, obviously out in Queens, he is overseeing in the beginning COVID spending. And then he oversees security at migrant shelters, and then he oversees, you know, other police appointments, but it, I asked for a job description this week and no one appeared to get, no one gave it to me. And we're just like, he does this and he's just that. And anybody who knows him is like, Oh, well, you know, he's kind of around, but like, he's not around. You don't really know what he does, but he does stuff. You're like, okay, that sounds normal. Um, but I will say that I've seen him at some press conferences, but he's never the person talking leading the press conference scene literally sits down, like in one of the rows and just doesn't talk and just watch kind of like watching over idea, like overseer. So he obviously had his phone seized as part of this federal search warrant, uh, do we call them raids? What, you know, whatever happened with the federal investigators earlier this month. And he's also the subject of four different lawsuits related to retaliation and sexual harassment. There might be another lawsuit regarding an alleged assault that occurred between him and security guards at a migrant shelter last year that the scandal and controversy surrounding this guy keeps on coming. And it's no surprise if Lisa Zorberg behind the scenes was saying, you know, maybe it's time to let this guy go. Yeah. And the mayor has not had a negative word to say about, about any of these guys, right? About Tim Pearson or Phil Banks, he has longstanding relationships with them. And this is what everybody always says. The mayor is loyal to a fault and he values loyalty. So these people that he's known forever, he tends to give them a pretty long leash. And we'll see if that comes back to bite him. Yeah. We did some reporting. I did some reporting on Tim Pearson this week. And in my conversations with people, it was, okay, there's, you know, innocent until proven guilty. These are lawsuits. There's no criminal charges against Pearson. So I understand it to a certain extent that that aspect that you can't necessarily get rid of someone just because people are filing some lawsuits on the one hand. On the other hand, there is a pattern here. And my question to people who are close to Pearson and to the mayor was why, like, why are you so loyal to this particular person when there is controversy surrounding him? So for many, many years. Yeah. Many, many months. I mean, in particular with Tim Pearson, separate from Phil Banks, you know, the losses, sexual assault lawsuits, sexual harassment lawsuits came before we even know he had any connection to any federal probes. And that's been a question for the mayor for a while. And if the mayor says, you know, I'm not going to fire him, why not put him on leave until there is a result until at least he's proven innocent or some other result comes out. That way you don't take on more liability because the people that are suing Tim Pearson and those lawsuits are also other city workers, you know. And so that's the question that so many people have had. If he's still hanging around the administration, doesn't that give, expose other people to potential, expose yourself and maybe other people tomorrow. And this is a political liability, is it not? I mean, I was listening to my wily who came out with a memoir this week and she called the state of the administration, the state of New York City, I think a disaster this week. She said she's not running for mayor, but, you know, at some point there is plenty for Bradlander and Zellner Myrie and all these other candidates, Scott Stringer and, you know, Jessica Ramos now, there's plenty of them for them to talk about. Right. And it's easy for them to say, well, the mayor should fire these people. And he's calling on him to resign. Oh, there are some people, no, no, no, no, but they're not among them. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. There are. But, you know, and I asked Jessica Ramos, she was on inside City Hall last week, whether the mayor should resign, whether she agreed with some of these other electeds who have called on him to resign, she stopped short of that. But she and others have said, well, if Ed Caban, the police commissioner was kind of nudged out the door. What about all these other people? What about these other guys who've had a cloud over them and who were also had their phone seized by the FBI? In terms of the resignation, though, I don't know if you wanted to get to this, but the people who are calling for his resignation up to this point are people like, well, I guess there's been three of them, right? I'm like, I'm like Gallagher, assembly woman, Julia Salazar, state senator, and Tiffany Caban. Let's see. I don't remember. There's more. Jabari Brisport, the state senator. And then City Councilwoman Alexa Villas. Oh, I didn't know the list was growing, but these are all very left leaning lawmakers, right? These are already people that have issues with Adams before even, like, one, his administration started. These are not alienating any of their base, or their constituency by making that decision. And these are new foes, I would say, to the mayor, he's very aware that he has a sect of elected officials that aren't very happy with anything he does, and they're looking for any opportunity to kind of strike. And the mayor probably couldn't care less what they have to say. He literally said that. He was like, these people ask me to resign, or they always looking for an opportunity to bring me down. It's not new, so I'm not going to just power to them because they say it. I mean, at this point, the mayor is really just business as usual, right? Like, I feel like this week he said, it feels like he's having more press conferences than normal. I mean, and accompanying him at those press conferences is Phil Banks. I was just about to say I came back from a press conference with Phil Banks. He was at this one about Ghost Cars yesterday. There was one today about cannabis. So it's kind of a show of support that he's not going anywhere, and you might as well get used to seeing him, especially because he's the one leading these press conferences. And that's just a sign to me that he's totally, the mayor is totally confident in his abilities and is saying, you know, get used to it, he's here to stay, so we might as well continue doing our business. Yeah. I mean, they're really trying to keep up appearances, and I mean, I say that metaphorically and literally, I mean, they are, he keeps making appearances and news conference, and he's taking questions. I mean, to his credit, he's, you know, he's been holding his news conferences on Tuesday. He took questions at other events this week, which is unusual for the mayor. So he's trying to show that he's still getting stuff done. He had the rat conference this week, the Urban National Urban Rat Summit, which would be all known as a very important issue to the mayor and to a lot of New Yorkers to be fair. So he's, you know, trying to show that they are business as usual. Even if, you know, I mean, who knows what it's like behind the scenes. I mean, it may be that this is an administration in crisis, but they're going to keep someone set free fall. There was some reporting that said, quote, free fall and referring to that crisis saying, like, oh, he skipped the Brooklyn Democratic, you know, breakfast that occurs this week, which is, you know, usually a big deal. Like everybody goes to juniors and everybody hobnobs and eats. I guess they don't need to choose cake because it's a breakfast. You take it with you. Okay. You take it together. Yeah. But he didn't go to that. I mean, he was, I guess, supposed to and then, and didn't show up. So the mayor is kind of that person where you keep on take, like life keeps on throwing things at you. I'm just generalizing this and you keep on, you know, trucking along and you're like, I'm determined to show people that not only am I focused, but I can continue in the face of anything that my administration is facing. And I guess if you're kind of the face of that whole idea, you kind of have to show up even on the hard days. What are we saying? What do we say? No distractions. Stay focused. Stay focused. No distractions. And grind. Yeah. I got it right this time. Yeah. Is anybody going to applaud me last time? I only remember the last week. Sometimes they got out of order. You get it. You get it a plus. Okay. It's there for a minute. We're going to take a short break. But when we come back, we'll stick with our general theme of corruption and examine. I saw a general theme of corruption, people. This is where we're at. And examine this new indictment against former Afghan White Chiefs. Stay tuned, we'll be right back. Here's the deal. In this election year, people need a place to explore national issues that have an impact on their community. To understand those issues better, we're bringing together our team of local political journalists from across the country to break down what's happening. So join us every week to catch up on the key stories, making a big difference across the nation and in your local community. Watch the big deal with Errol Lewis Friday nights at eight on Spectrum News, New York 1. Available on all of your favorite devices exclusively on Spectrum. As a small business owner, you put in unlimited hours, unlimited effort, and unlimited passion. Why? Because you know that your business has unlimited potential. Spectrum business can connect you to that potential. With the fastest, most reliable internet, U.S.-based customer support, and multi-layer security to protect your business. To learn how Spectrum business can put anything within reach, visit spectrum.com/business. Your business made limitless. That's life unlimited. These defendants use their power as senior members of the FDNY to let some people cut to the front of the line. They allegedly created a VIP lane for faster service that could only be accessed with bribes. That's classic pay-to-play corruption. OK, so you want to build in New York, then you will need a fire safety inspection. And we know the way to get one can be super long. So these two chiefs, Brian Cortasco and Anthony Sakovino, basically figured out how to cash in on that problem. Bobby Cuzo. Yes. You were in court on Monday. Yes. I was in court. I was at the U.S. Attorney's News Conference. So basically, these guys have ran what's called the Bureau of Fire Protection, Fire Protection Bureau. The FP. And they are in charge of this whole unit of the FDNY that does that is in charge of fire safety. So like you said, if you are opening a new space, opening a new building, whether it's a hotel or condos or a restaurant, you have to go through the FDNY and get your fire safety plans approved. So they have to look at your, you know, they have to approve your design for the fire alarms. And in many cases, or maybe in all cases, they have to come perform an inspection. So back in 2021, when this apparently first began, there was a huge backlog for these, you know, for inspections. You had to wait weeks, if not months, to get an inspection. And so people, builders and developers were trying to get things moving as fast as they could. And so what these two guys, Sacramento and Cordasco allegedly did was take bribes in order to let people cut to the front of the way. Well, well, they were in cahoots with an expediter that's named in a former FDNY official, I believe. Who kind of already knew everything you need to have. He would basically prepare the client, say, okay, these are all the things you need to have. Bring all of that information plus the money or the bribe, I should say. And I'll give it to the FDNY guys that are named, these two guys, and they'll help it get along much faster than everybody else. Right. So he was sort of the intermediary and he, by the way, also pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the feds. So he was not part of this indictment, but he has already pleaded guilty, pled guilty. So I think it's pleaded. And so I mean, this is like a base, very straightforward pay to play corruption scheme, right? They took money and they expedited these inspections. But where it gets more interesting, I think, and more pertinent to what we've been talking about is at City Hall, is that there is also this thing, which we already knew about, I mean, this has been in the news for months, but this thing called the City Hall list or DMO list, deputy mayor of operations and this was actually spelled out in the indictment. This was a list that the FDNY kept of projects that needed to be prioritized because city officials wanted them prioritized, whether that was the mayor's office, the deputy mayor's office, or even city council members, right? It wasn't just necessarily the mayor's office. And this was not illegal or improper necessarily, you know, elected officials, including the mayor, have said this was, this is what we do, right? This is our job. We hear, we listen to constituents and if, you know, we talk to city agencies, if people need help, but this is in the indictment because these FDNY chiefs, Sakovino and Cordasco, they used the City Hall list as cover for their alleged crimes, right? So when they were getting bribes and trying to expedite projects, they had to get their subordinates at the FDNY to move these things along and they would tell them, oh, these are on the City Hall list. This is on the, these are projects need to be expedited because they were on the DMO list. So, but I thought it was really interesting that that was in the indictment and I actually asked Amy and Williams at the press conference about the City Hall list and whether he has a problem with it because even though it's in the indictment, it's kind of treated as just this neutral thing. Well, the mayor has denied that it exists. Well, that's, I was just trying to say the reason it's so interesting is because for so long, not only the mayor, but the deputy mayor of operations, Mira Joshi, all these top administration officials have denied the list even exists, but the list exists. The list does exist. They've denied it. They said it doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a DMO list and then it ends up in this indictment and you're like, and here we are. Here's the evidence. Yeah. It lives. It exists. That it does. We've even gotten copies of the list before through like other sources and we reported on them a bunch of different outlets didn't last year. Yeah. And I will say, sorry, just the, the administration did say though that they would help projects along that part they have said, they've said that that that was a priority, especially of the Adams administration. Right. I think it's confusing. I think everyone's kind of talking past each other because the administration says, oh, it doesn't exist, but it does exist. It's just that it was the, it wasn't city hall that they say now when the mayor was asked that the F.D. and Y kept that list and that was started under the previous administration de Blasio. So basically the mayor was trying to put all this blame that the de Blasio administration was the one that started the list and created all this, created the appearance of something going on. And then that led to corruption and his administration was the one that rooted out the corruption because Laura Kavanaugh, the former F D and Y commissioner was the one that noticed something was going on and alerted authorities. So my other question is the tentacles of this may somehow also kind of bleed into this other investigation we know about that's related to the mayor's 2021 campaign, right? So as part of our reporting on that investigation, which we first learned about in November of last year, when the mayor's former campaign treasurer's house was rated and the mayor's phones were subsequently taken by the FBI, this all happened last year, right, separate from what we talked about in the first part of the podcast, different investigation. So this investigation, we know at some point, feds were looking at whether or not there was some influence from the mayor on behalf of the Turkish consulate, which needed a fire safety inspection. Like, was he putting his thumb on the scale at the F D and Y prior to actually being elected? It was when he was still he had won the Democratic primary. So he was sort of the presumptive mayor, but it was in the summer of 2021. And I mean, the mayor has it gone into like some level of detail about this. He said he communicated with the then F D and Y commissioner, Daniel my grow. I think maybe he said he texted him to try to kind of cut through the red tape for the Turkish consulate. And again, he says, there's nothing wrong with this. This is what we do in government. This is our job to talk to city agencies when we think people need help or something needs to be prioritized or isn't getting enough attention. But we know that that is being looked at by the feds. This is part of what their investigation was. So my question is, does this indictment this week have anything to do with that? Oh, and I guess we should also explain just as background, this is all part of an investigation into the mayor's campaign fundraising. Did he get improper donations from people with ties to the Turkish government and then exchange for favors and this this potentially being one of those favors that he helped the Turkish government by a speeding along the opening of their consulate. And this is, you know, this F D and Y indictment that came out against the chiefs, the former chiefs, right? They no longer work for F D and Y. Right. They've tried. So with a nice pension. Yeah. That must be nice. Yeah. So this is all being brought by the same office or the investigation into the mayor's campaign and the F D and Y indictment is done by the US attorney for the Southern district, which is known what as the sovereign district. Sovereign district. Yeah. It's the most powerful US attorney's office in the country and it is being led by Damien Williams. So what does this say? I mean, you know, Damien Williams this week did the F did the raids earlier this month, right? And he did the rounds of the officials. He did this indictment. Then he indicted Diddy. Right? Well, no, well, that was recent. Yeah. But this is all within the last two weeks. Yes. So did you guys read the Diddy indictment? We didn't read that. I read the coverage of it. Didn't read the indictment. It's really bad. I haven't read it at all, but that's weekend reading for me. It's like so it's horrifying. It's all being done by Damien Williams. If you're Eric Adams, what are you thinking about Damien Williams? Is, you know, so-called pursuit of justice and are you worried considering how much power this guy has? And like, what do we know about Damien Williams? Well, Damien Williams has gone after politicians before, which I mean, which is not new. Right? I mean, the US attorney's office. Yes. But he has put some powerful politicians and you mean with Brian Benjamin. He lost. No. I was saying with Brian Benjamin, he lost. Yeah. Courtney was saying I'm lost. I was saying with one. I mean, I was going to say one Sheldon's. Am I saying? No, yeah. He was, before he was US attorney, but he was a prosecutor in the office. He was on the Sheldon silver case. He helped prosecute that case. I think when he was retried and he was also involved in the Chris Collins case, the Congressman from Buffalo. That was an insider trading case. But now as US attorney, he went after Bob Menendez. Oh, that's right. Yes. That was his case. Yes, true. And Brian Benjamin, who was the lieutenant governor under Kathy Hochl, he was indicted and then, you know, to your point about it being a loss, some of the charges were overturned by a judge. Missed by federal judge. And then I think some were reinstated, right? Yeah. So that case is still ongoing. But my point is there have been plenty of other public. I mean, there have always been public corruption cases in New York. I mean, New York's attorney, Preet Bharara, famously went after a whole slew of elected officials. But that has not changed under Damian Williams. And the fact that Damian, I mean, Damian Williams had to personally approve the mayor's, you know, the mayor being having his phones taken by federal agents. Like, this is, this is all none of this is happening without his, yeah, without his knowledge. Yeah. And approval. I was going to say to your point with Diddy, you know, there was all these raids and things that happened with Diddy and then the indictment fell like in less than a month. So if you think about all these raids and search warrants that happened with all these top administration officials, could that show us what could happen with the Adams administration? Could it be less than a month from now that we find out what, if there's any indictment or the result of it? I know that the New York Times reported recently on the last month that that they're getting close to the end of whatever this investigation is of the mayor. So I'm just, you know, we're in the weeks, we'll see what happens. It will also be interesting to see if we get anything close to November. It's an election, the elections in November and Damien Williams is appointed. Right. He could be out of it. He could be out of a job. So maybe he's like, I gotta hurt you exactly. Probably if both win because, I mean, honestly, it's the most powerful US Attorney's office in the country. And if Kamala Harris does win, I would, even though she's a Democrat, you have to wait and see. But people like to put their own people in, in positions like that because they're not competent or they have bad blood just because they, especially in such a powerful position, they're, they're coming in and they have their people that they want to put in position. So if Damien Williams, if you're thinking about it, just based on the election, he might be out of a job. He's like, you know what, I want to get this before I'm done. And it's just something I can have before November or November 1st, you might have something. I was reading this, I was reading this old profile of Damien Williams. I think when he was appointed, I think it was in the Times and it, you know, they interviewed all these people who knew him and had known him for a long time, like from law school and from college. And one of the people they interviewed was Lisa Zornberg. And she was talking about, you know, what he was like when he was coming up at the US attorney's office. So she knows him pretty well. She's got to go by and I'm saying two little woman, two little too late. All right, guys, that will have to do it for this week's episode. Don't forget you can find us all on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter and send us an email at your store in New York one at charter.com. You can subscribe to off topic wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like what you're hearing, leave a review. Thanks to our producer, Anthony Roman. Thanks for listening, everybody. See you next week. (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]
