Harris' family members are popping up around Chicago this week during the DNC. Here's who's who

CHICAGO (AP) — Kamala Harris has a husband, Doug Emhoff, who could make history as America's first gentleman spouse. Two stepchildren who call her "Momala.” A politically connected sister who is a top adviser and sounding board. A brother-in-law who temporarily stepped away from a top private sector gig to help elect her. A niece who is the mother of two daughters that Harris dotes on. There's also her husband's ex-wife, who defends Harris and Emhoff and their blended family.

They've been popping up around Chicago and on social media this week during the Democratic National Convention, where Harris will formally accept the party’s presidential nomination.

A look at members of Harris' blended family:

He would become America's first first gentleman if his wife is elected president.

Emhoff, 59, is already the first second gentleman of the U.S. and the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president. He has been a leader of the Biden administration's efforts against antisemitism. Emhoff gave up a lucrative career as an entertainment and intellectual property lawyer in California to avoid conflicts of interest and support his wife after she became vice president.

In a speech to the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night, Emhoff told the story of how he and Harris met on a blind date in 2013; she was California's attorney general at the time. They wed in 2014, her first marriage and his second. Emhoff has two adult children, Ella and Cole, from a previous marriage and they call Harris “Momala.”

Ella, 25, is the daughter of Emhoff and his first wife, Kerstin.

Ella is an artist, model and fashion designer who lives in New York. Her parents named her after jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. She's a 2021 graduate of The New School’s Parsons School of Design in New York. She made her debut at the annual Met Gala in 2021 in a red mesh bodysuit and matching pants by Stella McCartney. After her dad's convention speech, she flashed a heart figure made with her hands. Ella recently drew criticism after posting on a personal social media account a fundraising link to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees.

Cole, 29, is the son of Emhoff and his former wife.

Cole is a film assistant and producer at Plan B Entertainment, a production company in Los Angeles that was co-founded by Brad Pitt. His parents named him after saxophonist John Coltrane. He introduced his father to the convention on Tuesday night as “the glue that keeps this family together.” Cole graduated from Colorado College in 2017 with a degree in psychology. Harris officiated in October 2023 when Cole married longtime girlfriend Greenley Littlejohn.

Maya, 57, is the vice president's younger sister and her only sibling. She talked about her sister's “fighting spirit” and instinct to protect the people she's close to in a brief video shown during the convention. Maya is a lawyer, policy advocate, speaker and writer who chaired her sister's 2020 presidential campaign. She then became a national surrogate for the Biden-Harris ticket after her sister became Joe Biden's running mate. In 2016, she was a senior adviser for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Maya lives in California and New York with her husband, Tony West.

West, 59, recently went on leave from his job as Uber's chief legal officer to work on Harris' campaign. West spoke about his sister-in-law at the convention on Wednesday night, telling delegates that she is motivated “by a belief in equal opportunity.” He has advised Harris' campaigns since her race for San Francisco district attorney in 2003, and has accompanied her on some recent trips. A graduate of Stanford University law school, West was general counsel of PepsiCo before he joined Uber in 2017. He served in the Justice Department under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. West and Maya Harris met at Stanford and married in 1998.

Meena, 39, is Maya Harris’ daughter from a previous relationship. She is the founder and CEO of Phenomenal, a consumer and media company. Meena is also a lawyer, author and theater producer who worked on her aunt’s 2020 presidential campaign. She lives in the California Bay Area with her husband, Nikolas Ajagu, and their daughters Amara, 8, and Leela, 6. The vice president likes to dote on her young nieces and recently took them for ice cream at model Tyra Banks' new shop in Washington, D.C. Meena and the vice president share an Oct. 20 birthday.

Hudlin and Jasper Emhoff and Arden Emhoff spoke about their “auntie” at the convention on Wednesday night. Hudlin called her a “baller" and said “she'll lift us up.” Jasper Emhoff said Kamala Harris will make time “for what matters" even though “no one is busier than my auntie." Arden Emhoff said Harris will treat everyone with respect because, “even as a kid, auntie made me feel that I was seen, that my words are important, that I am important and loved.”

Kerstin, 57, is a film producer and co-founder and CEO of a commercial production company and a creative studio in California. She is attending the Democratic convention and produced a short introductory film about her former husband that was shown before he spoke at the convention on Tuesday night, according to her social media posts. Kerstin and Doug married in 1992 and split in 2009, but remain on good terms. Ella, their daughter, has described the Emhoffs and Harris as a “three-headed parenting machine.” Kerstin has stood up for their blended family and recently defended Harris after Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance's previous comments resurfaced about “childless cat ladies” who run the U.S. government. She also defended Doug after he acknowledged an extramarital affair that he said contributed to the breakup of their marriage.

Gopalan was a renowned breast cancer scientist who came to the United States from India at 19. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1964. She and Donald Harris, who was born in Jamaica, met there as graduate students who participated in the civil rights movement. They got married in 1963 and had two daughters, but had divorced by the time Kamala Harris was 7. Gopalan died of cancer in 2009 at age 70.

Donald Harris, 85, became a prominent economist. He was an economics professor at Stanford University from 1972 to 1998, and currently is a professor emeritus. He also was an economic consultant to the government of Jamaica and several of its prime ministers.

Republicans have tried to tie Donald Harris’ writings on Marxist theories to their own false claims that the vice president is a communist. But his academic work also had a more pragmatic bent about options for achieving growth.

Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

Maya Harris, sister of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Meena Harris arrives at the Baby2Baby Gala, Nov. 13, 2021, in West Hollywood, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - San Francisco's new district attorney, Kamala Harris, right, with her mother Dr. Shyamala Gopalan holding a copy of The Bill of Rights, receives the oath of office from California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald M. George, left, during inauguration ceremonies, Jan. 8, 2004, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/George Nikitin, File)

Alexander Hudlin, from left, Jasper Emhoff and Arden Emhoff wave after speaking during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Maya Harris, right, and husband Tony West arrive at an event, Dec. 18, 2021, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Tony West, former U.S. Assistant Attorney General and brother-in-law of Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Helena Hudlin, from left, Meena Harris and Ella Emhoff speak during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Second Gentalman Douglas Emhoff and Maya Harris clap during the Democratic National Convention Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

FILE - Cole Emhoff introduces his father second gentleman Douglas Emhoff during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

FILE - Ella Emhoff appears at a rally for her stepmother Sen. Kamala Harris in Oakland, Calif., Jan. 27, 2019. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File)

FILE - Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff speaks at the Democratic National Conventiony, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Kerry Washington, center, with grand-nieces of Vice President Kamala Harris Amara Ajagu, right, and Leela Ajagu, speak during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Maya Harris, sister of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Helena Hudlin, from left, Meena Harris and Ella Emhoff speak during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned Thursday, one week after it emerged that his phone was seized as part of a federal investigation that touched several members of Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle.

Caban, who had been in charge of the nation’s largest police department for about 15 months, said in an email to staff that he made the decision to resign after the “news around recent developments” had “created a distraction for our department.”

“I am unwilling to let my attention be on anything other than our important work, or the safety of the men and women of the NYPD,” he added in the email obtained by The Associated Press.

At a news conference Thursday, Adams praised Caban for “making our city safer” and said he had named Tom Donlon, a retired FBI official, as the interim police commissioner.

Donlon previously served as the chief of the FBI’s National Threat Center and once led the Office of Homeland Security in New York, before starting his own security firm in 2020. He helped lead the investigation into the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and investigated the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings and USS Cole bombing.

Donlon said in a statement he was “honored and humbled” to head “the greatest law enforcement agency in the world,” and that his priorities would include removing illegal guns from the community.

Caban's resignation marks the first high-level departure from the Adams administration since federal investigators seized phones Sept. 4 from several members of the mayor’s inner circle, including two deputy mayors, the schools chancellor, and one of Adams’ top advisers.

The subject of the investigation, which is being led by U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, remains unclear, as does whether federal authorities were seeking information linked to one investigation or several.

Caban's lawyers, Russell Capone and Rebekah Donaleski, said in a statement Thursday they had been told by the government that “he is not a target of any investigation being conducted by the Southern District of New York, and he expects to cooperate fully with the government.”

The Justice Department defines a target of an investigation as someone whom prosecutors or a grand jury have gathered substantial evidence against that links the person to a crime. That’s in contrast to a subject, which is someone whose conduct is merely within the scope of the investigation. But those definitions are notoriously fluid and a person not seen as a technical target one day can become a target the next as new information develops.

Federal authorities are also investigating Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, a former NYPD sergeant who runs a nightclub security business, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.

James Caban “unequivocally denies any wrongdoing,” his lawyer, Sean Hecker, said in a statement. “His work – as a consultant and acting as a liaison between the Department and a private company – is perfectly legal, especially given his previous career as a NYPD officer,” Hecker continued.

James Caban was fired by the NYPD in 2001 after he was heard on a recording illegally detaining a cab driver whom he accused of stealing $100 and threatening to seize his vehicle.

According to people familiar with the matter, other officials whose devices were recently seized include First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety; his brother David Banks, the schools chancellor; and Timothy Pearson, a mayoral adviser and former high-ranking NYPD official. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Adams, a first-term Democrat, was subpoenaed in July, eight months after federal agents seized his cell phones and an iPad while he was leaving an event in Manhattan. Federal authorities haven’t publicly accused him or any officials of any crimes, and Adams has denied any wrongdoing.

The investigation that led to Edward Caban’s devices being seized is not believed to be tied to a probe that led federal investigators to seize Adams’ devices last November, according to two people familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Caban, 57, was the first Latino to lead the 179-year-old NYPD. He started as a patrol officer in 1991 in the Bronx, where he grew up, and worked in precincts across the city as he was promoted. His father, retired Detective Juan Caban, had served with Adams, a former police captain, when they were both on the city’s transit police force. Three of Caban’s brothers were also police officers.

He was the department’s second-in-command before being named commissioner last year.

Caban replaced Keechant Sewell, the first woman to lead the force. She resigned 18 months into a tenure clouded by speculation that she was not truly in charge.

As commissioner, Caban presided over continuing declines in some major crime categories, including shootings and murders, but was also criticized for his handling of officer discipline, including two officers who did not face any internal disciplinary action in the fatal shooting of a Black man, Kawaski Trawick, inside his Bronx apartment in 2019.

Donlon's appointment marks the first time in more than two decades that someone without prior experience serving in a local police department will lead the NYPD. Close observers of the agency described the move as both politically strategic and potentially risky.

“It gives the mayor some credibility at a time when his police department and administration are facing federal investigations,” said Jeffrey Fagan, a Columbia Law School professor focused on policing. “At the same time, will someone with no experience in a complex municipal police department and no real power base be able to clean up this mess?”

Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

People walk past One Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York City Police Department, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

FILE - Edward A. Caban, left, speaks after being sworn in as NYPD police commissioner outside New York City Police Department 40th Precinct, July 17, 2023, in New York. Mayor Eric Adams on the right. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)

FILE — Edward A. Caban speaks after being sworn in as NYPD police commissioner outside New York City Police Department 40th Precinct, July 17, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Jeenah Moon, File)