NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors scrutinizing a web of top officials in New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration subpoenaed the director of the city's Office of Asylum Seeker Operations to testify before a grand jury.
Molly Schaeffer, who coordinates the city’s efforts to get housing and social services for newly arrived migrants, received the subpoena at her Brooklyn home Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the subpoena.
The authorities did not seize Schaeffer's electronic devices — as they have done to several other Adams’ aides in recent weeks — but served her a subpoena requesting her presence in front of a federal grand jury in Manhattan, the person said.
It was not immediately clear when the testimony would take place or how it could fit within the multiple ongoing federal law enforcement investigations swirling around Adams, a first-term Democrat and former police captain.
Schaeffer directed questions to the deputy mayor for communications, Fabien Levy, who declined to comment on the nature of the investigation.
“We expect all team members to fully comply with any ongoing inquiry,” Levy wrote in a text message. “Molly Schaeffer is an integral part of our team and works hard every day to deliver for New Yorkers.”
Schaeffer has not been accused of any wrongdoing. Federal prosecutors often use subpoenas to get testimony or records from people with information relevant to an investigation, not necessarily because they believe the person has committed a crime.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's offices in Manhattan declined to comment.
In her current role, Schaeffer works closely with another top mayoral aide, Tim Pearson, a longtime confidante of Adams who oversees contracts for new shelters built by the city to house asylum seekers.
Earlier this month, federal agents seized the phones of Pearson, along with several other top deputies to the mayor, including the New York City police commissioner, the school's chancellor and two deputy mayors. The police commissioner, Edward Caban, resigned last week.
Those seizures are believed to be related to probes overseen by Manhattan federal prosecutors examining, at least in part, whether the relatives of top-ranking Adams' aides used their family connection for financial gain.
In July, Adams received his own subpoena from federal prosecutors seeking information from him, his campaign, and City Hall. That request came eight months after FBI agents seized the mayor's phones and an iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan.
Those subpoenas requested information about the mayor’s schedule, his overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigations.
Adams also has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
A separate federal probe led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn is believed to be focused on Adam's director of Asian Affairs, Winnie Greco.
Schaeffer has led the office of asylum seeker operations since its creation last year, overseeing the city’s response to the arrival of more than 200,000 migrants and the wide-ranging effort to house and feed the surge of new arrivals.
She previously worked for Adams’ predecessor, Mayor Bill de Blasio.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to members of the press at a news conference in New York, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump ’s rally on Saturday in the battleground state following a CNN report about Robinson’s alleged disturbing online posts, an absence that illustrates the liability the gubernatorial candidate poses for Trump and downballot GOP candidates.
Robinson is not expected to attend the event in Wilmington, according to a person on the Trump campaign and a second person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump's North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids" and long praised him. But in the wake of Thursday's CNN report, the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn't mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign's efforts.
Robinson's campaign didn't respond to a text Friday seeking confirmation on his Saturday plans. The deadline in state law for Robinson to withdraw as the Republican candidate for governor passed late Thursday. State Republican leaders could have picked a replacement had a withdrawal occurred.
Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said he wouldn't be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he's been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state's attorney general.
“Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he told supporters in a video released Thursday by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.”
State law says a gubernatorial nominee had until the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed to withdraw. They were distributed starting Friday.
Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein has said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already have contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could help Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the state’s 16 electoral votes.
Democrats jumped on Robinson and other Republicans after the report aired, showing on social media photos of Robinson with Trump or with other GOP candidates, attempting to tarnish them by association. Losing swing district races for a congressional seat and the General Assembly would endanger the GOP’s control of the U.S. House and retaining veto-proof majorities at the legislature.
“The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Friday. “The Democrats are counting on this ... having a big effect.” But Cooper said Republicans could limit problems to the governor's race only if upward ticket-splitting trends among voters continue.
Harris' campaign rolled out a new ad Friday it calls the first to link Trump to a down-ballot candidate. The commercial alternates between Trump’s praise for Robinson and the lieutenant governor’s comments which his critics have argued show his support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions. Robinson's campaign have said that's not true.
The Democratic National Committee is also running billboards in three major North Carolina cities showing a photo of Robinson and Trump and comments Trump has said about him. And a fundraising appeal Friday by Jeff Jackson, Democratic attorney general candidate, also includes a past video showing Republican opponent Dan Bishop saying he endorsed Robinson.
“Every North Carolinian when they go to vote ought to look at whether a candidate has done that, because that sends a strong message about who you are as a candidate,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a top Harris surrogate, said at a Friday news conference.
CNN's story, which describes a series of comments that it said Robinson posted on the message board more than a decade ago, sent tremors through the state’s political class, particularly Republicans.
While the state Republican Party came to Robinson’s defense late Thursday pointing out he's “categorically denied the allegations,” party Chairman Jason Simmons put out his own statement Friday calling them “deeply troubling” and that Robinson "needs to explain them to the people of North Carolina.”
U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who endorsed a Robinson rival in the primary, said on X that Thursday “was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win.” He didn't mention the governor's race.
U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of House Republicans' campaign arm, discounted Robinson’s impact in North Carolina congressional races.
CNN reported that Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first Black governor, attacked on the message board civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms and once referred to himself as a “black NAZI.” CNN also reported that Robinson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 along with an appreciation of transgender pornography. Robinson at one point referred to himself as a “perv,” according to CNN.
The Associated Press has not independently confirmed that Robinson wrote and posted the messages. CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name.
CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information. It also compared figures of speech that came up frequently in his public Twitter profile that appeared in discussions by the account on the pornographic website.
Price reported from New York. Associated Press writers Kevin Freking in Washington, Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh contributed to this report.
Robinson will not appear at Trump's North Carolina rally after report on alleged online comments
Robinson will not appear at Trump's North Carolina rally after report on alleged online comments
FILE - North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson speaks before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Asheville, N.C., Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
