NEW: NYC Comptroller demands Mayor Eric Adams submit 'contingency plan' to run city or face removal

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has demanded that Mayor Eric Adams submit a "contingency plan" to run the city or face removal amid several high-profile resignations from the mayor's office. 

In a letter addressed to Adams, Lander wrote, "Today my office received news that four of the City’s Deputy Mayors—including First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer—have submitted their resignations and that others have communicated their intent to resign. These departures would create an unprecedented leadership vacuum at the highest levels of City government and wreak havoc on the City’s ability to deliver essential services to New Yorkers.”

“These resignations come in the wake of deeply concerning actions by the U.S. Justice Department, asking the US District Court to drop the indictments against you, so long as you comply with the White House on matters of immigration and criminal justice policy, which call into question your ability to continue to comply with your duties to New Yorkers under the City Charter,” the letter added.

Lander then asked Adams to submit a “detailed contingency plan” on how he will be able to manage the city as there is a leadership transition, and then added, “Should your office be unable or unwilling to formulate such a plan promptly, I will seek to convene a meeting of the Inability Committee.”

Adams was under investigation by the Biden administration's Justice Department, which he said he believed to be a political prosecution. The Trump administration has dropped the case against Adams in what many have said appears to be a quid pro quo to get the sancutary city to comply with the Trump administration's mass deportation plans.

Adams was facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals, wire fraud, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, as well as bribery in relation to allegedly receiving illegal gifts from Turkey in the form of hotel stays and plane tickets. The four officials who resigned did so because Adams is now moving to help Trump in the deportation efforts.