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Letter in Eric Adams Case Raises Questions About Justice Official’s Testimony

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Letter in Eric Adams Case Raises Questions About Justice Official’s Testimony

During his U.S. Senate confirmation hearing to become the No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Todd Blanche suggested that he had no direct knowledge of the decision to abandon a criminal corruption case against the mayor of New York City.

But in a draft letter unsealed on Tuesday, the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan wrote that a top department official, Emil Bove III, had suggested otherwise before ordering her to seek the case’s dismissal.

The U.S. attorney, Danielle R. Sassoon, wrote that when she suggested that department officials await Mr. Blanche’s Senate confirmation so he could play a role in the decision, Mr. Bove informed her that Mr. Blanche was “on the same page,” and that “there was no need to wait.” The draft was written by Ms. Sassoon earlier this year, as she fought for the case’s survival.

The draft letter was among a cache of communications, including emails and texts, submitted under seal to a judge, Dale E. Ho, by Mr. Bove and Mr. Blanche, after his confirmation, to support their argument for dismissal of the corruption indictment against the mayor, Eric Adams. Judge Ho has yet to rule.

The draft sheds additional light on the circumstances surrounding the explosive decision by top officials in the Justice Department to halt the prosecution of Mr. Adams. The decision set off a political crisis in New York City, where the mayor immediately faced questions about his indebtedness to the Trump administration, which sought the dismissal in part so that Mr. Adams could aid its deportation agenda in New York City.

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A Justice Department spokesman said in a statement that Mr. Blanche had no role in decisions at the agency before he was confirmed.

“Todd Blanche was not involved in the Department’s decision-making prior to his confirmation,” the statement said.

During the confirmation hearing, Mr. Blanche was questioned about the Justice Department’s decision making in seeking the dismissal of the Adams case.

When Senator Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, asked Mr. Blanche about whether the decisions in the case had been directed by officials in Washington, Mr. Blanche suggested that he had no direct knowledge.

“I have the same information you have,” he said. “It appears it was, yes, I don’t know.”

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Reached for comment on Tuesday, Senator Welch said, “If this is true, it clearly indicates Blanche ‘misled’ — in plain English, lied — to the committee.”

It was not immediately clear when Ms. Sassoon drafted the letter. When it was originally filed, under seal, Mr. Bove wrote that Ms. Sassoon sent it to herself on Feb. 12. But the unsealed documents show that Ms. Sassoon sent herself an email that appeared to include the drafted letter as an attachment on Feb. 11 — the day before Mr. Blanche’s hearing.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Emma G. Fitzsimmons contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

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New York

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

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Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Over the course of one week, some of the richest people in the world descended on New York’s auction houses to purchase over $1 billion of art. It might have played out a little differently than you would have expected.

Can you guess which of these works sold for more?

Note: Listed sale prices include auction fees.

Image credits: “Untitled,” via Phillips; “Baby Boom,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Hazy Sun,” With permission of the Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Petit Matin,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio,” Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome; via Sotheby’s; “Baroque Egg with Bow (Orange/Magenta),” via Sotheby’s; “The Last Supper,” The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Campbell’s Soup I,” The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Miss January,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Fingermalerei – Akt,” via Sotheby’s; “Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego),” Succession Alberto Giacometti/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY; via Sotheby’s; “Tête au long cou,” Succession Alberto Giacometti/ARS, NY/Photos: ADAGP Images/Paris 2025; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Revelacion,” Remedios Varo, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Le jardin nocturne,” Foundation Paul Delvaux, Sint-Idesbald – ARS/SABAM Belgium; via Christie’s Images LTD.

Produced by Daniel Simmons-Ritchie.

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Video: How a Mexican Navy Ship Crashed Into the Brooklyn Bridge

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Video: How a Mexican Navy Ship Crashed Into the Brooklyn Bridge

On Saturday, a Mexican Navy ship on a good will tour left a New York City pier bound for Iceland. Four minutes later, it crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. [Spanish] “It’s falling!” [English] “No way!” Here’s what happened. The Cuauhtémoc had been docked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for four days, open to visitors looking for a cultural experience. As the ship prepared to leave on Saturday night, a tugboat arrived to escort it out of its pier at 8:20 p.m. The ship’s bow, the front of the vessel, faced Manhattan, meaning it would need to back out of its berth into the East River. As the Cuauhtémoc pulled away from shore, the tugboat appeared to push the side of the ship, helping to pivot the bow south toward its intended route. The river was flowing northeast toward the Brooklyn Bridge and the wind was blowing in roughly the same direction, potentially pushing the ship toward a collision. Photos and videos suggest the tugboat was not tied to the ship, limiting its ability to pull the ship away from the bridge. The Cuauhtémoc began to drift north, back first, up the river. Dr. Salvatore Mercogliano, who’s an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, told The Times that the ship appeared to be giving off a wake. This suggests its propellers may have been running in reverse, pushing it faster toward the bridge. The tugboat sped alongside the ship as it headed north, possibly trying to get in front of it and help the ship maneuver the other way. But it was unable to cut the ship off or reverse its course. All three masts crashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge at approximately 8:24 p.m., four minutes after the ship had left the pier, causing the top sails to collapse. Crew members standing on the masts during the collision were thrown off entirely. Others remained hanging from their harnesses. A New York City patrol boat arrived about eight minutes after the collision, followed quickly by a fire department boat. Additional law enforcement and emergency medical services removed the wounded for treatment. According to the Mexican Navy, two of the 227 people aboard the ship were killed and 22 others were injured.

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Audio Data Shows Newark Outage Problems Persisted Longer Than Officials Said

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Audio Data Shows Newark Outage Problems Persisted Longer Than Officials Said

On April 28, controllers at a Philadelphia facility managing air traffic for Newark Liberty International Airport and smaller regional airports in New Jersey suddenly lost radar and radio contact with planes in one of the busiest airspaces in the country.

On Monday, two weeks after the episode, Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, said that the radio returned “almost immediately,” while the radar took up to 90 seconds before it was operational.

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A Times analysis of flight traffic data and air traffic control feed, however, reveals that controllers were struggling with communication issues for several minutes after transmissions first blacked out.

The episode resulted in multiple air traffic controllers requesting trauma leave, triggering severe flight delays at Newark that have continued for more than two weeks.

Several exchanges between pilots and controllers show how the outage played out.

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Outage Begins

Air traffic recordings show that controllers at the Philadelphia facility first lost radio and radar communications for about a minute starting just before 1:27 p.m., after a controller called out to United Flight 1951, inbound from Phoenix.

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The pilot of United 1951 replied to the controller’s call, but there was no answer for over a minute.

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Two other planes reached out during the same period as United 1951 — a Boeing 777 inbound from Austria and headed to Newark, and a plane whose pilot called out to a controller, “Approach, are you there?” Their calls went unanswered as well.

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Radio Resumes, With Unreliable Radar

From 1:27 to 1:28 p.m., radio communications between pilots and controllers resumed. But soon after, a controller was heard telling multiple aircraft about an ongoing radar outage that was preventing controllers from seeing aircraft on their radarscopes.

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One of the planes affected by the radar issues was United Flight 674, a commercial passenger jet headed from Charleston to Newark.

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Once the radio started operating again, some controllers switched from directing flights along their planned paths to instead providing contingency flight instructions.

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At 1:28 p.m., the pilot of Flight N16NF, a high-end private jet, was called by a controller who said, “radar contact lost.” The pilot was then told to contact a different controller on another radio frequency.

About two and a half minutes later, the new controller, whose radar did appear to be functioning, instructed the pilot to steer towards a location that would be clear of other aircraft in case the radio communications dropped again.

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Flight N426CB, a small private jet flying from Florida to New Jersey, was told to call a different radio frequency at Essex County Airport, known as Caldwell Airport, in northern New Jersey for navigational aid. That was in case the controllers in Philadelphia lost radio communications again.

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Minutes Later, Radar Issues Persist

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, aircraft reappeared on radarscopes within 90 seconds of the outage’s start, but analysis of air traffic control recordings suggest that the radar remained unreliable for at least some radio frequencies for several minutes after the outage began around 1:27 p.m.

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At 1:32 p.m., six minutes after the radio went quiet, Flight N824TP, a small private plane, contacted the controller to request clearance to enter “Class B” airspace — the type around the busiest airports in the country. The request was denied, and the pilot was asked to contact a different radio frequency.

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1:32:43 PM

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Pilot

Do I have Bravo clearance?

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1:32:48 PM

Controller

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You do not have a Bravo clearance. We lost our radar, and it’s not working correctly. …

If you want a Bravo clearance, you can just call the tower when you get closer.

1:32:59 PM

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Pilot

I’ll wait for that frequency from you, OK?

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1:33:03 PM

Controller

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Look up the tower frequencies, and we don’t have a radar, so I don’t know where you are.

The last flight to land at Newark was at 1:44 p.m., but about half an hour after the outage began, a controller was still reporting communication problems.

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“You’ll have to do that on your own navigation. Our radar and radios are unreliable at the moment,” a Philadelphia controller said to a small aircraft flying from Long Island around 1:54 p.m.

Since April 28, there has been an additional radar outage on May 9, which the F.A.A. also characterized as lasting about 90 seconds. Secretary Duffy has proposed a plan to modernize equipment in the coming months, but the shortage of trained staff members is likely to persist into next year.

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