policy

NEW YORK (AP) — Federal investigators this week seized cellphones belonging to the New York Police Commissioner and no less than 4 top deputies of New York Mayor Eric Adams, people conversant in the matter say.

FBI agents seized the devices on Wednesday from the homes of several high-ranking city officials, said two individuals who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to debate the continuing investigation. The officials include First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, his brother David Banks, the town's schools chancellor, and Timothy Pearson, an aide to the mayor and former senior New York Police Department official.

One of the people said federal investigators also seized equipment from the house of Police Commissioner Edward Caban.

The searches are a part of a flurry of investigative activity surrounding Adams' administration, his campaign and the Democrat himself in his first term. He had previously received subpoenas and his electronic devices were seized as a part of federal investigations.

Federal authorities haven’t accused him or any of his officers of any crimes, and Adams, a retired police captain, has denied any wrongdoing.

“I have made it clear throughout my public life that my message is to obey the law,” Adams said Thursday evening on New York's Fox 5 television channel.

He had previously told reporters at City Hall that the administration would release the knowledge it needed when it had it. “And I will continue to be mayor of the city of New York.”

Lisa Zornberg, City Hall's lead attorney, said in a press release that investigators had provided no indication that the mayor or his staff were “the target of any investigation.”

The NYPD said in a press release that it was aware of and cooperating with an investigation by Manhattan-based federal prosecutors “involving members of the armed forces.” The agency referred further investigations to prosecutors, who, like an FBI spokesman, declined to comment.

Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Philip Banks, confirmed that the homes of Philip Banks and Terence Banks, an adviser and brother of David and Philip Banks, were searched.

The searches are the newest sign that federal authorities are taking a better have a look at members of Adams' inner circle.

He took office as mayor in 2022 after serving as Brooklyn borough president and state senator.

Last fall and winter, the FBI raided the house of a senior fundraiser for Adams' campaign, the residence of an official within the mayor's administration's Office of International Affairs, and properties belonging to Adams' director of Asian affairs.

Federal agents seized the mayor's phones and iPad as he left a Manhattan event in November, and earlier this summer he, his campaign team and City Hall received subpoenas from federal prosecutors.

One of the people conversant in the matter said the recent subpoenas requested information concerning the mayor's schedule, his foreign travel and possible ties to the Turkish government.

The latest wave of searches of individuals near Adams appeared unrelated to the Turkey investigation, the person said. It was not immediately clear whether federal authorities were searching for information related to 1 or more investigations.

Adams appointed Caban, a veteran NYPD officer, as police commissioner last summer. He is the primary Latino to guide the nation's largest police force.

Pearson, whom the mayor has described as a “good friend,” has an unusual role in city government: He works for the quasi-governmental Economic Development Corporation but in addition has influence over the police department. He is currently facing several lawsuits accusing him of sexually harassing female employees and can also be under investigation for his role in a fight at a homeless shelter. An attorney representing Pearson within the sexual harassment lawsuit didn’t immediately reply to a call.

Federal prosecutors had previously named Philip Banks as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in an investigation right into a police bribery scheme during former Mayor Bill de Blasio's tenure. Banks abruptly retired in 2014 but returned to city government after Adams took office in 2022.

David Banks, the colleges chancellor, shares a house in Harlem along with his partner Sheena Wright, the primary deputy mayor.

He declined to comment as he left an event at a New York school on Thursday.

“Today is the first day of school. It's all about the kids. If there are any further comments, it will be tomorrow,” David Banks told Fox 5 New York.

Terence Banks founded a consulting firm “dedicated to connecting businesses with government and community stakeholders” after leaving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last yr. The authority operates subways, buses and commuter rail and shouldn’t be under the supervision of the mayor, who appoints some members of the board.

Timothy Sini, an attorney for Terence Banks, said in an email that the federal government had assured his client that he was “not the target of this investigation.”

The news portal “The City” was the primary to report on the searches.

A spokesman for the town's law enforcement agency declined to comment.

PARIS – The ball bounced off the ring five times.

Five!

Stephen Curry broke freed from Joel Embiid's brick-house block late within the fourth quarter, Serbian guard Ognjen Dobrić bumped into the wall like he was Wile E. Coyote and fell to the ground, and the best shooter of all time fired a shot from above which may as well have landed on a craps table.

With just 144 seconds left on this FIBA-style game where the clock isn’t any one's friend, the ball dropped through the web, giving Team USA its first lead since midway through the primary quarter. Eventually, Team USA pulled off one of the impressive comebacks of all time, in some way overcoming a 17-point deficit against Serbia (95-91) and heading to the Olympic gold medal game against France. At some point, we'll truly appreciate how close this team – with names like LeBron James, Curry, Kevin Durant and so many other all-time talents on board – got here to a level of infamy that might have surpassed the 2004 team that took bronze in Athens and, in consequence, sparked a reckoning inside the national program.

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) 8 August 2024

Phew.

I truthfully don't know what else to say.

When covering international tournaments just like the Olympics, one in all the things that’s off-putting is the support some non-American media outlets show for his or her respective teams, which is, to be honest, quite off-putting. Some reporters cheer on the press, which is taken into account taboo within the United States, and others even shout derogatory things about American players like Joel Embiid (true story).

But once you watch these Americans push themselves to the limit, and anticipate the form of criticism they'll get from people like me after they miss, you’ve to secretly hope that shots like Curry's late three-pointer fall. That dynamic just doesn't exist within the NBA; it comes from knowing one group of individuals so a lot better than the remainder. And when Curry did his job, stealing Bogdan Bogdanović's pass and running coast-to-coast for a left-to-right layup that put Team USA up 91-86 with 1:01 to go, you felt relieved that the Golden State Warriors star had finally had his moment in his first Summer Games.

As Steve Kerr, the US team's coach, said afterward, Curry gave the impression of a player who applied pressure from the beginning. He scored in single digits in three of the US team's 4 Olympic Games and averaged 7.3 points in the primary 4 games. The only highlight of his first Olympic experience was the friendly against Serbia on July 17, by which he scored 24 points.

That was child's play in comparison with this one. Curry was knocked out and scored 36 points while making 12 of his 19 shots and sinking nine of his 14 threes.

Do how again and again in his entire profession he made that many 3-pointers on 14 or fewer attempts? Nine, in keeping with Stathead.comand that features a total of 1,103 games between the regular season and the playoffs (0.8 percent of the time). As a reminder, these games are 40 minutes long, not the 48-minute affairs we see within the NBA. The proven fact that it happened in a game where Team USA so desperately needed a basketball hero made it all of the more epic.

“There have been moments over the last few weeks where I thought (Curry) was working too hard,” said Kerr, the Warriors coach who has witnessed Curry's success up close for a decade. “He's just so dedicated, constantly working so hard on his game. We all know who he is, what he does, and I almost wanted to tell him, 'Hey, take a day off,' but that's just not him. He works so hard, and with the work he's put in over the last few weeks, he's pushed himself into this game tonight.”

Curry, the 36-year-old who was in a position to fully enjoy this Olympic experience even off the bottom, stressed that the partitions weren’t getting any closer.

“I didn't feel any pressure at all because we were winning every game by … 15, 20 points,” he said. “I know I affect the game in a different way. But tonight, about two minutes in, we realized I was being eyed, that they were playing a different type of defense against us. Obviously, they were scoring an insane amount of goals on the other end, so you just keep going and get lost in the moment.

“It will depend on what the sport requires. I shot 3 times last game (in a win over Brazil) and I didn't wish to force it because that wasn't what the sport required. That's the fantastic thing about Team USA and FIBA ​​and this whole experience. Every game was for another person.”

When you hear Curry's side of the story, you realize that this role represents a huge adjustment for him. While he was shooting just 35.7 percent of his shots from the field and 25 percent of his threes (5 of 20) before the Serbia game, he was also averaging just seven shots per game. That context, the fact that this team makes it so difficult for so many great players to find a way, like they do with their NBA teams, is often forgotten in the discussion.

“I haven't had many opportunities,” Curry said candidly. “I haven't shot well all tournament, but that doesn't diminish my confidence to seize the moment.”

And he did.

When one of the greatest basketball games of all time was over, James – who was part of the 2004 team that the USA Basketball program would rather forget – threw the ball in the air and looked down to see Curry waiting to embrace him with unbridled joy. It was a surreal scene in every way, the sight of these two NBA rivals sharing a kind of memory that no one could have imagined when their Cavs and Warriors teams battled each other in the Finals all those years ago.

So I asked James, “How does this game rank in terms of pure emotion?”

“I mean, it's right up there,” said James, the four-time champion and Los Angeles Lakers star whose triple-double (16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists) played a big part in the win. “I mean, I'm 39 years old and I'm going into my twenty second season. I don't know the way many more opportunities or moments like this I'm going to get to compete for something big and play in big games.”

This game was beyond great. It was downright magical, with all this history woven between key players who fell on the track for their national pride. Just listen to Kevin Durant, the Phoenix Suns star who won two championships with Curry in Golden State, sound like he'd never experienced anything like it.

“Steph, man, that was a godlike performance,” said Durant, who forced Bogdanović into a crucial backcourt violation with 1:34 left and hit a nasty jump shot with 34 seconds left that put Team USA ahead 93-89. “Damn, (Curry) was tough. It felt like he'd been struggling all tournament, and we at all times said every night (every game) it could possibly be anyone else. And tonight he presented himself in a way that, man…”

Durant was almost speechless.

“One shot after one other, stealing a ball after which ending with a layup,” he said. “He was in every single place tonight. It was probably the greatest games I've ever seen from him.”

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Required reading