(The Center Square) — Federal authorities searched the homes of the NYPD’s interim commissioner Thomas Donlon just over a week after he was tapped to take over the department, he said in a statement.
Donlon, a former FBI official, said the search is not related to his work at NYPD, which he took over 10 days ago after Commissioner Ed Caban abruptly stepped down from the position after a year on the job amid a cloud of multiple federal investigations targeting members of Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. He said the NYPD “will not be commenting” on the matter.
“On Friday, September 20th, federal authorities executed search warrants at my residences,” Donlon said in a statement on Saturday. “They took materials that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and are unrelated to my work with the New York City Police Department.”
Adams spokesman Fabien Levy issued a statement Sunday in response to the search warrant by reiterating that the administration “expects all team members to fully comply with any law enforcement inquiry.”
Adams tapped Donlon to take over the helm of the NYPD from Caban, a 32-year NYPD veteran and the first Latino to run the agency, who resigned about two weeks ago, citing “recent developments” that have “created a distraction” for the police force. The veteran NYPD official was tapped last year to fill a vacancy left by the departure of former commissioner Keechant Sewell, who stepped down after only a year on the job.
Caban’s unexpected departure came after the FBI and New York City’s Department of Investigation reportedly searched his home and seized his cellphone as part of a probe into the NYPD’s nightclub enforcement.
Adams’ home was raided by the FBI earlier this year as part of a federal corruption probe centered on the mayor’s 2021 election campaign, which allegedly conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations.
It wasn’t immediately clear what the investigation was about, what materials had been seized or whether it was related to the ongoing City Hall federal probes.
But the search of Donlon’s home has some NYC officials scratching their heads about the reason for the FBI raid, which comes amid widening federal investigations with the homes of several top Adams administration officials searched and materials seized.
“This can’t be serious,” City Councilman Joe Borelli, a Republican, posted on X over the weekend. “Adams hires the guy a week ago, after his own exemplary career as an FBI agent, and all of a sudden the FBI finds cause to search his house.”
Donlon is a former intelligence agent who served as New York’s director of the Office of Homeland Security, and previously oversaw the FBI’s National Threat Center and the NYPD’s joint terrorist task force.
In appointing Donlon, Adams described him as “an experienced law enforcement professional who has worked at the local, state, federal, and international levels” and said he will help keep crime down in the city and build the police department.
