Mayor Eric Adams’s counsel and chief legal adviser, Lisa Zornberg, abruptly resigned — a major departure from the administration announced late Saturday night as the mayor and his inner circle face an onslaught of federal investigations.
Ms. Zornberg, a former senior Manhattan federal prosecutor in the office that is currently conducting three separate corruption investigations into the mayor and some of his senior aides, has been a fierce defender of Mr. Adams over the past 10 months. She encouraged New Yorkers not to rush to judgment after the first investigation — into the mayor’s campaign fund-raising — came to light.
“It has been a great honor to serve the city,” she wrote in a brief letter to the mayor on Saturday. “I am tendering my resignation, effective today, as I have concluded that I can no longer effectively serve in my position. I wish you nothing but the best.”
Ms. Zornberg’s resignation was stunning, not only because of her position and the highly sensitive moment at which it came, but because of its suddenness and because it was effective immediately, allowing no time for a transition to a new counsel.
Her departure came two days after the police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, resigned at the request of City Hall after federal agents took his phone in one of four criminal investigations that involve members of the administration and the mayor himself. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, where Ms. Zornberg worked, is conducting three of the inquiries, two of which on Sept. 4 led to the seizure of phones from several top officials. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn is conducting the fourth.
The investigations into Mr. Adams and his inner circle have destabilized his administration, and prompted two state lawmakers to call on the mayor to resign. The mayor, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, has said that the investigations will show he committed no misconduct and that he remains focused on serving New Yorkers.