Federal investigators subpoena NYC Mayor Adams’ asylum seeker ops director for information on top adviser

NEW YORK — Federal authorities slapped Mayor Eric Adams’ asylum seeker operations director, Molly Schaeffer, with a subpoena Friday requiring her to turn over records, including communications with Tim Pearson, a top adviser to the mayor with deep involvement in city migrant contracts, the Daily News has learned.

Schaeffer, a 10-year city government veteran tapped in April 2023 by Adams to lead his Office of Asylum Seeker Operations at City Hall, was served with the subpoena at her home in Brooklyn, which she shares with her parents, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the subpoena is seeking only records, or electronics and testimony as well. But one of the sources said the subpoena requires Schaeffer to furnish communications with Pearson, a former NYPD inspector who has played a wide-ranging role in the Adams’ administration working on migrant contracts and a raft of other issues, including public safety.

Reached by phone early Friday, Schaeffer asked The News, “what is this about,” and then ended the call. Neither she nor Pearson has been accused of any wrongdoing.

Fabien Levy, Adams’ spokesman, declined to comment on the subpoena, but said in a statement: “As we have repeatedly said, we expect all team members to fully comply with any ongoing inquiry. Molly Schaeffer is an integral part of our team and works hard every day to deliver for New Yorkers.”

In her post, Schaeffer has played a prominent role in overseeing city contracts with private companies for migrant services like shelter, food, security and case management amid an influx of tens of thousands of mostly Latin American asylum seekers. The city has spent billions of dollars on such services since the crisis began in spring 2022.

In that capacity, Schaeffer has worked closely with Pearson, whose migrant crisis responsibilities has included coming up with ways to save money on contracts, sources familiar with her role said.

Pearson’s detailed daily schedules, obtained by The News via a Freedom of Information Law request, show he sat down with her four times in April 2023 for meetings labeled “asylum seeker updates.” Starting in May 2023, Pearson and Schaeffer began having a scheduled “daily quick check in on asylum seekers,” the schedules show.

Pearson was among a half dozen top advisers to the mayor who had their homes raided and electronics seized by the feds earlier this month. Pearson is also the subject of four lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct and professional retaliation as well as a Department of Investigation probe into a physical confrontation with a security guard at a migrant shelter last year.

Adams hasn’t modified Pearson’s duties.

A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Friday.

Pearson didn’t return a request for comment.

Schaeffer is the latest senior city official to be ensnared by federal investigators as they continue to pursue at least four separate corruption investigations touching on the Adams’ administration or campaign.

The full scope of what the feds are looking into is unclear, but one line of inquiry involves potential unregistered lobbying and kickbacks on city contracts, sources have confirmed. Terence Banks, a government consultant and the younger brother of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and Schools Chancellor David Banks, is a focus in that probe and has represented multiple companies with city business interests. All three Banks brothers had their devices confiscated and homes raided as part of that inquiry, as did First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.

In addition to the contracts-focused probe, the feds are investigating whether former NYPD Commissioner Ed Caban’s twin brother tried to squeeze nightlife venues in the city for cash in exchange for help with the NYPD. Commissioner Caban resigned last week after his electronics were seized as part of that probe; Adams’ office then fired an aide who allegedly helped connect a bar owner with James Cabán.

Lisa Zornberg, Adams’ former chief counsel, also resigned last weekend. As first reported by The News, she stepped down because the mayor declined to follow her advice to fire Pearson, Deputy Mayor Banks and other senior officials swept up in the ongoing investigations.

The Adams campaign is facing a separate investigation into allegations that the Turkish government funneled illegal donations into his 2021 campaign coffers. And the name of Frank Carone, the mayor’s former chief of staff who is one of his most influential advisers, surfaced in connection with yet another probe Thursday, as feds in Brooklyn subpoenaed a church for records related to business dealings between Carone and one of its priests, Jamie Gigantiello.

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