Ex-NYPD commissioner sues NYC mayor, alleging he ran police department as a 'criminal enterprise'

National Post

16-07-2025

NEW YORK — A former New York City interim police commissioner filed a civil racketeering lawsuit Wednesday against his one-time boss, Mayor Eric Adams, and other top department officials, alleging they showered loyalists with unearned promotions, buried allegations of misconduct, and gratuitously punished whistleblowers.
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In a lawsuit filed in federal court, the ex-commissioner, Thomas Donlon, accused Adams and his inner circle of operating the nation's largest police department as a 'criminal enterprise.'
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Their alleged corruption triggered a 'massive, unlawful transfer of public wealth,' the suit states, through unearned salary increases, overtime payments, pension enhancement and other benefits.
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With Adams' approval, his cadre of hand-picked police leaders also sought to obstruct internal investigations, while targeting dissenters with leaks through the press, the suit alleges.
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Inquiries to the New York City Police Department and City Hall were not immediately returned.
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'This lawsuit is not a personal grievance,' Donlon said in a statement. 'It is a statement against a corrupt system that betrays the public, silences truth, and punishes integrity.'
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Donlon, a career FBI official who had not previously worked in the NYPD, was brought in as interim commissioner last September to stabilize a department shaken by federal investigations.
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His predecessor, Edward Caban, stepped down after federal authorities seized his electronic devices as part of an investigation that also involved his brother, a former police officer, along with several other high-ranking police officials. Caban has denied wrongdoing and not been criminally charged.
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Donlon had spent decades working on terrorism cases, including the investigation into the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and was a top counterterrorism official for the FBI's New York office. He also led New York state's Office of Homeland Security before going into the private sector security industry.
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But about a week into his tenure, federal authorities searched Donlon's homes and seized decades-old materials that he said at the time were unrelated to his work with the NYPD.
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Donlon lasted about two months on the job before current police Commissioner Jessica Tisch took over, pledging to restore trust to the department.