A little over a week later take charge Acting New York Police Commissioner Tom Donlon, the nation’s largest police department, confirmed Saturday that federal agents executed search warrants at several homes owned by him.
In a statement obtained by CBS News, Donlon said that “federal authorities” “executed search warrants at my residences on Friday.”
Donlon claimed that the officers “took documents that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and which have no connection with my work with the New York City Police Department.”
He added that the NYPD would “have no comment” because it was “not a department matter.”
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Donlon’s predecessor, Edward Caban, resigned on September 12about a week after it emerged that Caban’s phone was seized as part of a federal investigation that has affected several members of New York Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle.
Caban, who had served as NYPD commissioner for about 15 months, said in an email to staff at the time that he made the decision to resign after “news regarding recent developments” had “created a distraction for our department.”
Donlon previously served as head of the FBI’s National Threat Center and led the Bureau of Homeland Security in New York, before starting his own security firm in 2020. He helped lead the investigation into the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and investigated the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings and the USS Cole bombing.
Caban’s resignation It is the first high-level departure from the Adams administration since federal investigators on Sept. 4 seized the phones of several members of the mayor’s inner circle, including two deputy mayors, the schools chancellor and a top Adams adviser.
The focus of the investigation, being conducted by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, remains unclear, as does whether federal authorities were seeking information related to one or more investigations.
Federal authorities are also investigating Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, a former NYPD sergeant who runs a nightclub security company, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
James Caban was fired by the NYPD in 2001 after he was caught on tape illegally detaining a taxi driver he accused of stealing $100 and threatening to impound his vehicle.
Police devices have also been seized recently, according to people familiar with the matter, including First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, Philip Banks, deputy mayor for public safety, his brother David Banks, New York City schools chancellor, and Timothy Pearson, an adviser to the mayor and a former senior NYPD official. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Adams, a first-term Democrat, was subpoenaed in July, eight months after federal agents seized his cellphones and an iPad as he left an event in Manhattan. Federal authorities have not publicly charged him or any official with any crime, and Adams has denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation that led to the seizure of Caban’s devices does not appear to be related to an investigation that led federal investigators to seize Adams’ devices last November, according to two people familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Caban, 57, is the first Latino to lead the 179-year-old NYPD. He was the department’s second-in-command before being named commissioner last year.
Caban replaced Keechant Sewell, the first woman to lead the force. She resigned 18 months into a tenure clouded by speculation she wasn’t really in charge.
