Just over a week after taking charge of the nation’s largest police department, interim New York City Police Commissioner Tom Donlon confirmed Saturday that federal agents served search warrants on multiple homes belonging to him.
In a statement obtained by CBS News, Donlon said that “federal authorities” on Friday “executed search warrants at my residences.”
Donlon alleged that the agents “took materials that came into my possession approximately 20 years ago and are unrelated to my work with the New York City Police Department.”
He added that the NYPD would “not be commenting” as this was “not a department matter.”
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Donlon’s predecessor, Edward Caban, resigned on Sept. 12, about one week after it emerged that Caban’s phone was seized as part of a federal investigation that touched several members of New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ inner circle.
Caban, who had served as commissioner of the NYPD about 15 months, said in an email to staff at the time that he made the decision to resign after the “news around recent developments” had “created a distraction for our department.”
Donlon previously served as the chief of the FBI’s National Threat Center and once led the Office 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 USS Cole bombing.
Caban’s resignation marked the first high-level departure from the Adams administration since federal investigators seized phones Sept. 4 from several members of the mayor’s inner circle, including two deputy mayors, the schools chancellor, and one of Adams’ top advisers.
The subject of the investigation, which is being led by U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan, remains unclear, as does whether federal authorities were seeking information linked to one investigation or several.
Federal authorities are also investigating Caban’s twin brother, James Caban, a former NYPD sergeant who runs a nightclub security business, a person familiar with the matter told the Associate Press. The person could not publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
James Caban was fired by the NYPD in 2001 after he was heard on a recording illegally detaining a cab driver whom he accused of stealing $100 and threatening to seize his vehicle.
According to people familiar with the matter, other officials whose devices were recently seized include First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety; his brother David Banks, the chancellor of New York City Schools; and Timothy Pearson, a mayoral adviser and former high-ranking 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 cell phones and an iPad while he was leaving an event in Manhattan. Federal authorities haven’t publicly accused him or any officials of any crimes, and Adams has denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation that led to Edward Caban’s devices being seized is not believed to be tied to a probe 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, was 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 that she was not truly in charge.
