Thomas Donlon has officially detonated a legal bomb inside New York City Hall. The Thomas Donlon lawsuit is not just a legal move; it is a direct challenge to New York’s political establishment.
Holy Commissioner, Batman.
The former FBI counterterrorism vet, who briefly served as NYPD interim commissioner in late 2024, is suing Mayor Eric Adams and top NYPD brass for running the department like a criminal enterprise. His 251-page federal RICO lawsuit accuses the mayor’s inner circle of political promotions, retaliating against whistleblowers, fabricating arrests, and burying internal misconduct reports. This was not a resignation. It is a full-scale legal assault designed to expose the city’s power structure from within.
The shocking “RICO lawsuit” against @ericadamsfornyc is over 250 pages, filed in the Southern District of NY on 7/16/2025. Former NPYD Commissioner Thomas Donlon alleges Mayor Eric Adams and his administration are running a “corrupt enterprise.” He names Adams’ alleged corrupt… pic.twitter.com/OLtHFuf7H1
— Lauren Conlin (@conlin_lauren) July 16, 2025
Donlon is not some political agitator looking for attention. He is a seasoned FBI counterterrorism agent with more than thirty years of experience. Donlon worked on major cases including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 1998 East Africa embassy attacks. He has worked in both federal intelligence and private corporate security (BlackRock). He was supposed to clean up the NYPD, not blow the lid off it. But according to Donlon, what he found behind the scenes was far worse than anyone had publicly admitted.
The Thomas Donlon Lawsuit Alleges the NYPD Operates as a Political Crime Syndicate
Donlon’s lawsuit accuses Adams of turning the NYPD into a tool for political protection and personal loyalty. He says the department sidelined or punished officers who refused to fall in line. Leadership ignored or threatened whistleblowers. In Donlon’s case, he claims they targeted and falsely arrested his own wife to discredit him after he raised internal concerns.
The nation’s largest police force is “criminal at its core,” according to a new federal lawsuit by former interim New York City Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon.
Donlon said the NYPD “functions as a racketeering enterprise,” at the direction of Mayor Eric Adams.
In addition to Adams, the lawsuit named Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Kaz Daughtry, Chief of Department John Chell and former Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard among others.
“Senior leadership had abandoned lawful governance and engaged in outright malfeasance by using the NYPD to consolidate political power, obstruct justice, and punish dissent,” the lawsuit said. “The Defendants engaged in a coordinated pattern of racketeering activity that was deliberate, sustained, and directed from the highest levels of the NYPD and City Hall.”
The accusations in Donlon’s lawsuit are “absurd,” Adams’ press secretary, Kayla Mamelak Altus, said in a statement in response to the lawsuit. – ABC News
The Thomas Donlon lawsuit directly targets Eric Adams, painting his administration as corrupt, retaliatory, and unfit to lead.
The Fallout From the Thomas Donlon Lawsuit Against Eric Adams
If any of this proves true, then city leaders are not just mismanaging New York—they are rotting it from the inside. They are not running a city. They are operating a shadow cartel where corruption replaces governance and loyalty outranks the law. New York no longer looks like a functioning government. It looks like Gotham with a budget.
The timing makes the Thomas Donlon lawsuit even more explosive. Mayor Adams is running for reelection as an independent after ditching the Democratic Party. Federal investigators are already circling his campaign over illegal donations. Scandals, rising crime, and collapsing public trust have buried whatever credibility he had left. Donlon just struck at the one thing Adams was still selling: law and order.
Donlon, for his part, is not running for office. At least not yet. There have been whispers that he might try to position himself as a political outsider, but so far, this lawsuit looks more like a whistleblower act than a campaign stunt. He is calling for a federal monitor to take control of the NYPD and is demanding sweeping reform. It is not a press conference play. It is a legal mission to expose what he says is the truth.
Mamdani Sees His Moment in the Chaos
But if Donlon is not stepping into the ring, someone else already has. Zohran Mamdani, a far-left Democratic Socialist and the current Democratic nominee for mayor, is running a campaign built around dismantling the systems Donlon is now publicly condemning. Mamdani has long claimed that the NYPD is corrupt and unaccountable. Now he has the lawsuit to back him up.
Mamdani’s politics are extreme. He wants community boards to control police departments. The communist supports shrinking the NYPD’s budget and ending surveillance programs. And he believes policing in its current form is broken. Critics have called him a communist, a label he shrugs off, but his platform speaks for itself. In a city desperate for stability, he is offering radical change instead.
A Communist Goes To DC
And just recently, Mamdani was spotted in Washington, D.C., meeting with members of Congress. This raises a serious question. Why would a candidate for New York City mayor be taking meetings with national lawmakers in the middle of a local campaign? Has that ever been done before? Is he seeking political backing from powerful Democrats? Is this an effort to raise national funding and attention to boost his image? These are not small questions, and they deserve real answers.
With Mayor Adams collapsing under his own scandals and Mamdani cozying up to Washington power players, voters are left with very few trustworthy options. Donlon’s lawsuit is a powerful warning shot, but it does not come with a solution. It merely exposes what many already suspected: New York City is not being run. It is being misused.
No Good Options, Just a Bigger Mess
This puts voters in a bind. The sitting mayor is accused of weaponizing the police department for political gain. The progressive challenger is meeting behind closed doors with national Democrats and pushing a police-abolitionist agenda. Meanwhile, the man who tried to sound the alarm is not even on the ballot.
If New Yorkers want accountability, they are not finding it in their current options. Adams has failed to clean up city government. Mamdani wants to gut what little remains. Donlon wants a reckoning, but he is not offering leadership. The entire race is shaping up to be a fight between collapse and overcorrection.
Donlon’s lawsuit should be a turning point. Whether it succeeds in court or not, it lays bare just how deep the rot goes. But the city needs more than legal filings. It needs real reform and leadership that refuses to bow to special interests or play backroom games in Washington.
Mamdani is not that answer. Absolutely not. No communists, please.
AOC’s Favorite Socialist Is Not the Answer to a City in Crisis
Unfortunately, thanks to AOC and her media fan club, socialism is now branded as enlightened rebellion and the next great American idea. God help us. And because New York City still sets the tone for the rest of the country, you have to wonder if AOC brought Mamdani to DC to get the official blessing from the Democratic Party to accelerate the march toward a communist future.
Instead of restoring faith in leadership, the Thomas Donlon lawsuit leaves a political vacuum that radicals like Mamdani are eager to fill.
So the question now is simple. Will anyone rise to meet the moment, or will New Yorkers be stuck choosing between a mayor who runs the city like a racket and a candidate who wants to burn it all down?
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