NYC taxpayers footing $600-an-hour legal bills for three City Hall staffers amid federal probes
Big Apple taxpayers are footing $600-an-hour legal bills for three City Hall staffers in the historic federal criminal probes encircling Mayor Eric Adams, The Post has learned.
The high-powered law firm Yankwitt LLP has been tapped by the Adams administration to provide legal representation for three employees who’ve been subpoenaed by the feds, according to a city Law Department letter.
The Post confirmed the identity of only one staffer — Molly Schaeffer, the low-profile head of asylum seeker services who was hit with the information-sharing request nearly two weeks ago at her Brooklyn home.
City Hall refused to disclose the other two staffers, contending authorities with the Southern District of New York swore them to silence on matters related to the investigation — and despite confirming Schaeffer’s identity.
“As we have said before, we are not going to comment on pending matters,” a spokesperson said.
Law Department officials wrote in the letter, obtained by The Post, that “upon information and belief, the three employees are neither targets nor subjects of the investigations.”
Adams himself was said by city lawyers to not be a target — at least until the feds unveiled a stunning 57-page indictment against him last week.
Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office, where Adams’ case is being handled, told The Post that the three people are all being repped by the same law firm indicates they are witnesses and not targets.
“One law firm wouldn’t be able to represent three cooperators in a case because there would be a conflict of interest,” he said.
The only staffer — Schaeffer — whose name that city officials coughed up is not under investigation for wrongdoing, sources have said.
Instead, her testimony and knowledge of migrant contracts is being sought as feds look into Tim Pearson, an Adams ally who may have allegedly interfered with picking contractors in exchange for illegal kickbacks, according to the sources.
Schaeffer is being represented by Benjamin Allee, a former assistant US Attorney who handles criminal investigations, prosecution and civil litigation for Yankwitt.
The sweeping investigations into Adams and City Hall prompted the now-indicted mayor and many top officials who had their homes raided to lawyer up.
Only Adams, who is the first sitting mayor of New York City to face federal criminal charges, has been accused of wrongdoing, but prosecutors indicated at a hearing Wednesday that the case may eventually involve more defendants.
More than a dozen people in Adams’ administration have had their phones seized, documents taken from their homes or offices or been ordered to testify before a grand jury — and need attorneys.
The Post has since learned the identities of the lawyers representing Adams and all but one: First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.
Concerns over whether taxpayers would be picking up the legal tab boiled over when Pearson, a top adviser for Adams who received legal representation from the city in four sexual harassment lawsuits, resigned this week amid scrutiny from the feds.
Councilwoman Gale Brewer (D-Manhattan) sent a pointed request to the Law Department, asking whether Pearson would still get legal representation paid for by the city.
The Law Department’s response made clear New Yorkers were off the hook in Pearson’s case.
But the letter referred to the three unnamed current employees who are receiving taxpayer-funded representation “in matters related to criminal investigations.”
The Westchester-based Yankwitt LLP firm was retained to represent the staffers, with rates ranging from $600-an-hour for its partners down to $100-an-hour for clerical staff, according to the letter.
Levin, the former Manhattan federal prosecutor, noted the rates being charged by Yankwitt are cheap, at least for white-collar defense in the city.
“They are lower rates than most and many law firms in the city,” he said.
Adams’ defense lawyer in the federal bribery case, celebrity attorney Alex Spiro, had represented him in civil sexual assault lawsuit.
But Spiro and his law firm, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, withdrew from the civil suit this week — a move that makes certain that taxpayers won’t pay for Adams’ legal defense in the criminal case.
