NEW YORK (AP) — Four high-ranking former New York City police officials are accusing Mayor Eric Adams and his top deputies of doling out promotions to unqualified allies as part of a scheme that also involved alleged cash bribes paid to the ex-police commissioner.

In separate lawsuits filed Monday, the former officials — including the NYPD’s one-time chief of detectives — described a culture of rampant corruption and cronyism atop the nation’s largest police department, which was rocked by overlapping federalinvestigations late last year.

Each of the plaintiffs says that, with Adams’ tacit approval, they were either demoted or forced into retirement after raising concerns about the practices, according to their lawsuits.

A spokesperson for Adams, who is currently running for reelection, said he would review the lawsuits, adding that all of the police department’s leaders are held to the “highest standards.”

Beginning in 2023, the suits allege that Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey, a longtime ally of Adams, began bypassing internal hiring regulations to promote dozens of “unqualified friends” to key public safety posts. Inquiries to an attorney for Maddrey were not returned.

At the time, several veteran NYPD officials raised objections, including the department’s chief of detectives, James Essig, who noticed an “unusually high number” of inexperienced transfers to the department’s sex crimes unit, according to his lawsuit.

But when Essig complained to Edward Caban, then the first deputy to the police commissioner, he said he was reprimanded for raising the issue.

After Caban was promoted to police commissioner, he informed Essig, a veteran of the department for four decades, that he would be demoted from his position by five ranks.

According to the suit, Essig later learned Caban was “selling promotions” to hand-picked friends for up to $15,000.

An attorney for Essig, Sarena Townsend, declined to elaborate on the basis of the bribery allegation. Essig resigned in September of 2023 rather than accept the demotion.

In an emailed statement, attorneys for Caban called the bribery allegation “unsupported and reckless,” adding that there was “no merit to the allegations raised in these complaints.”

Caban resigned from his position in September following a raid on his home by the FBI. Maddrey, whose home was also searched by federal agents, stepped down after being accused of demanding sex from a subordinate. Neither has been criminally charged.

A spokesperson for the NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuits also accuse current police officials, including Chief of Department John Chell, of working to squash internal oversight of the mayor’s allies and policing priorities.

In one instance, the NYPD’s former chief of professional standards, Matthew Pontillo, said that an audit of the department’s Community Response Team turned up “troubling patterns” of unconstitutional stops by officers who delayed turning on their body cameras.

After Pontillo raised the finding in a meeting with then-Commissioner Keechant Sewell, Chell pulled him aside and said, “Why’d you have to tell her?” according to the suit.

Sewell met with Adams later that day, according to the suit. She resigned hours later and was later replaced by Caban.

Jake Offenhartz, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Turns out Donald Trump gauges his esteem for presidential predecessors by how well their portraits fit into his White House redecorating scheme. Or sometimes how well the frames around those portraits do.

“I’m a frame person,” Trump said Tuesday during a meeting with his Cabinet. “Sometimes I like frames more than I like the pictures.”

Trump wrapped up a 90-plus-minute session by explaining how he personally worked to redecorate the White House’s Cabinet Room, seeming to take real joy in choosing which portraits were hung. The president also said he helped choose the room’s drapes and polled those present about whether he should repaint the room in gold leaf. (Cabinet members think he should.)

“I actually spent time in the vaults. The vaults are where we have a lot of great pictures and artwork. And I picked it all myself,” Trump said. “I’m very proud of it.”

The president said that meant “a lot of time, effort” and “very little money.” And he even recounted having gone to the State Department and told its head, Marco Rubio, to have a grandfather clock there moved to the White House. That’s despite there not being any record of Trump having paid a public visit to the State Department during Rubio’s tenure.

Trump also pointed out each portrait and shared what he thought of each past president depicted. He started by indicating “the great Andrew Jackson ” and went from there — renewing his frequent praise for William McKinley and getting in a dig about how Bill Clinton once offered donors overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom in exchange for campaign contributions.

Here’s what Trump said about some of his other presidential predecessors:

James K. Polk (1845-49):

“That’s a gentleman named — and we call him — President Polk. He was sort of a real-estate guy. He was — people don’t realize — he was a one-termer. But he was a very good president. But, and I’m not sure I should be doing this, he actually gave us the state of California.”

Then Trump revealed that his choice of Polk’s picture might have had more do with the portrait’s frame being almost the same size as the frame surrounding Jackson’s portrait, which he suggested was especially aesthetically pleasing: “Polk is actually a very good president who’s got the same frame that I needed, OK.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-61):

“A very underrated president. Built the Interstate (Highway) System. And he was the toughest president, I guess, until we came along. But I don’t mind giving up that crown, because, I don’t want to be too tough on it. But we want to be humane. But he was the toughest president on immigration. He was very strong at the borders. Very, very strong. And, sometimes you can be too strong. He was strong at the borders and, during a certain period of time, there was so strong that almost every farmer in California went bankrupt. And we have to remember that. We have to work together. We have to remember that. But he was a very good president, and a very good general and a very good president and I thought he deserved a position somewhere on this floor.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-45):

“He was not a Republican, to put it mildly. But he was, you know, a four-termer. He was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And, if you notice, we have a lot of ramps outside. You have a ramp. People say, ‘It’s an unusual place for a ramp.’ It was because of him. He was wheelchair bound. But he was an amazing man.”

Abraham Lincoln (1861-65):

“Over there is ‘Honest’ Abe Lincoln. And that picture was in his, ugh, in his bedroom. And we thought this would be a very important place because this is where wars are ended. I’m not going to say wars are declared. I’m going to say wars are ended. OK? We’ll be positive. And, that’s the picture of Abe Lincoln from his bedroom, sat in the bedroom for many, many years. That was his favorite picture of himself. And the Lincoln Bedroom’s very famous. You remember when Bill Clinton had it and he rented it out to people. We don’t do that.”

John Adams (1797-1801):

“They were the first occupants of the White House. 1800. And John Quincy Adams, Mrs. Adams, they were the first occupants. So we have them looking at each other and, in between their stares is Abraham Lincoln trying to make peace.”

(Trump is correct that John Adams, the nation’s second president, and his wife Abigail, were the first first couple to move into the White House in 1800. But he was mistaken about John Quincy Adams, who was John and Abigail’s son and the sixth president. He served from 1825 to 1829).

William McKinley (1897-1901):

“McKinley was a great president who never got credit. In fact, they changed the name of Mount McKinley and I changed it back because he should have been — the people of Ohio, he was the governor of Ohio — the people of Ohio were very happy when I did that. I heard they were very insulted. They took the name of Mount McKinley off. That was done by Obama a little while ago and I had to change it back. I changed it back. He actually was a great president. He was a president. He was the tariff, the most, I guess since me — I think I’m gonna outdo him — but he was a tariff president. He believed that other countries should pay for the privilege of coming into our country and taking our jobs and taking our treasure. That’s the way he explained it. They took our jobs and they took our treasure. And for that he should pay. And he made them pay. And he built a tremendous fortune.”

___

Will Weissert covers the White House for The Associated Press.

Will Weissert, The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hector Velasquez was playing cards with friends at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles early Monday when a young man with a megaphone walked through announcing federal agents were on their way. Another man drove past in a car, shouting out the window, “Immigration is coming!”

The people in Velasquez’s group who did not have legal status scattered. Others with U.S. citizenship — like Velasquez — lingered to see what would happen.

Two hours later, federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived, with guns and horses. By then, the park that is normally bustling with vendors was mostly empty. Activists had also spread word about the raid on social media.

After sweeping through the park, the convoy that included armored vehicles left as suddenly as it had arrived, Velasquez said.

He described the scene Tuesday as he once again sat in the park playing cards — this time only with those who were citizens.

“I thought this was like a war,” said Velasquez, who was reminded of his home country of El Salvador. “Only in war do you see the tanks.”

The Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t say what the purpose of the operation was, why it ended abruptly, or whether anyone had been arrested. The agency said in an email that it would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.”

But local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear. Mayor Karen Bass planned a Tuesday afternoon news conference to outline how Los Angeles will challenge what she says are unlawful immigration raids.

Park is a center of immigrant life

Immigrants across the Los Angeles area have been on edge for weeks since the Trump administration stepped up arrests at car washes, Home Depot parking lots, immigration courts and a range of businesses. Rumors of an upcoming raid at MacArthur Park had been swirling. The park is in an area home to many Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations that has been dubbed by local officials as the “Ellis Island of the West Coast.”

Just two miles west of downtown, MacArthur Park has a lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.

Fernando Rodriguez closed down his variety store near the park on Monday after seeing flyers in the Westlake neighborhood warning of immigration enforcement happening that day.

“You look Latino, they take you. Even if you show papers, they say they’re fake,” he said. “What they’re doing is evil.”

He was open again Tuesday but said nearby businesses including Peruvian and Thai restaurants have been quiet in the weeks since the federal crackdown began.

“There’s no people anymore,” he said, gesturing to the street he said would usually packed with pedestrians on a sunny morning.

Group warned of enforcement action

Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said there had been rumors that there could be an enforcement action around MacArthur Park, and the LA Rapid Response Network had volunteers monitor the area starting at 6 a.m. Monday.

The network sends out observers who communicate via the messaging app Signal. Cabrera said the group does not post content to the public at large or run its own website.

He said Tuesday that the streets surrounding the park have been unusually empty in recent weeks as many vendors have not been out. He wasn’t sure if they left the area because of concerns about stepped-up immigration raids.

“This was a reality show to intimidate Los Angeles,” Cabrera said. “This was an attempt to show the administration’s military might, cause as much chaos as possible, remind Angelenos that the president is in charge and that he can cause terror at any moment’s notice.”

More than 4,000 California National Guard and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in Los Angeles since June — against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, the military announced about 200 of those troops would be returned to their units to fight wildfires.

Trump has pledged to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation’s military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided.

Melisa Doag, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who sells jewelry from a stand near the park, said she doesn’t plan to stay in the U.S. for much longer given the political climate. She would rather leave on her own terms than be deported, she said.

“I’ve only been here two years, and they already want to send me back,” Doag said. “I don’t want to be treated as a criminal.”

___

Associated Press journalists Damian Dovarganes in Los Angeles and Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, contributed to this report.

Jaimie Ding And Christopher Weber, The Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The second of two defendants from Nevada who were charged in Minnesota with conspiracy to commit voter registration fraud pleaded guilty Tuesday, federal prosecutors announced.

Ronnie Williams, 58, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Laura Provinzino in St. Paul. Court records don’t say whether there was a formal plea agreement.

“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joseph Thompson said in a statement. “Any attempt to undermine that process through fraud will be investigated and prosecuted. This case sends a clear message — election fraud will not be tolerated in Minnesota.”

Williams’ co-defendant, Lorraine Lee Combs, 57, pleaded guilty June 24. Under her plea agreement, the prosecution and defense agreed that the nonbinding federal sentencing guidelines recommend a sentence of zero to six months in prison, with one to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $20,000.

The actual sentences will be determined by the judge. The charges carry statutory maximums of five years in prison. Sentencing dates have not been set. Both defendants will remain free in the meantime.

Williams and Combs allegedly generated fictitious names and other data they used to fill out Minnesota voter registration forms in 2021 and 2022. The charging documents filed last month say Williams provided the completed forms to an entity that sought to register voters in Minnesota that is identified only as “Foundation 1,” which paid him, and that he then split the proceeds with Combs.

Combs and Williams were longtime romantic partners, according to the documents, which don’t say how much they were paid. The documents also indicate that others were involved in the alleged conspiracy, but charges against them have not been announced.

While voter fraud does happen occasionally, the country’s processes provide many safeguards that generally keep it detectable and rare. When it happens, it tends to get caught and prosecuted.

“The extensive checks in Minnesota’s voter registration process ensured that the fraudulent applications were immediately flagged, and no ineligible votes were cast,” Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement when the charges were announced.

The announcements from prosecutors said the two are Nevada residents who formerly lived in Minnesota. The federal court documents don’t specify which cities, but Minnesota court records show they were evicted from a West St. Paul apartment building in 2023.

Steve Karnowski, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has avoided talking about his plan to scrap the federal disaster response agency after the catastrophic flash flood in Texas that killed more than 100 people, including children attending a girls-only camp.

Asked shortly after the disaster whether he still intended to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Trump said it wasn’t the right time to talk about it. Nor did he mention such plans during a nearly two-hour meeting with his Cabinet on Tuesday.

The Republican president instead opened the meeting by having Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem talk about her visit to Kerrville, Texas, on Saturday, a day after floodwaters swept away riverside campers and homeowners in the wee hours of the Fourth of July holiday.

Her voice breaking, she recounted leading the federal response, telling the meeting that she was overcome with emotion during the trip and had “kind of fallen apart.”

“Very emotional,” she said, “but also just so tragic.”

Noem said “Texas is strong” but insisted that, “we, as a federal government, don’t manage these disasters. The state does. We come in and support them, and that’s exactly what we did here in this situation.”

“We’re cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA streamlining it, much like your vision of how FEMA should operate,” Noem said of Trump’s promise to scrap the agency. Noem added, that Americans helping one another after such tragic events is proof that “God created us to take care of each other.”

Trump will go to the scene

Trump said his wife, first lady Melania Trump, will accompany him when he visits Friday. It will be his second trip to survey the wreckage of a natural disaster. After he returned to office in January, Trump visited Hurricane Helene damage in North Carolina and the aftermath of California’s wildfires.

Noem said first responders were “still looking for a lot of little girls” who remain missing after Camp Mystic, a century-old all-girls Christian summer camp, was swamped by the floodwaters, and she described gut-wrenching scenes of parents pulling their children’s belongings out of the mud.

“The parents that were looking for their children and picking up their daughters’ stuffed animals out of the mud and finding their daughter’s shoe that might be laying in the cabin and, just hugging and comforting people matters a lot,” the secretary said.

“I’m extremely grateful for God’s hand in that whole situation because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved,” she said. “And and this is a time for all of us in this country to remember that we were created to serve each other.”

Trump compared what happened to the breach of a dam, saying that when you see one break “it’s not a pretty sight and wipes out everything. And this is the kind of thing that built up so fast.”

A wall of water slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees.

More than 100 people were killed, including at least 27 campers and counselors. Officials said Monday that 10 campers and one counselor still have not been found. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott later said that at least 161 people are still missing.

Talk of abolishing FEMA is muted

The flood and its devastation appear to have, for the moment, tamped down talk by Trump and Noem of scaling back FEMA, which helps states respond after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters by providing food, water and temporary housing and federal financial and other assistance.

“We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,” Trump said in June during an Oval Office appearance with administration officials to talk about preparations for summer wildfires.

Trump and Noem have repeatedly signaled their desire to overhaul, if not completely eliminate, the 46-year-old agency. While bipartisan support exists for overhauling its operations, experts say dismantling the agency completely would leave gaps in crucial services and funding.

Trump has accused the agency of political bias, suggesting people in western North Carolina, which was hit hard by Helene, weren’t helped as much as they could have been under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. He has said he wants to extract concessions from California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, in return for disaster assistance.

The president signs a ‘major disaster’ declaration

Asked on Sunday if he still planned to phase out FEMA, Trump brushed off the reporter’s question.

“Well, FEMA is something we can talk about later but, right now, they’re busy working so, we’ll leave it at that,” he said before departing New Jersey to return to the White House.

He signed a major disaster declaration for Texas, allowing the federal aid to flow.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gave an indirect answer on Monday when she was asked by reporters about the president’s phase-out plans.

“The president wants to ensure American citizens always have what they need during times of need, whether that assistance comes from states or the federal government, that’s a policy discussion that will continue,” she said. “And the president has always said he wants states to do as much as they can if not more.” She commended the “tremendous job” being done by Texas officials.

Trump in January created a council to assess FEMA and issue a report, which is due in November.

Darlene Superville, The Associated Press