NEW YORK — Phil Banks, Mayor Eric Adams’ top public safety deputy and longtime friend, resigned over the weekend, the latest senior City Hall official to step down after becoming embroiled in federal corruption investigations that are rocking the administration.

Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, submitted a resignation letter to the mayor Sunday night, sources familiar with the matter told the Daily News. It was not clear Monday morning if the resignation was effective immediately.

In a string of TV appearances Monday morning, Adams confirmed Banks had submitted his resignation. He said Banks’ exit is at least in part related to his entanglement in the cloud of corruption investigations hanging over the mayor and his administration.

“He stated he wants to transition to other things with his life and he doesn’t want this to be a constant burden on the work that we’re doing in the city and I accepted his resignation,” Adams said on NY1. “I wish my good friend well.”

Adams, who’s fighting federal criminal charges alleging he solicited bribes from Turkish government operatives in exchange for political favors, also said Banks initially told him he wanted to resign six months ago, but that he had convinced him to stay on to work on some initiatives that needed to be completed. The mayor did not identify those initiatives.

Banks, who served with Adams in the NYPD and has been a key political confidant to him for decades, did not immediately return a request for comment. But Benjamin Brafman, Banks’ attorney, said in a statement that federal prosecutors have told him his client “was not a target of their investigation and nothing about his resignation changes that fact.”

A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is leading most of the investigations into Adams’ administration, did not immediately return a request for comment.

In 2014, Banks abruptly resigned as the NYPD’s chief of department after becoming ensnared in a federal corruption probe that he was ultimately never criminally charged in.

The deputy mayor’s departure comes after he and four other top Adams advisers had their homes raided and electronics seized on Sept. 4 as part of multiple federal corruption investigations scrutinizing whether city officials were engaged in schemes involving influence peddling, kickbacks on city contracts and NYPD nightlife enforcement misuse, among other matters.

Prior to Monday, three of those officials — Schools Chancellor David Banks, senior Adams adviser Tim Pearson and NYPD Commissioner Edward Caban — had already announced their resignations.

Now that Phil Banks, the chancellor’s younger brother, is also headed for the door, only one other top administration official who was hit by the feds Sept. 4 remains part of the Adams administration: Sheena Wright, the first deputy mayor.

Sources have said, though, that Wright, Chancellor Banks’ wife, is also about to resign. She was initially expected to do so this past Friday.

On PIX11 Monday morning, Adams didn’t deny Wright is about to leave the administration as well. “When it’s time for her to transition, we’re going to make a formal announcement,” he said.

The continued exodus of top officials from Adams’ administration comes after Gov. Hochul, who has the power to remove the mayor from office, demanded he push out advisers wrapped up in corruption probes. After Pearson announced his resignation last week, Hochul called it a “good first step.”

In his TV appearances Monday morning, the mayor declined to divulge if there are any other advisers the governor has pressed him to push out. He vowed to rapidly fill the positions that are now being vacated. “We have a list of people from my transition team that are ready to come in to every position,” he said.

The mayor — who has rejected demands from some local elected officials that he resign — is the only administration official who has to date been publicly accused of wrongdoing by the feds. He has pleaded not guilty to bribery, fraud, conspiracy and soliciting illegal foreign donation charges.

As part of the probe that prompted the raid of Phil Banks’ home, the feds are looking at whether his younger brother, government relations consultant Terence Banks, used his familial connections in city government to secure business for private clients. Terence Banks’ home was also searched by the feds Sept. 4.

Several of Terence Banks’ clients have significant business interests before city government agencies under the direct purview of his brothers, including SaferWatch, a Florida security app firm that was served with a search warrant in the investigation last month, as first reported by The News.

On Friday, The News reported the Department of Investigation is probing the administration’s dealings with Evolv, a weapons scanner company that was tapped to execute several pilot programs for the city after Banks was closely involved in business discussions with the firm’s executives.

Together with Pearson, whose last day in the administration was Friday, Banks has held immense sway over the NYPD and the Adams administration’s public safety agenda.

According to reporting by The News and other outlets, Banks and Pearson were afforded so much power over day-to-day NYPD operations that it irked department brass, including former NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who ultimately resigned last summer after sources said she grew frustrated with being micromanaged.

Adams’ decision to elevate Banks to the powerful deputy mayor position in early 2022 at a $252,000 salary drew controversy due to Banks’ history of attracting attention from federal law enforcement.

Shortly after he resigned from the NYPD in 2014, it emerged Banks had been named an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a sprawling corruption scheme in which businessmen Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg were accused of bribing cops and city officials in exchange for political favors. Banks was never charged in that probe and has denied any wrongdoing but prosecutors alleged he was involved in the scheme.

Adams defended Banks’ appointment in 2022, saying it was part of his push to pick the “best people” to serve in city government.

In a Jan. 7, 2022 op-ed published by The News upon his return to city government, Banks wrote that his interactions with Rechnitz and Reichberg — including going on a free trip with them to Israel — were a “mistake.”

“These two men were attempting to corrupt public officials — and I now regret the time I spent with them,” he wrote. “I realize now that even the appearance of our friendship was damaging to my profession. I hope that from here on, I can serve the people of New York excellently to prove my commitment to them.”

—With Evan Simko-Bednarski

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