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NEW YORK (AP) – Federal agents on Tuesday raided the offices of a New York City police union, the Sergeants Benevolent Association, and the Long Island home of its pompous leader, who clashed with city officials about his inflammatory tweets and harsh tactics. .
FBI spokesman Martin Feely said the officers were “carrying out law enforcement action as part of an ongoing investigation.”
Officers were seen transporting boxes out of union headquarters in Manhattan and loading them into a pickup truck. The FBI also raided the home of union president Ed Mullins in Port Washington, Long Island, Feely said.
Mullins resigned as union president on Tuesday night at the behest of his board of directors, according to a message the union sent to its members. The union represents approximately 13,000 active and retired NYPD sergeants and controls a $ 264 million retirement fund.
“The nature and scope of this criminal investigation have not yet been determined. However, it is clear that President Mullins is apparently the target of the federal inquiry. We have no reason to believe that any other SBA member is involved or targeted in this case, ”the union’s message reads.
The union’s board has said that although Mullins is presumed innocent, it has asked him to step down to ensure the day-to-day operations of the union continue unhindered. The union said it was cooperating with the investigation.
Messages requesting comment have been left for Mullins and the union. Calls to Mullins’ cell phone were routed to a full voicemail box.
Mullins, a police sergeant on secondment from full-time union work, is in the midst of departmental disciplinary proceedings for tweeting NYPD documents last year regarding the arrest of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter during protests against the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police.
Mullins’ trial began last month but has been postponed indefinitely after one of his lawyers suffered a medical emergency.
Mullins’ attorney denies violating departmental guidelines, arguing that arrest documents containing Chiara de Blasio’s personal identifying information, such as her date of birth and address, had previously been posted online.
Mullins is also suing the department, saying they were trying to muzzle him by grilling him and recommending disciplinary action for his online missives, which included allegations that officers were at war with city leaders.
Asked about the raid on Tuesday, the mayor of Blasio told reporters he did not have enough information to comment.
“I think he’s been a divisive voice,” de Blasio said of Mullins. “But it doesn’t make me feel anything in this situation because I don’t know what’s going on. All I hear is an FBI raid. I don’t know the details, I don’t know who it is for. I really want to hear the details before I comment further.
The Sergeants Benevolent Association operates a Widows and Children Fund, a scholarship fund for members’ children, and Blue Christmas, which distributes toys to needy children.
Mullins, a police officer since 1982, became a sergeant, a rank higher than detective but lower than captain and lieutenant, in 1993 and was elected president of the sergeants’ union in 2002.
Under Mullins’ leadership, the union fought for better wages – with contracts resulting in 40% wage increases – and took a leading position in the anti-reform movement.
Despite being a full-time union leader, city law allowed Mullins to retain his position as a sergeant and collect union and police department wages. Last year, Mullins earned more than $ 220,000 between the two, according to public records: $ 88,757 from the union and $ 133,195 from the NYPD.
The NYPD referred questions about Mullins to the FBI.
Besides Mullins’ periodic appearances on cable networks like Fox News and Newsmax – including one in which he was photographed in front of a QAnon mug – the union’s most powerful megaphone is perhaps its 45,000-follower Twitter account, which Mullins manages itself, often to fire effect.
In 2018, amid a series of incidents in which police officers were sprayed with water, Mullins suggested it was time for then-commissioner James O’Neill and department head Terence Monahan to “consider another profession” and tweeted that “O’KNEEL has to go!”
O’Neill countered that Mullins was “a bit of a keyboard gangster” who rarely showed up for department duties.
Last year Mullins came under fire for tweets calling the city’s former health commissioner Dr Oxiris Barbot “b——” and US Rep. Ritchie Torres “fucking first class.”
Mullins was upset at reports that Barbot had refused to give face masks to police at the start of the pandemic and angry at Torres’ calls for an investigation into a possible slowdown in police work in September 2020.
Torres, who is gay, denounced Mullins’ tweet as homophobic.
On Tuesday, Torres referred to this tweet when reacting to the news of the raid, writing: “Ed Mullins, who called me a ‘first class bitch’ for daring to ask about @SBANYPD, just received a first-class FBI raid.
In 2019, it wasn’t the tweets that got Mullins in trouble, but rather comments he made in a radio interview suggesting that Tessa Majors, a student killed at Barnard College, had gone to the park where she had been killed to buy marijuana. Police then arrested three teenagers, claiming she was stabbed in an attempted robbery.
Majors ‘family called Mullins’ remarks on the radio show “deeply inappropriate” blaming the victim and urged him “not to engage in such irresponsible public speculation.”
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Associated Press reporters Karen Matthews and Tom Hays contributed to this report. Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak
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