Many Want Hochul to Force Adams From Office. She Isn’t Rushing.

• Feb. 14, 2025Updated 7:19 p.m. ET

As New York City descended into a full-blown crisis of confidence in Mayor Eric Adams this week, alarmed civic leaders and elected officials turned the pressure up on Gov. Kathy Hochul to invoke her authority to remove him from office.

They argued that the extraordinary step had become necessary after the prosecutor overseeing a federal corruption case against Mr. Adams said on Thursday that the mayor and the Justice Department had struck a corrupt bargain to shield him from further prosecution. The prosecutor resigned rather than ratify the deal.

Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, called the allegations “extremely concerning and serious,” and was soliciting views from powerful fellow Democrats and her closest advisers.

But five people familiar with the governor’s thinking said that Ms. Hochul favored a deliberative path. She had not yet concluded that Mr. Adams was posing the kind of urgent threat to the city’s governance to warrant an intervention that could unleash far-reaching practical, legal and political consequences, according to the people, who were not authorized to discuss her position publicly.

While the State Constitution clearly gives the governor the power to remove the mayor, history offers little guidance for how such a move might unfold. No governor since Franklin D. Roosevelt has even tried to use the removal power against a sitting New York City mayor, and even that almost century-old action never reached a conclusion.

Mr. Adams and his defenders could challenge any action by the governor in court, or at least demand a right to defend themselves against a removal proceeding. A move by Ms. Hochul would also almost certainly anger the Trump administration at a time when she is trying to persuade the president not to undo the state’s new congestion pricing program.