FBI raids offices of New York City police union, citing 'ongoing investigation'

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 bombastic leader, who has clashed repeatedly with city officials over his incendiary tweets and hard-line tactics.

An FBI spokesperson said agents were “carrying out a law enforcement action in connection with an ongoing investigation.” The spokesperson said he could not give details of the investigation.

Along with the union’s Manhattan headquarters, agents also searched union president Ed Mullins’ home in Port Washington, Long Island.

Messages seeking comment were left with Mullins and the union.

Mullins, who is also a police sergeant, is in the middle of department disciplinary proceedings for tweeting NYPD paperwork last year related to the arrest of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter during protests over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.

Mullins is also suing the department, claiming it was trying to muzzle him by grilling him and recommending disciplinary action over his online missives.

Mullins’ department trial for the alleged paperwork breach began last month but was postponed indefinitely after one of his lawyers suffered a medical emergency.

“I think he’s been a divisive voice,” de Blasio said of Mullins. “But that doesn’t cause me to feel anything in this situation because I don’t know what’s happening. All I hear is an FBI raid. I don’t know the specifics, I don’t know who it’s directed at. I want to really hear the details before I comment further.”

The Sergeants Benevolent Association represents about 13,000 active and retired New York police sergeants, a rank above police officer and detective but below captain and lieutenant.

Under Mullins’ nearly two decades of leadership, the union has fought for better pay – with contracts resulting in pay increases of 40% – and staked a prominent position in the anti-reform movement.

Along with Mullins’ periodic appearances on cable networks like Fox News and Newsmax – including one in which he was pictured in front of a QAnon mug – perhaps the union’s most powerful megaphone is its 45,000-follower Twitter account, which Mullins runs himself, often to fiery effect.

In 2018, amid a rash of incidents in which police officers were doused with water, Mullins suggested it was time for then-Commissioner James O’Neill and Chief of Department Terence Monahan to “consider another profession” and tweeted that “O’KNEEL must go!”

O’Neill retorted that Mullins was “a bit of a keyboard gangster” who seldom showed up to department functions.

Source: AP

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