Infamous for violating department guidelines after tweeting the arrest report for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s daughter during a George Floyd protest along with derogatory language tweeted at a Congressman and a former health commissioner, the president of a New York City police union appears to be under federal investigation after FBI agents raided his home and the union headquarters on Tuesday. The U.S. Attorney’s Office refused to disclose any information regarding the investigation.
On Tuesday, FBI agents simultaneously raided the Manhattan offices of the Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA), which represents 13,000 active and retired New York City Police Department sergeants and is the fifth-biggest police union in the country, and the Long Island home of SBA president Ed Mullins. Several hours later, federal investigators reportedly left the locations with boxes, including one appearing to hold a hard drive and other electronics equipment.
An FBI spokeswoman told The New York Daily News that the agency was “carrying out a law enforcement action in connection with an ongoing investigation” into the SBA shortly after the coordinated seizures began.
On Tuesday morning, New York Congressman Ritchie Torres tweeted, “Ed Mullins, who famously called me a ‘first-class whore’ for daring to ask questions about the @SBANYPD, just got a first-class raid from the FBI.”
In September 2020, Torres called for an investigation to explain why NYPD officers were making fewer gun arrests during a period of increased gun violence in the city. Mullins immediately responded in a tweet that has since been removed calling him a “first class whore” who passes laws to defund the police while supporting criminals.
In another tweet, Mullins derided the city’s health commissioner as a “bitch” with “blood on her hands” after the police department attempted to commandeer a half-million hospital-grade masks at an out-of-state FEMA warehouse in March 2020.
After the mayor’s daughter, Chiara de Blasio, was arrested in May 2020 for blocking traffic near Union Square in a protest over the killing of George Floyd, Mullins tweeted her arrest report without redacting any of her personal information. Mullins was accused of violation of department rules.
“I think he’s been a divisive voice,” Mayor de Blasio told reporters on Tuesday. “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 police union president currently does not face any federal criminal charges.
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