New York City Mayor Eric Adams declared during a podcast appearance this week that he believes the “deep state” is not Trump conspiracy theory but a reality in American government.

Speaking with comedian Andrew Schulz on the Flagrant podcast Wednesday, Adams said, “I don’t want to sound [like a] conspiracy theorist, but there’s a permanent government. There are people that see presidents and mayors come and go. Their attitude is, ‘We’ll wait you out.’”

Adams, who earlier this week announced he would leave the Democratic Party and run for re-election as an independent, also praised Government Gangsters, a controversial 2023 book by former Trump administration official Kash Patel. The book claims to expose entrenched bureaucratic resistance to elected leaders — often referred to as the “deep state.”

When Schulz challenged the overuse of the term, Adams pushed back. “It’s not used too much. It’s real, brother,” he said. “Kash was in the Department of Defense. He was in the FBI. He prosecuted terrorists. So he comes with this wealth of knowledge… what this ‘deep state’ is about and why it’s so important for Americans that we cannot have a weaponizing of our prosecutorial powers.”

Adams then turned his focus to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), which brought bribery charges against him last year. The allegations accused Adams of soliciting campaign donations and lavish travel from Turkish nationals and other foreign entities in exchange for political favors — charges that were dropped this week “with prejudice” at the request of the Trump Justice Department, permanently closing the case.

“Now imagine the Southern District of New York — that’s one of the most powerful U.S. attorney’s offices. In their mind, they said, ‘We’re sovereign.’ You know what that means?” he asked Schulz. “They don’t have to answer to anyone… not the president, not the U.S. attorney in Washington, not the attorney general. They believe they’re a sovereign entity.”

The mayor questioned the lack of accountability for powerful federal prosecutors. “You’re not elected,” he said of the SDNY. “Imagine an entity believing they don’t have to answer to anyone.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)