NYPD Union Boss Ed Mullins Resigns Hours After FBI Raids Home, Headquarters

New York, NY – New York Police Department (NYPD) Sergeants Benevolent Association (SBA) President Ed Mullins submitted his resignation on Tuesday night, just hours after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the union’s Manhattan headquarters.

The Police Tribune obtained a copy of an email that SBA’s executive board sent to its membership on Tuesday evening that explained what was going on.

“This morning, as you are no doubt aware, agents with the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York executed a search warrant at the headquarters of the Sergeants Benevolent Association and the residence of President Ed Mullins,” the email began.

“The nature and scope of this criminal investigation has yet to be determined. However, it is clear that President Mullins is apparently the target of the federal investigation,” the email continued. “We have no reason to believe that any other member of the SBA is involved or targeted in this manner.”

“The SBA has and will continue to fully cooperation with law enforcement officials heading the investigation in all respects,” the executive board said in the email.

“Given the severity of this matter and the uncertainty of its outcome, the SBA Executive Board has requested that President Mullins resign from his position as SBA President. This evening, President Mullins has agreed to tender his resignation as President of the SBA,” the email continued.

Then the email asked the membership to grant the organization’s now-former president the “presumption of innocence” and asked that they withhold judgment on Sgt. Mullins while the investigation is conducted.

The executive board also promised in the email to keep the membership updated as they learn “more about the reasons for the investigation.”

An FBI spokeswoman confirmed to the New York Daily News that agents were “carrying out a law enforcement action in connection with an ongoing investigation” into the SBA.

However, she refused to provide any additional details about what investigators were looking for at the union offices on Worth Street, or who was the target of the investigation.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to give the New York Daily News a comment.

It was widely believed ahead of the email from SBA’s executive board that the federal investigation could be related to an ongoing probe of NYPD Sergeant Ed Mullins, the controversial SBA president, who is facing administrative charges after he criticized city leadership on social media.

Sgt. Mullins filed a lawsuit in June against NYPD and the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) for violating his First Amendment rights.

In the lawsuit, the union boss accused the police department and the civilian review panel of trying to punish him for statements he made on social media, the New York Post reported.

The lawsuit alleged that NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) has repeatedly interrogated him for tweets he posted to the sergeants union’s Twitter feed.

“Mullins objected to the interrogations on the grounds that his speech was protected by the First Amendment and that he was speaking in his capacity as SBA President on a union platform at the time he made his public statements,” the complaint read, according to the New York Post.

Mullins filed the lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan and asked the judge to stop the police department and CCRB from conducting disciplinary investigations into him, the New York Daily News reported.

The lawsuit alleged NYPD and the civilian panel were retaliating against the union boss for outspoken criticisms on social media.