Former Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks — who quit under a cloud of corruption suspicion — urged the public not to trust the media.
“Would you blindfold yourself and eat whatever someone fed you? No? Then stop letting the media do it to you,” read the ominous image shared via X by the scandal-scarred ex-official.
Banks, 62, was among several top Adams’ administration officials targeted by investigators in sprawling probes last year, with federal agents raiding his Queens home in September.
The feds were eyeing whether Banks directed city contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars to companies repped by his younger brother Terrence’s consulting firm, sources previously told The Post.
Banks, who had an antagonistic relationship with the press during his nearly three years in City Hall, stepped down in October.
He has not been charged with any crimes related to the federal investigations.
“It’s only when he’s criticized that he believes the media has no place in our society,” Sarena Townsend, a former city Correction Department deputy commissioner, told The Post.
“I’m sure he loved being in the media when it covered him in a positive light.”
Banks said he doesn’t “like or dislike the media but the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t trust the media,” later adding, “I like bad publicity.”
