Her husband resigned from his lobbying job after his phone was seized by the feds, her political mentee is getting in a legal battle with the governor’s handpicked running mate – and also had her phone seized by the feds – and her campaign donor just got indicted on corruption charges. Assembly Member Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn also screwed up the council speaker race, and baffled her borough by un-endorsing and then re-endorsing Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Things are not going well for the leader of the Brooklyn Democratic Party. And Bichotte Hermelyn’s six-year reign as county leader may be coming to an end.
Will she be reelected this summer? “I hope she isn’t,” said New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse, a fellow Brooklyn Democrat. “I think the county chair has demonstrated a lack of sensibility on a number of things. Most important, the total failure to make the largest party in the country a resounding success.”
Bichotte Hermelyn has endured political challenges before – City & State reported she was likely to lose her leadership role back in 2022 after a “conflict-filled” two years. And she’s maintained enough clout that her biannual fundraisers could draw the state’s top leaders, including Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Attorney General Letitia James. But critics within the party are going to seize on her latest round of troubles.
“This will allow people who already have a deep mistrust and severe issues with her to rise up and say for the good of the party and the good of the organization you need to step down,” said one Brooklyn-based political strategist.
There’s a lot still unknown about the investigation. The Associated Press first reported Monday night that federal prosecutors are investigating Bichotte Hermelyn’s husband Edu Hermelyn, City Council Member Farah Louis, and Hochul aide Debbie Esther Louis in a probe tied to bribes, kickbacks and the appropriation of city funds to a migrant shelter provider. On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn unsealed an indictment, accusing two former officials of BHRAGS Home Care – a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that’s received more than $185 million in city contracts – and two BHRAGS contractors of pocketing the nonprofits money and running a bribery and kickback scheme.
The now-indicted president of BHRAGS, Roberto Samedy, has made several political donations since 2020 to Bichotte Hermelyn, Farah Louis and the Brooklyn Democratic Party.
The indictment didn’t name or reference the Louis sisters or Bichotte Hermelyn’s husband, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re in the clear. Hermelyn lobbied council members to provide city funding to BHRAGS, though he wasn’t registered to lobby for the nonprofit, Politico reported. All three of their phones were seized by federal investigators in recent days and the investigation is ongoing, according to The New York Times.
Hermelyn is also no longer working for Mercury, the powerful public affairs firm he joined after a brief stint in the Adams administration. “Edu Hermelyn has decided to leave Mercury and is no longer associated with the firm,” a Mercury spokesperson told City & State.
Farah Louis was elected to the City Council in 2019 with Bichotte Hermelyn’s full support, and the pair have remained close political allies. Now, Farah Louis has filed a notice of intent to sue the City Council for $10 million, the Daily News first reported, alleging a hostile work environment under former Speaker Adrienne Adams. Louis herself could not keep her own office fully staffed and several former aides filed equal employment opportunity claims against her.
“This is one of the most frivolous things that I have ever heard,” Adrienne Adams told City & State about the claim. “I’m shocked and insulted. We’re talking about a sitting council member that is looking for $10 million from the city’s taxpayers? When you think about it, it boggles the mind.”
Farah Louis, Bichotte Hermelyn and Hermelyn did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Brooklyn Democratic Party declined to comment.
Bichotte Hermelyn has publicly clashed with the former speaker on several occasions, including when the Brooklyn Democratic Party rescinded its endorsement of Hochul in February after the governor selected Adrienne Adams to serve as her running mate. The move, widely attributed to Bichotte Hermelyn’s distaste for the Southeast Queens Democrat, raised eyebrows, spurring calls for her resignation as leader.
That came months after Brooklyn Democrat Crystal Hudson lost the speaker race to Julie Menin of Manhattan. Bichotte Hermelyn tried to organize her borough’s council members in the race, but publicly undermined Hudson’s bid rather than support her. Brooklyn members were largely left out of top council roles – though Bichotte Hermelyn repeatedly met with Menin’s team to secure Louis a leadership position.
Now that may be in jeopardy. A spokesperson for Menin’s office said it’s too soon to say whether Louis’ committee chair assignment on the council’s Zoning Subcommittee will be impacted or whether she’ll be investigated by the standards and ethics committee.
“The council is closely monitoring the situation based on press reports. New Yorkers deserve confidence in their government,” City Council spokesperson Jack Lobel said in a statement. “It is essential that the federal investigation proceed fairly and expeditiously to bring this matter to a resolution.”
Five Democratic district leaders contacted by City & State said there haven’t been any immediate calls for Bichotte Hermelyn to step down. The district leaders are up for election this June, and the winners will elect a county leader months later, typically around August. And no one has declared interest yet in running for county leader – though retired subway conductor Henry Butler has been considered a contender in the past.
Progressive reform club New Kings Democrats has been trying to take over leadership of the county party for years. City Council Member Lincoln Restler, who helped form the group over a decade ago, said that while things don’t look good for Bichotte Hermelyn, other county-aligned candidates could still win if reformers don’t play their cards right.
“There are a lot of reform-oriented district leader candidates running against the machine this year, and this episode further weakens (Bichotte Hermelyn’s) hand and her coalition’s ability to hang on,” he said.
One thing that may benefit Bichotte Hermelyn is that petitions are due this week, and district leaders are busy grabbing their final signatures and binding, cleaning and submitting them.
“The district leaders right now don’t have the bandwidth for this scandal,” said district leader Diana Gonzalez. “Right now I’m sitting in front of reams of green paper. … We all need to catch our breath.”
