Schools Chancellor David Banks says a federal investigation that led to the seizure of his cellphones last week is not distracting him from running the nation's largest school system.

"I have always lived my life with integrity, every day of my life, and anybody who knows me knows that,” Banks said.

What You Need To Know

  • Schools Chancellor David Banks told reporters he has always lived his life with "integrity"

  • Banks, his two brothers and other administration officials had their phones seized by the FBI last week
  • Banks would not answer questions about whether he attended meetings with his brother Terence Banks, who opened a lobbying firm

He spoke to reporters during an open media availability, which he hosts regularly during the school year. But this time, nearly every question stemmed from last week's visit by the FBI to the home Banks shares with his fiancee, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright.

Banks said agents arrived early in the morning and asked him to turn over both his personal and his education department cellphones. He said the visit lasted approximately 30 minutes.

"I would not describe what happened there as a raid,” he said.

Banks has retained an attorney, who he says told him he is not the target of the investigation. His two brothers had their phones seized by the FBI the same morning — deputy Mayor Phil Banks, a former top ranking police official, and Terence Banks, a former MTA employee who launched a lobbying firm. 

Agents also seized electronics from Police Commissioner Edward Caban, who resigned Thursday.

Banks was asked what he would tell students who might see news of the investigations into the leader of their schools.

"It's a lesson in life, there's some times where your name may be associated with something. It doesn't mean it had anything to do with you at all. Sometimes kids will be accused of things, and they are, even in our schools, that they were not a part of and had nothing to do with. So just because your name happens to be in a paper or connected to whatever, does not presume some level of guilt,” Banks said.

But Banks was less willing to discuss the specifics of the investigation. 

NY1 reporter Jillian Jorgensen asked him, "whether you ever took any meetings with your brother Terence as he pursued a lobbying career, or whether you encouraged that career at all?"

"Jillian, that is the exact kind of question that you know I can't respond to. So when I say I am cooperating with a federal investigation, some of the other questions that have been asked are much broader, I can't respond to that,” Banks said.