Inside Eric Adams’ ‘clumsy’ attempt to hinder foreign bribery probe
Politics tamfitronics
As federal investigations swirled around Eric Adams over the past year, the New York City mayor stuck to a familiar script.
“As a former member of law enforcement, I expect all members of my staff to follow the law and fully cooperate with any sort of investigation — and I will continue to do exactly that,” he said on Nov. 9, 2023.
Three days later, Adams sounded a similar refrain: “I have not been accused of wrongdoing, and I will continue to cooperate with investigators.”
And this past August, as the drumbeat of investigations grew louder, the mayor said: “We’re not going to interfere with the process. We’re going to cooperate with the process.”
But the federal indictment unsealed Thursday tells a different story. Adams and his staffers didn’t fully cooperate with federal investigators — they conspired to hamper the foreign bribery and corruption probe in ways that ranged from clumsy to clownish, the indictment says.
In one instance, an unidentified Adams staffer agreed to an interview with FBI agents. But during the meeting, the indictment says, she excused herself to use the bathroom. While there, she deleted the encrypted messaging app she used to communicate with Adams and his alleged Turkish co-conspirators, prosecutors allege.
Then, on Nov. 6, 2023, FBI agents armed with a search warrant approached the mayor after an event in Manhattan and moved to seize his electronic devices. Adams was carrying two cellphones but not the personal phone he used to communicate with his co-conspirators, according to the indictment. When he produced it the next day in response to a subpoena, he said he couldn’t remember the new password he had created, the indictment says.
“As the federal investigation into the criminal conduct of Eric Adams, the defendant, continued, so did efforts to frustrate that investigation,” the indictment says.
Now, Adams, a Democrat, is fighting for his political life. He’s accused of nearly a decade of graft involving Turkish businesspeople and at least one government official.
Since 2015, Adams received more than $100,000 worth of free or discounted plane tickets and luxury hotel rooms — as well as illegal campaign cash — in exchange for doing the bidding of his benefactors, the indictment says.
He pleaded not guilty Friday to five counts — including bribery, wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. “This is not even a real case,” his lawyer Alex Spiro said after the hearing.
But some political experts see no way forward for Adams, a former NYPD captain who swept into office three years ago on a promise to tackle crime and disorder in America’s largest city.
“Stick a fork in him,” said Doug Muzzio, a retired Baruch College political science professor with extensive knowledge of New York politics. “He’s cooked.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler on Friday became the latest prominent Democrat in New York to call on Adams to resign, joining a list that includes Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
As he maneuvers to stay in office, Adams must also contend with at least three other federal probes and the resignations of multiple top officials.
False paper trail
The indictment alleges that Adams didn’t just fail to disclose the travel perks he received from the Turkish nationals, which included free or discounted flights and upgrades to places like India, France, China and Ghana. The mayor created a false paper trail to make it look like he had indeed paid for his travel, the indictment says.
In one instance, Adams sent an email to his scheduler suggesting that he had paid for the Turkish Airlines business class flights he took during an extensive trip in the summer of 2017. Along with a relative and staff member, the mayor traveled to Nice, France; Istanbul; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Beijing, according to the indictment. One ticket alone was worth $10,000, prosecutors said.
“I left you the money for the international airline in an envelope in your top desk draw,” Adams wrote, misspelling the word drawer, according to the indictment. “Please send it to them.”
But records from the airline confirmed that Adams did not pay the airline, in cash or otherwise, because the tickets were complimentary, the indictment says.
“As the indictment makes clear, that’s just a clumsy cover-up,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Friday.
Another episode described in the indictment illustrates an alleged effort to conceal misconduct. In March 2019, an Adams staffer was exchanging text messages with the then-Brooklyn borough president about another possible trip to Turkey.
“To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me,” the staffer wrote Adams, according to the indictment.
“Always do,” Adams replied, the indictment says.
Those incidents occurred before the multiple probes came to light and Adams began insisting on his cooperation.
But this past June, after the mayor had repeatedly said he was assisting the investigators, another incident occurred that prosecutors say underscores the effort by Adams and his team to hinder the probe.
FBI agents interviewed a New York businessman who prosecutors say was a straw donor — an individual who funnels someone else’s money to hide its source — to Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign. The businessman then reached out to the Adams employee who had asked him to make the straw donation, the indictment says.
Later that day, the Adams staffer visited the businessman at his office and said he had just met with the mayor. The staffer instructed the businessman to lie to the investigators, according to the indictment. The staffer also took photos of the subpoena issued to the businessman to send to Adams, the indictment says.
The next day, the Adams staffer again met with the businessman. In a somewhat confounding admission, the staffer said when he had met with Adams the previous day, they had left their cellphones outside the room so that it would be “safe” to talk, according to the indictment.
The staffer then explained that although Adams was upset that law enforcement had approached the businessman, the mayor believed that the man “would not cooperate with law enforcement,” the indictment says.
‘Elegant Oakey’
The sprawling criminal case marks the first time in 150 years a sitting New York City mayor has been charged with a crime. Before Adams, there was Oakey Hall.
Hall was indicted in the early 1870s during an investigation involving William “Boss” Tweed, the powerful leader of the Tammany Hall political machine. “Elegant Oakey,” as he was known, was ultimately acquitted but never sought office again, according to the Museum of the City of New York.
Adams has remained defiant in the wake of the indictment, vowing to fight the charges and stay on as mayor.
Hours after a swarm of FBI agents showed up at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, early Thursday and seized his phone yet again, Adams held a press conference outside the historic estate.
He said that he had been “demonized” for the past 10 months and that he always followed the law.
He also seemed to suggest, once again, that he had done all he could to assist the investigators.
“When you look at our whole cooperation, and our attempts to sit down and cooperate,” Adams said, “when you look at what has taken place, it’s been a narrative of … that there was something improper that was done, and it was just wrong.”
Rich Schapiro
Rich Schapiro is a reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit.
