by As federal investigations revolved around Eric Adams over the past year, New York’s mayor stuck to a familiar script.
“As a former member of law enforcement, I expect all of my employees to follow the law and cooperate fully with any type of investigation – and I will continue to do so,” he said on November 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 last August, as the drumbeat of investigations grew louder, the mayor said, “We’re not going to interfere in the process. We will cooperate in the process.”
But the federal indictment unsealed Thursday tells a different story. Adams and his staffers did not fully cooperate with federal investigators; they conspired to obstruct the investigation into foreign bribery and corruption in ways that ranged from clumsy to clownish, the indictment said.
In one case, an unidentified associate of Adams agreed to an interview with FBI agents. But during the meeting, the complaint says, she excused herself to go to the restroom. While there, she deleted the encrypted messaging app she used to communicate with Adams and his alleged Turkish co-conspirators, prosecutors allege.
Then, on November 6, 2023, FBI agents, armed with a search warrant, approached the mayor after an event in Manhattan and moved to seize his electronic devices. According to the indictment, Adams had two cellphones with him, but not the personal phone he used to communicate with his co-conspirators. When he produced it the next day in response to a subpoena, he said he could not remember the new password he had created, the complaint said.
“As the federal investigation into the criminal conduct of Eric Adams, the suspect, continued, so did efforts to frustrate that investigation,” the complaint said.
Now Adams, a Democrat, is fighting for his political life. He is accused of nearly a decade of corruption involving Turkish businessmen and at least one government official.
Since 2015, Adams has received more than $100,000 in free or discounted airline tickets and luxury hotel rooms — as well as illegal campaign money — in exchange for doing his benefactors’ bidding, the indictment said.
He pleaded not guilty on Friday to five charges – including bribery, wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a stranger. “This isn’t even a real case,” his attorney Alex Spiro said after the hearing.
But some political experts see no way out for Adams, a former NYPD captain who came to power three years ago promising to tackle crime and disorder in America’s largest city.
“Stick a fork in him,” said Doug Muzzio, a retired political science professor at Baruch College with extensive knowledge of New York politics. “It’s cooked.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler on Friday became the latest prominent New York Democrat 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 also faces at least three other federal investigations and the resignations of several top officials.
False paper trail
The indictment alleges that Adams not only failed to disclose the travel benefits he received from the Turkish nationals, including free or discounted flights and upgrades to places like India, France, China and Ghana. The mayor created a false paper trail to make it appear that he had indeed paid for his trip, the indictment said.
In one case, Adams sent an email to his planner suggesting he had paid for the Turkish Airlines business class flights he took during an extended trip in the summer of 2017. Traveling with a family member and staff member, the mayor to Nice, France; Istanbul; Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Beijing, the indictment said. One ticket alone was worth $10,000, prosecutors said.
“I left the money for the international airline in an envelope in your drawer on your desk,” Adams wrote, misspelling the word drawer, according to the complaint. “Please send it to them.”
But airline records confirmed that Adams did not pay the airline in cash or otherwise because the tickets were free, the indictment said.
“As the indictment makes clear, this is merely a clumsy cover-up,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Friday.
Another episode described in the indictment illustrates an alleged attempt to conceal wrongdoing. In March 2019, an associate of Adams exchanged text messages with the then-Brooklyn borough president about another possible trip to Turkey.
“Oh be[n the] safe side Please delete any messages you send me,” the employee wrote to Adams, according to the complaint.
“Always do,” Adams responded, according to the complaint.
These incidents occurred before the multiple investigations came to light and Adams began pressing for his cooperation.
But last June, after the mayor repeatedly said he was assisting investigators, another incident occurred that prosecutors say underscored Adams and his team’s efforts to obstruct the investigation.
FBI agents interviewed a New York businessman who prosecutors say was a straw donor — a person who funnels someone else’s money to conceal its source — for Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign. The businessman then contacted the Adams employee who asked him to make the straw donation, according to the complaint.
Later that day, the Adams staffer visited the businessman at his office and said he had just met the mayor. According to the complaint, the staffer instructed the businessman to lie to investigators. The employee also took photos of the subpoena issued to the businessman and sent them to Adams, the complaint said.
The next day, Adams’ employee met with the businessman again. In a somewhat confusing confession, the staffer said that when he met Adams the previous day, they had left their cellphones outside the room so it would be “safe” to talk, according to the complaint.
The staffer then explained that although Adams was angry that police had approached the businessman, the mayor believed the man “would not cooperate with police,” according to the complaint.
‘Elegant Oakey’
The sprawling criminal case marks the first time in 150 years that a sitting New York City mayor has been accused of 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 eventually 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 charges and has vowed to fight the charges and stay on as mayor.
Hours after a swarm of FBI agents showed up early Thursday at the mayor’s Gracie Mansion and confiscated his phone again, Adams held a news conference outside the historic estate.
He said he had been “demonized” for the past 10 months and that he always followed the law.
He also seemed to suggest again that he had done everything he could to help investigators.
“If you look at our entire collaboration and our efforts to sit down and work together,” Adams said, “if you look at what has taken place, it has been a story of … that something inappropriate has been done, and it was just wrong.”
