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Inside Eric Adams’ ‘clumsy’ attempt to hinder foreign bribery probe
The New York mayor had insisted time and again that he was cooperating with federal investigators. But the 57-page indictment unsealed Thursday tells a different story.
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.
