The FBI’s investigation into New York City Mayor Eric Adams has just taken a bold new step. Recently, multiple communication devices were seized from the mayor’s SUV by the FBI, as they requested his security detail to step aside.
It is suspected that Adams’ campaign may have conspired with the Turkish government. This came after the raid on Brianna Suggs’ house earlier in November, which was connected to allegations of illicit financial support from Turkey funneled into Adams’ campaign coffers.
As expected, this move by the FBI has raised some eyebrows in both Democratic and Republican circles.
In response to these events, Mayor Adams stated that as a former member of law enforcement he expects all members of his staff to follow the law and fully cooperate with any sort of investigation—which is exactly what he will continue doing. He further declared that he had “nothing to hide”–but many are starting to question if this is actually true or not.
Boyd Johnson, a representative for Adam’s electoral team noted that “in the spirit of transparency and cooperation” they reported any improper behavior immediately following their discovery of who was involved in the federal investigation.
BREAKING: The FBI has seized New York City Mayor Eric Adams's phones relating to a federal corruption investigation
The investigation is reportedly looking into whether his campaign conspired with the Turkish government.
According to the New York Times, FBI agents climbed into… pic.twitter.com/BqWeXsdEOw
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 10, 2023
The New York Times reported:
“The warrant obtained by the F.B.I. to search Ms. Suggs’s home sought evidence of a conspiracy to violate campaign finance law between members of Mr. Adams’s campaign, the Turkish government or Turkish nationals, and a Brooklyn-based developer, KSK Construction, whose owners are originally from Turkey. The warrant also sought records about donations from Bay Atlantic University, a Washington, D.C., college whose founder is Turkish and is affiliated with a school Mr. Adams visited when he went to Turkey as Brooklyn borough president in 2015.
The warrant, reviewed by The New York Times, indicated authorities were looking at whether the Turkish government or Turkish nationals funneled donations to Mr. Adams using a so-called straw donor scheme, in which the contributors listed were not the actual source of the money. The warrant also inquired about Mr. Adams’s campaign’s use of New York City’s generous public matching program, in which New York City offers an eight-to-one match of the first $250 of a resident’s donation.
The federal authorities also sought evidence of whether any Adams campaign member provided any benefit to Turkey or the construction company in exchange for campaign donations.
This is not the first time Mr. Adams or people in his orbit have attracted law enforcement scrutiny. In September, Eric Ulrich, Mr. Adams’s former buildings commissioner and senior adviser, was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, on 16 felony charges, including counts of bribetaking and conspiracy.”
