New York City politicians tend to accumulate their fair share of scandals, but Mayor Eric Adams may be facing an unprecedented mess. Last week, the FBI dispatched entire squads to raid the homes of five trusted Adams appointees: two deputy mayors, the schools chancellor, the police commissioner, and a senior mayoral adviser. The feds have seized these officials’ personal communication devices, including cellphones and laptops, Slate reports. One of these investigations kicked off in a very public way late last year when FBI agents searched the home of Adams’ chief campaign fundraiser and confiscated three iPhones and two laptop computers. A few days later, the FBI intercepted Adams himself and nabbed two of his cellphones and an iPad; the mayor voluntarily submitted two more of his devices to the bureau after that, and all the equipment was handed back to him relatively quickly.
The ongoing case deals with allegations that Adams’ campaign coordinated with Turkey-linked businesses to pocket illegal donations from Turkish officials. Three additional investigations inspired the more recent raids. One is related to a consulting agency run by a relative of two high-ranking officials whose phones were confiscated. Another involves the police commissioner’s twin brother, a former crooked cop who owns a nightclub-security business and also had his phone seized as part of the probe into whether he used his connections to ensure that certain city clubs earned less-aggressive police oversight than others. The third federal case focuses on Adams’ senior adviser, who oversees funding for immigrant security services, and “whether any kickbacks were involved” in the “city contracts he may have had a hand in,” per the New York Post. The feds themselves have not lodged any formal charges and the suspects all have denied wrongdoing.
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