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Who among us hasn't forgotten the passcode to our personal cellphone?
New York City Mayor Eric Adams talks to the press outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence of the mayor of New York City, on September 26, 2024. © Timothy A. Clary/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, has been charged with bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, and soliciting foreign campaign contributions. The five federal charges were unsealed in an indictment Thursday morning and it’s quite a document of alleged criminality, which includes details about Adams’ alleged efforts to cover his tracks by deleting messages and telling the FBI he forgot the passcode to his phone.
Adams allegedly accepted illegal campaign contributions but also benefited personally, including over $100,000 worth of free foreign flights, free meals, and “opulent” hotel rooms from a Turkish government official, according to prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
What did the government of Turkey allegedly get for these gifts? Adams allegedly pressured inspectors with the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) to allow a Turkish consulate building in Manhattan to open, despite the fact that the structure was “not safe to occupy,” according to fire inspectors. And if the fire officials didn’t approve the building, they would get fired.
From the indictment:
Also on the afternoon of September 10, 2021, the FDNY Chief of Department summoned the Fire Prevention Chief to a meeting. The Chief of Department was the FDNY Commissioner’s direct subordinate and the Fire Prevention Chief’s superior. The Chief of Department informed the Fire Prevention Chief, in substance, that if the FDNY did not assist the Turkish Consulate in obtaining a TCO, both the Chief of Department and the Fire Prevention Chief would lose their jobs. The Fire Prevention Chief then drafted a “conditional letter of no objection” for the Turkish House.
Adams, a retired police captain, was so indebted to the Turkish government that he even allegedly placed a Turkish Airlines official on his transition team for the mayor’s office in 2021, according to the indictment, which is available online. Prosecutors also alleged Adams created fake paper trails for all of this, in what prosecutors at a press conference on Thursday called a “clumsy cover-up.”
As the indictment explains:
Eric Adams, the defendant, also sought to conceal the luxury travel benefits he solicited and accepted from foreign nationals by creating fake paper trails, which members of Adams’s staff assisted in at his direction. For example, Adams attempted to create a fake paper trail suggesting he had paid for his 2017 flights on the Turkish Airline, when in fact he had not.
Adams allegedly communicated with staff about his free trips on Turkish Airlines, messages that prosecutors were able to obtain. But it’s not entirely clear yet how those messages were secured, since the indictment even quotes Adams saying that he “always” deleted messages like that.
From the indictment:
Eric Adams, the defendant, continued to conceal the benefits he received from foreign nationals seeking to gain influence over him. Adams did not report any of the 2019 gifts he received from the Airline Manager or the Promoter on his annual disclosure form. In addition, in March 2019, while exchanging text messages to plan another possible to trip to Turkey in which the Airline Manager would arrange travel for Adams, the Adams Staffer texted Adams, “To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me.” Adams responded, “Always do.”
Adams also allegedly sent emails to staffers in an effort to cover his tracks, pretending like he would pay for these free trips he was receiving. One email to a staffer quoted in the indictment reads, “I left you the money for the international airline in an envelope in your top desk draw. [sic] Please send it to them.” The suggestion in the email was that Adams had left more than $10,000 in cash to pay for a trip. But the indictment explains, “He did not do that, as records from the Turkish Airline confirm that Adams did not pay the airline, in cash or otherwise, because the tickets were complimentary.”
Incredibly, the indictment describes a scene where a staffer for Adams agreed to talk with the FBI and then tried to delete her unnamed encrypted messaging apps while ostensibly taking a bathroom break.
The Adams Staffer also agreed to speak with FBI agents and falsely denied the criminal conduct of herself and Adams, among others. At one point during her voluntary interview, the Adams Staffer excused herself to a bathroom and, while there, deleted the encrypted messaging applications she had used to communicate with ADAMS, the Promoter, the Turkish Official, the Airline Manager, and others.
Maybe the most amusing detail in the indictment is that Adams told the FBI he forgot the passcode to his personal phone when they got a search warrant to seize it. How is that possible? Adams says he had recently changed his passcode from four digits to six digits, specifically to stop his staff from possibly deleting anything from it. And in the process, he simply forgot the code. Seriously.
On November 6, 2023, FBI agents executed a search warrant for the electronic devices used by Eric Adams, the defendant. Although Adams was carrying several electronic devices, including two cellphones, he was not carrying his personal cellphone, which is the device he used to communicate about the conduct described in this indictment. When Adams produced his personal cellphone the next day in response to a subpoena, it was “locked,” such that the device required a password to open. Adams claimed that after he learned about the investigation into his conduct, he changed the password on November 5, 2024, and increased the complexity of his password from four digits to six. Adams had done this, he claimed, to prevent members of his staff from inadvertently or intentionally deleting the contents of his phone because, according to Adams, he wished to preserve the contents of his phone due to the investigation. But, Adams further claimed, he had forgotten the password he had just set, and thus was unable to provide the FBI with a password that would unlock the phone.
Adams has suggested the charges against him are part of a partisan hit job, somehow related to his complaints about the Biden administration’s handling of immigration policy at the U.S.-Mexico border. But prosecutors said at a press conference they’re not interested in politics, just the law. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams spoke at the press conference about how seriously his office takes these charges.
“The Southern District of New York remains committed to rooting out corruption without fear or favor, and without regard to partisan politics. We are not focused on the right or the left, we are focused only on right and wrong,” Williams said.
Adams gave his own press conference, which was livestreamed on his X account, where he insisted prosecutors only wanted to try this case in the court of public opinion (a strange charge, given the fact that he’s been indicted) and urged patience until he was able to defend himself in court.
“I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense,” Adams said. But members of the public shouted during the press conference that his accusations of partisan motivations behind the prosecution sounded like Donald Trump. When Adams concluded, onlookers started repeatedly shouting “resign, resign, resign!”
