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Eric Adams and His Campaign
Receive Subpoenas in Federal
Investigation
A new round of federal grand jury subpoenas in the investigation
of Mayor Eric Adams and his 2021 fund-raising seeks a wide
range of information.
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Federal prosecutors issued subpoenas to Mayor Eric Adams and others as part of a
long-running investigation into the mayor and his campaign. Cindy Schultz for The New
York Times
By William K. Rashbaum and Dana Rubinstein
Aug. 15, 2024
Federal prosecutors investigating Mayor Eric Adams of New York
and his 2021 campaign have served a new round of grand jury
subpoenas in their long-running corruption inquiry, issuing them to
Mr. Adams himself, to City Hall and to his election committee,
according to four people with knowledge of the matter.
The three subpoenas were served in July and seek an extensive
range of materials, including text messages, other communications
and documents, two of the people said.
The subpoenas contain similar language and seek information in a
number of areas, including travel by the mayor, his aides and
others, as well as fund-raising. They appear likely to sweep in
information related to some aides to the mayor and people who
worked both in City Hall and on Mr. Adams’s 2021 campaign, the
people said.
The new subpoenas came nearly nine months after the corruption
investigation first entered public view , meaningfully altering the
city’s political landscape. Since then, the mayor has become a
political target , with sagging approval ratings and at least three
challengers in the 2025 Democratic primary.
The full scope of the investigation remains unclear. But it has
focused at least in part on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign
conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign
donations and pressured the Fire Department to sign off on
Turkey’s new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety
concerns. It also has examined free flight upgrades Mr. Adams
received from Turkish Airlines.
Federal prosecutors were examining whether Mr. Adams pressured the Fire
Department to sign off on the opening of a new high-rise Turkish consulate. Sara
Hylton for The New York Times
Mayor Adams has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and maintained
that he and his campaign have scrupulously followed the law.
Two lawyers representing him and his campaign said in a
statement on Thursday that over the past nine months, they have
conducted their own investigation into the conduct that they
believe is the focus of the federal inquiry.
Both lawyers in the past two decades oversaw public corruption
prosecutions for the same federal prosecutor’s office that is now
investigating the mayor. Their examination has included “an
evaluation of campaign documents, an analysis of tens of
thousands of electronic communications, and witness interviews,”
the statement said.
“To be clear, we have not identified any evidence of illegal conduct
by the mayor,” the lawyers, Brendan R. McGuire and Boyd M.
Johnson III, said in the statement. “To the contrary, we have
identified extensive evidence undermining the reported theories of
federal prosecution as to the mayor, which we have voluntarily
shared with the U.S. attorney.”
The lawyers said they were responding to the new subpoenas.
“We continue to look forward to a prompt and just resolution of this
investigation,” they said.
The subpoenas, which have not been previously reported, also
came amid some indications that the public corruption
investigation may be nearing its conclusion.
Prosecutors and F.B.I. agents have recently been contacting
lawyers for witnesses they interviewed earlier this year with
follow-up questions to clarify certain details, and they have sought
to expedite interviews with some other witnesses, four people with
knowledge of the outreach have said.
Spokesmen for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of
New York and the F.B.I., which are conducting the investigation,
declined to comment.
Neither Mr. Adams nor any other administration officials or
campaign staffers have been accused of wrongdoing, and it is
possible that the investigation could conclude without charges
being brought against the mayor or any of his aides. His
predecessor, Bill de Blasio, endured lengthy and well-publicized
federal and state criminal investigations focused on his campaign
fund-raising, but those ended with no charges. He won re-election
in 2017.
In the federal investigation of Mr. de Blasio, at least one senior
official from City Hall and one from his campaign received grand
jury subpoenas, a development that prompted his chief counsel,
Maya Wiley, to issue a statement at the time saying “City Hall has
been subpoenaed.”
Those subpoenas were issued nearly a year before that
investigation concluded in an unusual announcement by federal
prosecutors from the Southern District — the same office
investigating Mr. Adams — that harshly criticized Mr. de Blasio.
The mayor’s spokesman, Fabien Levy, noted that Mr. Adams, a
retired police captain, had a career in law enforcement before
politics and “has been clear over the last nine months that he will
cooperate with any investigation underway.”
“Nothing has changed,” he added.
It is unclear what prompted the new round of subpoenas. Grand
juries operate in secret and federal law bars prosecutors and
federal agents from speaking about subpoenas or the materials or
testimony that the subpoenas seek.
The investigation into Mr. Adams and his campaign began in 2021,
before Mr. Adams took office as mayor, and continued in secret
until this past fall, two people with knowledge of its origin said.
It may have been effectively dormant during some of that time, but
later heated up, with F.B.I. agents and prosecutors gathering
enough evidence to persuade a federal judge to sign several search
warrants that were executed on the same morning in November of
last year. The warrants included one for the Brooklyn home of
Brianna Suggs , who was then the mayor’s chief fund-raiser.
Federal agents searched the Brooklyn home of the mayor’s chief fund-raiser, Brianna
Suggs, as part of the investigation. Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
The agents who searched her home emerged with two laptop
computers, three iPhones and a manila folder bearing Mr. Adams’s
name, according to a search warrant and other documents
obtained by The New York Times.
The warrant made clear that the raid was part of a broader federal
investigation involving the Turkish government.
On the same day as the search of Ms. Suggs’s home, F.B.I. agents
also searched the homes of Rana Abbasova, an aide in Mr. Adams’s
international affairs office, and Cenk Öcal, a member of his
mayoral transition team and former executive at Turkish Airlines,
from which Mr. Adams received free flight upgrades.
Mr. Adams, an avid traveler, has praised the airline, telling a
Turkish pro-government publication that the airline “is my way of
flying.”
When he was Brooklyn borough president, Ms. Abbasova served
as his liaison to Brooklyn’s small Turkish community, a position
that no longer exists in the Borough Hall of Mr. Adams’s successor,
Antonio Reynoso.
Just days after the searches, F.B.I. agents stopped Mr. Adams
outside an evening event at New York University, asked his
security detail to step aside, joined him inside his S.U.V. and
presented him with a warrant to seize his electronic devices .
While Mr. Adams has often noted that he urges his staff to “follow
the law,” his campaign has been dogged by repeated straw-donor
investigations that have resulted in criminal charges, though he
has not been accused of involvement. Several senior members of
his administration have also been the subject of a wide range of
investigations.
In July, the city’s campaign finance board released a draft audit of
the mayor’s 2021 campaign that described an operation marked by
disorganization and opacity. The campaign failed to disclose who
paid for 158 fund-raisers, reported expenditures which — based on
the documentation provided so far — were not campaign-related,
accepted anonymous contributions and exceeded spending limits.
The draft audit was first reported by Gothamist .
Last September, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg,
indicted Eric Ulrich, Mr. Adams’s former senior adviser and former
Buildings Department commissioner, accusing him of taking
bribes . That case is pending.
Timothy Pearson, another senior adviser to Mr. Adams, has been
sued four times this year for sexual harassment and is facing two
investigations by the city’s independent anti-corruption agency.
And in February, the F.B.I. searched two homes owned by Winnie
Greco, another senior adviser to the mayor, in a separate
investigation by the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
Bianca Pallaro contributed reporting.
William K. Rashbaum is a Times reporter covering municipal and political corruption,
the courts and broader law enforcement topics in New York. More about William K.
Rashbaum
Dana Rubinstein covers New York City politics and government for The Times. More
about Dana Rubinstein
See more on: Eric Adams
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Our Coverage of the Adams Administration
New Fire Commissioner : Mayor Eric Adams named Robert Tucker to head the
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during her short tenure.
2025 Mayoral Race : Brad Lander, the New York City comptroller and a
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primary.
Showdown With the City Council : The mayor formally nominated Randy Mastro
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setting up a dramatic clash over the appointment.
Another Sex Harassment Suit : A new lawsuit is the fourth this year to accuse
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Solitary Confinement : Adams declared a state of emergency in New York City
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