‘Delete all messages’: Docs reveal Mayor Eric Adams’ ‘clumsy’ bribery coverup

NEW YORK CITY (PIX11) – A trail of bogus texts and small cover-up payments allegedly show Mayor Eric Adams’ attempts to hide fancy trips and illegal campaign donations, prosecutors contend in a historic indictment unsealed Thursday.

Adams is accused of covering up bribes in the form of luxury trips and illegal campaign donations, according to federal prosecutors. He was charged with bribery, wire fraud, and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. 

The 57-page indictment includes details not only of the way Adams allegedly incentivized foreign government representatives to pay for his lavish trips but of the “clumsy coverup” Adams deployed to keep investigators off his back, according to U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. 

Adams denies all wrongdoing and vows to fight the charges. He intends to continue serving as mayor, he said Thursday.

"I know I've done nothing wrong," Adams said. "My day-to-day will not change."

Here are some of the ways Mayor Eric Adams allegedly covered up his crimes, according to court records:

Phony payments

Adams often paid small sums of money to make it seem like his luxurious trips were not fully funded by foreign donors, according to federal prosecutors. 

Text messages show a staffer for Adams negotiating a cover-up charge with an airline manager booking flights to Istanbul for the mayor in 2021. The airline manager suggests a $50 charge from Adams, which his staffer suggests is not convincing enough. 

“His every step is being watched right now, $1,000 or so… Let it be somewhat real,” the staffer said, according to court documents. 

Adams ultimately paid $1,100 for roundtrip tickets that would have cost over $15,000, according to the indictment. He allegedly pulled a similar con in 2021, paying a small fee for tickets that were then upgraded, prosecutors said. 

At times, Adams is accused of sending fully bogus texts and emails to create records of payments never sent, prosecutors said. In 2017, after accepting a trip on a Turkish Airline, the then-Brooklyn borough president emailed an employee to retroactively pay the airline using a cash envelope left on her desk, prosecutors said. 

“Adams’ email suggested that he left, at a minimum, well over $10,000 in cash in the [employee’s] desk drawer to ‘send’ to the Turkish Airline as payment for the flights taken months earlier. He did not do that,” the indictment reads. 

Bogus donors 

Adams is accused of taking money from so-called “straw donors,” or people who donate on behalf of companies or governments who cannot legally donate, rules often put in place to protect U.S. elections from foreign interference.

In a descriptive 2018 text conversation, a Turkish donor explains the system to one of Adams’ staffers.

“Fund Raising in Turkey is not legal, but I think I can raise money for your campaign off the record,” the prospective donor said. “We’ll make a donation through an American citizen in the U.S. … A Turk… I’ll give cash to him in Turkey… Or I’ll send it to an American… He’ll make a donation to you.”

In 2020, Adams’ staff instructed a New York City businessman to reimburse his employees for smaller donations to the mayoral campaign to skirt restrictions on corporate donations, prosecutors alleged. In return, the businessman secured city sponsorship for events and helped resolve Department of Buildings violations, prosecutors said. 

One of Adams’ staffers later asked the businessman to lie to federal investigators about the donations, according to the indictment. 

Deleted texts and lost passwords

Text messages between Adams and a staffer show the mayor wiping evidence from his phone, according to prosecutors. While planning a trip to Turkey in 2019, Adams' staffer texted him, “To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me,” court records show. Adams responded, “Always do.” 

Years later, when the FBI seized Adams’ cellphone and iPad in Manhattan, Adams told the FBI he had forgotten the password to his phone, which he had recently changed from a simple four-digit number to a more complex six-digit one, court documents show.

In June, as the investigation ramped up, Adams’ employees promised illegal donors that they had left their phones outside of meeting rooms, giving them full protection to arrange how they would lie to federal investigators.