A private fundraising event held by Mayor Eric Adams a month after the FBI seized his phones and other devices to investigate him may still prove to be a cause of suspicion months later, as several people who attended have reported being asked to donate to his legal defense.
The December 5th event occurred in the middle of an ongoing probe into Adams’ 2021 campaign along with his alleged hastening of a Turkish consulate, and was organized and hosted by tech startup founder couple Mark Stevens and Jesse Horwitz. Many of the guests were also tech entrepreneurs, some of which have said they were misdirected about what the fundraiser was going to entail.
Four people who attended the event and described it as “weird,” have spoken out anonymously about reportedly being asked to contribute to the mayor’s legal fees rather than fundraise for an actual campaign project.
Two of these guests provided specific details to the Gothamist pertaining to the private gathering, with one saying the event was falsely advertised as a chance to hear Adams talk about his housing policy. Instead of this however, the attendees say he gave some brief remarks while riled up by hype men who were calling him the “get s–t done mayor,” which was followed by women in tight red dresses walking around unannounced to collect donations.
Unlike traditional campaigns, the legal defense fund cannot take any donations from those with city contracts or anyone doing business with the city and there is a $5,000 contribution limit per donor.
Since it was set up in November, the mayor’s legal defense fund has raised more than $1.3 million from 450 people.
However, Adams’ pitch at the December event was not exactly a success, as he only raised two donations totaling $2,500 that appeared to be connected to the fundraiser, according to a public filing.
Vito Pitta, a lawyer for Adams and his campaign who is overseeing the legal defense fund, declined to answer questions or comment on the private gathering.
While the mayor has not been accused to doing anything illegal, this event and his other fundraising methods in the past have drawn skepticism and concern about his direct approach to raising money for his legal bills, and his ability to properly handle this while also focusing on governing and sourcing funds for city initiatives.
Yet the mayor continues to maintain that the legal investigations into him will not be a distraction.
