The FBI’s probe into Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign’s alleged ties to foreign governments is apparently expanding in scope. Federal investigations into donations from people connected to the Turkish government were already known, with sources now revealing that additional subpoenas were filed this summer regarding five more countries: Israel, Qatar, China, South Korea, and Uzbekistan.
The mayor shrugged off suggestions of corruption with foreign governments at his weekly press event yesterday, stating that it made sense to maintain friendly relations. “The largest Jewish population outside of Israel is in New York. Yes, I have a good relationship with Israel, as in many countries,” he argued. “Why would it be a surprise that I have a relationship with Israel, one of our partners?” Adams went on a trip to Israel last year, paid for by the United Jewish Appeal Federation, valued at just under $5,000. Whether the mayor’s stated close ties with Israel amount to corruption remains to be seen, however his overt support for the country is not unique among politicians from New York. Hakeem Jeffries, who represents New York’s 8th congressional district in Brooklyn and is the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, has traveled to Israel five times over the past decade and frequently calls Jerusalem New York’s “sixth borough.”
Events during the mayor’s tenure raise new questions in light of the recent revelations. In May, Newsweek reported that Eric Adams’ administration had allowed the CEO of a company registered as a foreign agent of China to set up the inaugural Asian American parade. According to documents obtained by the magazine, Asian-American populations at odds with the Chinese government – notably the Tibetan, Taiwanese, and Hong Konger communities – were frozen out from the event. At the time, Eric Adams’ office refused to comment on whether they knew about the company’s status as a foreign agent. People and organizations representing the interests of foreign countries are permitted to engage in political activities in the United States, even donate to election campaigns at every level, on the condition that they register as foreign agents under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA).
The allegations of foreign countries meddling illegally in local affairs come as the mayor’s office is already facing numerous allegations of corruption, with multiple resignations from high-level officials in the mayor’s orbit in recent days. The latest is the City Schools Chancellor David Banks, a longtime personal friend of the mayor, who announced his departure on Tuesday. The FBI searched Banks’ apartment two weeks ago, also seizing his personal and professional phones. The chancellor’s resignation is the third in the last two weeks, following Police Commissioner Edward Caban, accused of running a bribery scheme with New York City nightclubs, and chief counsel Lisa Zornberg, whom sources say resigned after Adams’ refusal to fire other officials as she had advised.
Adams remains outwardly unfazed, declaring that he not only will serve out his term but will be re-elected: “a year from now I see myself again raising my right hand and being called the mayor of the city of New York.”
