Eric Adams just doesn't know how to grift

 

I read the entire indictment issued by federal prosecutors that outlines Mayor Adams’ attempt to play with the big guys. Since influence peddling and favor-trading for campaign cash is how our system runs, it’s a bit much to see Adams tackled for business as usual. Unfortunately for Adams, he didn’t learn the basics on how it’s done.

Adams should have had better instruction from the real experts in how to move in power circles and get everyone’s back mutually scratched smoothly and silently. He didn’t get the right lawyers who know how to do deals without leaving tracks.

Adams and his staff thought they were slick OGs who had parleyed themselves into power and could sail into the big time. In fact, they’re nouveau hustlers with sloppy methods.

A good chunk of the evidence federal prosecutors have lined up against Adams is based on text messages. Text messages?? Seriously, did these folks really not get the memo about how none of that is safe or private? They even write things like, Let’s not text each other about this!

I sat on a jury last year in which a kid who conceivably could have gotten away with a serious crime screwed himself by texting incriminating statements. You get the exact same vibe from reading Adams’ staff work.

And who’s bright idea was it to organize the cash slurry for Adams’ campaigns through Turkiye? Anyone with a pulse knows that you rely on Israeli cash nowadays, and nobody will dare bother you. Some powerful people had to be very unhappy about city government being penetrated by a Muslim country. Ukraine, okay, maybe some East Europeans, solid Anglo allies elsewhere, no problem. But Istanbul? Not done!

It's almost sad to see how cheaply Adams was seduced by things like a business class seat on Turkish Airlines and a few days in a luxury hotel. No wonder we went along with Bloomberg for so long since he could buy the same hotel out of his petty cash box.

New York City tries to lessen the influence of big money in elections by matching small donations with public funds 8 to 1. That’s real money, and Adams stole it, essentially, by lining up illegal major donations and hiding them through straw donors, like a business guy’s driver who then gets reimbursed by the boss. It’s a very old game, and everyone knows it goes on. But that’s why you need experts in covering it up.

Intrepid muckrakers at The City dug up the details, which started the investigative ball rolling. (Everyone should subscribe to their daily bulletin and send them money.) While that took work, it wasn’t hard to unravel the corrupt threads.

Adams might beat the bribery charge because the Supreme Court helpfully limited those prosecutions to provable quid pro quos. But the manipulation of campaign finance restrictions is clearly laid out; I can’t see how he escapes those counts. His career is over, and the fantasies of moving on to national office and even the White House (yes, there are delusional messages in that vein) are consigned to dreamland.

That said, liberal New York shouldn’t wallow in self-righteousness because we put Eric Adams in office, and we can’t pretend we didn’t know what he was about. People succumbed to fear-mongering over crime in the subways, and Adams, a former cop, promised to pour police officers onto the platforms, which he did. We all know perfectly well what a policing response means, and we got what the majority asked for—a baton-led response to social ills. The tabloids and Murdoch’s empire were delighted and now keep up the drumbeat of scare stories so that the only possible response to the current failing policy is to double down on it.

Adams’s shamelessness was on display even before he took office. He smiled glibly and was surrounded by dubious comrades with disturbing records. His word salads could compete with Kamala’s indecipherable ramblings, and his interest in keeping the rich and powerful happy was obvious from Day One. But we demanded SAFETY above all else, and we got cops everywhere, which isn’t that but reassures white people. The sad evidence that Adams was in it for himself should have been a bright red warning light. But our overlords reminded us to be scared, and we did what they suggested. Will we do better next time?