NYC Mayor Eric Adams Charged, Tells FBI He Forgot Phone Passcode

Eric Adams, the defendant, continued to conceal the benefits he received from outsiders seeking to influence him. Adams did not report any 2019 gifts he received from Airline or Promotion on his annual disclosure form. Furthermore, in March 2019, when we were texting to arrange an alternate route to Turkey where the Flight Attendant was to arrange Adams’ trip, the Adams Staffer wrote to Adams, “To be o[n the] Please delete all messages you send me.” Adams replied, “Do so.”

Adams also allegedly sent emails to employees trying to cover his tracks, pretending he was going to pay for the free trip he was getting. One email to an employee cited in the lawsuit reads, “I left you money for an international airline in an envelope on your desk top drawer. [sic] Please send it to them.” The suggestion in the email was that Adams had left more than $10,000 to pay for the trip. But the indictment explains, “He did not, as Turkish Airline records confirm that Adams did not pay the airline, in cash or otherwise, because the tickets were complimentary.”

Curiously, the lawsuit describes an incident in which an Adams employee agreed to speak with the FBI and then tried to delete anonymous encrypted messaging apps while taking a bathroom break.

The Adams staffer also admitted to speaking with FBI agents and falsely denied his behavior with Adams, among others. At some point during his volunteer interview, the Adams Staffer went out to the bathroom and, while there, deleted the encrypted messaging apps he had used to communicate with ADAMS, the Promoter, the Turkish Executive, the Flight Attendant, and others.

Perhaps the funniest detail in the indictment is that Adams told the FBI he forgot the passcode on his phone when he got the search warrant to take it. How is that possible? Adams says he recently changed his passcode from four to six digits, mainly to prevent his employees from deleting anything from it. And in the process, he simply forgot the code. Seriously.

On November 6, 2023, FBI agents executed a search warrant for electronic devices used by Eric Adams, the defendant. Although Adams was carrying a number of electronic devices, including two cell phones, he was not carrying his cell phone, which is the device he used to communicate in the conduct described in this case. When Adams produced his cell phone the next day in response to a subpoena, it was “locked,” so much so that the device requires a password to unlock. Adams said that after hearing about the investigation into his conduct, he changed his password on November 5, 2024, increasing the complexity of his password from four to six digits. Adams did this, he said, to prevent members of his staff from deleting or intentionally erasing the contents of his phone because, according to Adams, he wanted to preserve the contents of his phone for the sake of the investigation. But, Adams went on to say, he had forgotten the password he had just set, and therefore was unable to provide the FBI with the password that would unlock the phone.

Adams suggested that the charges against him are part of a related activity, in some way related to his complaints about the Biden administration’s handling of immigration policy on the US-Mexico border. But the prosecutors said at the press conference that they are not interested in politics, only the law. US Attorney Damian Williams spoke at a press conference about how seriously his office takes these cases.

“The state of Southern New York remains committed to ending corruption without fear or favor, and regardless of partisan politics. We don’t focus on right or left, we only focus on right and wrong,” said Williams.

Adams gave his own press conference, broadcast live on his X account, where he insisted that prosecutors want to try the case in the court of public opinion (a strange case, given the fact that he has been charged) and urged patience until his trial. able to defend himself in court.

“I’m asking the people of New York to wait to hear our defense,” Adams said. But members of the public shouted during the press conference that his accusations of inciting persecution sounded like Donald Trump. When Adams finished, the audience began chanting “clear, clear, clear!”