New York City Mayor Eric Adams Is Dogged by Investigations and Court Cases. What Will 2024 Bring?

The new year could be a make-or-break one for New York City Mayor Eric Adams as he navigates a series of potentially disastrous scandals while running what he calls a "very, very complicated city."

Adams enters his third year in office facing what the New York Times has described as a "broad public corruption investigation" involving Turkey's government, which led FBI agents to surprise him on a Manhattan street and seize his cellphones and an iPad.

In November, The Messenger was the first to report that he was being sued for $5 million by a woman who alleges he sexually assaulted her 30 years ago, when he was a city transit cop.

A former NYPD colleague is also accused of orchestrating a plan to funnel illegal donations to Adams' 2021 campaign, and the mayor's hand-picked buildings commissioner resigned before being charged in a $150,000 bribery scheme.

Adams has emphatically denied any wrongdoing and is publicly painting the situation as business as usual in the Big Apple.

“This is a place where every day you wake up you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our trade center to a person who’s celebrating a new business that’s about to open," Adams said during a startling, year-end interview with local TV station WPIX11.

“This is a very, very complicated city, and that’s why it’s the greatest city on the globe.”

Adams' chief spokesperson said the federal investigation and various court cases weren't having any effect on City Hall.

“As the mayor likes to say, ‘Stay focused — no distractions — and grind.’ And because Mayor Adams and our administration remain laser-focused on improving the lives of everyday New Yorkers, the simple truth is that jobs are up and crime is down," Deputy Mayor for Communications Fabien Levy told The Messenger.

Campaign lawyer Vito Pitta also noted that Adams "has not been accused of any wrongdoing whatsoever by federal, state or local authorities" and said that "no rumors or innuendos will keep him from continuing to move New York forward.”

FBI raids

Adams landed in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 2 to meet with officials about the city's migrant crisis, but abruptly canceled and flew home after learning that the Brooklyn home of his chief campaign fundraiser had been raided by the FBI.

The Messenger exclusively revealed that the raid came hours after city cops visited Brianna Suggs' home for a "wellness check, which" the Police Department said it conducted as part of its "working relationship" with the feds.

Agents seized three iPhones, two laptop computers and a “manila folder labeled Eric Adams,” among other items, according to documents obtained by the Times.

The search warrant showed authorities were investigating whether his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to obtain illegal contributions, the Times reported.

Adams has ties to Turkey that date to his time as a state senator from 2006 to 2013, and he's boasted of taking as many as seven trips there, including one that the New York Daily News has said was funded by the Turkish government.

Four days after the raid on his chief fundraiser, FBI agents approached Adams as he was leaving an event in Manhattan, asked his bodyguards to step away and seized his cellphones and an iPad.

Since then, reports revealed that the FBI was investigating whether Adams pressured the city Fire Department to allow the opening of a new Turkish consulate building despite safety concerns.

Additionally, other raids on Nov. 2 targeted the homes of a mayoral aide and a former Turkish Airlines executive.

The aide, Rana Abbasova of the Mayor's Office of International Affairs, was placed on leave over allegations that she had "acted improperly," according to City Hall, with the Daily News later reporting that she allegedly told co-workers to delete text messages after her New Jersey residence was raided.

No criminal charges have been filed in the case.

'If they ever met, he doesn’t recall it'

On Nov. 22, a Florida woman filed a $5 million lawsuit against Adams alleging that he sexually assaulted her in 1993, when they both worked for the city.

At the time, Adams, a retired police captain, worked for the former city Transit Police Department, which later became the Transit Bureau of the Police Department.

It's also named as a defendant, as is the nonprofit Guardians Association of the New York City Police Department, a Black fraternal organization.

The lawsuit was among a flurry filed hours before the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a state law that for one year lifted the statute of limitations so people could file civil suits over alleged sexual abuse that took place more than 20 years earlier.

A spokesperson said Adams didn't know his accuser, adding, “If they ever met, he doesn’t recall it. But he would never do anything to physically harm another person and vigorously denies any such claim."

Court records show the woman, whose name is being withheld by The Messenger due to the nature of her allegations, has filed a series of previous lawsuits.

They include a 2008 negligence suit against American Airlines that was rejected by jurors after a four-day trial in U.S. District Court in Miami.

During her testimony, the woman was cross-examined about "four or five different lawsuits" she'd filed since at least 1996 over claims including discrimination and disability.

In 2009, she sued the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board after being attacked by a student but lost at trial and failed to win a retrial after multiple appeals, according to the New York Times.

The woman also reportedly has a pending negligence suit against a Florida casino and apparently self-published a book about "representing yourself before the Supreme Court."

"Never give up. You just may win," according to a description of the paperback, which sells for $17.42.

'We can all eat!'

In July, a retired New York City police deputy inspector, Dwayne Montgomery, and five co-defendants were charged with scheming to defraud the city's matching funds program to boost Adams' 2021 campaign war chest.

Montgomery allegedly recruited so-called straw donors to make contributions during a virtual Zoom fundraiser on Aug. 20, 2020, and secretly reimbursed them afterward, according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

A relative, Shamsuddin Riza, also allegedly purchased eight $250 money orders at four different post offices and submitted them, along with contribution cards filled out by various friends and relatives, at an Aug. 25, 2020, fundraiser at a Queens restaurant.

Their indictment details at least $6,400 in contributions from at least 29 straw donors, according to the website The City.

Those donations would have been worth about $50,000 to Adams' campaign under a New York City program that provides a 9-to-1 match in public funds for small-dollar contributions from residents, according to the City.

The motive was allegedly to buy "influence for themselves and their associates — several of whom owned companies that hoped to do business with the city," according to prosecutors.

Evidence in the case includes a July 9, 2021, phone conversation in which Montgomery allegedly told Riza that Adams "said he doesn't want to do anything if he doesn't get 25 Gs," an apparent reference to campaign contributions.

On July 21, 2021, Riza also forwarded an email about an upcoming construction project to Montgomery and allegedly wrote, "FYI! This is the one I want, Safety, Drywall, and Security one project but we all can eat! Please show to him before Event it will start when he's in office."

Both men have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.

An Adams campaign spokesperson acknowledged that Montgomery is someone whom the mayor "knew socially and worked on criminal justice issues with," but added that there's "no indication that the campaign or the mayor is involved in this case or under investigation.”

Two defendants, brothers Shahid and Yahya Mushtaq, each pleaded guilty in October to misdemeanor conspiracy and agreed to pay a $500 fine and complete 35 hours of community service.

Their Queens-based construction-safety company, EcoSafey Consultants, was also charged in the case and struck a deferred prosecution agreement that requires the Mushtaqs and other current and former employees to cooperate with prosecutors.

'Watch your phones'

In 2021, term limits barred Republican City Council Member Eric Ulrich from seeking re-election and he threw his support behind Adams' Democratic campaign for mayor.

Ulrich co-hosted fundraisers for the candidate, including one at which he predicted Adams would be a "great mayor" and the most charismatic since the late three-term Mayor Ed Koch, the New York Post reported at the time.

Following Adams' election, Ulrich was rewarded with a job as a senior mayoral adviser, then promoted to buildings commissioner in May 2022 to help the city's construction industry rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But Ulrich resigned six months later, two days after reports said he was under investigation in a mob-linked gambling probe, and he was arrested in September on conspiracy and bribery charges.

Manhattan DA Bragg alleged that he "accepted or solicited more than $150,000 worth of bribes by monetizing each elected and appointed role he held in New York City government" since 2021.

The payoffs allegedly included cash to gamble at public and illegal casinos, New York Mets season tickets, a discounted, fully furnished beachfront apartment and a painting by an artist who claimed to be the last surviving apprentice of famed surrealist Salvador Dali.

The Messenger later revealed that the artist, Francisco Poblet, was an ex-con whose last arrest came at age 70, when he was caught with nearly two pounds of cocaine and 11 loaded guns in his Manhattan apartment.

Ulrich has pleaded not guilty and Adams hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing.

But Adams reportedly warned Ulrich, "Watch your back and watch your phones" in early May 2022, before the probe of him became public, according to the Daily News.

The mayor has denied the report, likening it to a "reboot" of the classic 1990 mob movie Goodfellas, saying, "Why would it make sense to appoint someone a commissioner if you know they're under criminal investigation?"

What does it all mean?

In addition to the investigations and legal cases, Adams is contending with the migrant crisis, which he's warned "will destroy New York City" if the federal government doesn't step in to help.

The price tag for providing migrants with housing and other services is estimated at $12 billion through mid-2025.

In late December, Adams renewed his public criticism of the White House, saying, "It baffles me" that he hasn't been able to meet with President Joe Biden since 2022.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found a record 58% of New Yorkers disapproved of his job performance, including his handling of migrants, homelessness, crime and the city budget.

A former head of public affairs for the Justice Department said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who's overseeing the federal corruption probe, is "obsessively careful" and won't bring charges against Adams without "clear and convincing evidence."

But Anthony Coley added, "If charges come, it will be a transformative event for the mayor and his political career."

Scandal-scarred former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is reportedly considering a primary challenge against Adams, Politico reported in November.

But Cuomo is only one of nearly a dozen potential candidates, including state Operations Director Kathryn Garcia, whom Adams narrowly beat in the 2021 primary, and Antonio Reynoso, his successor as Brooklyn borough president, according to Bloomberg.

"The political industrial complex has created a generation or two of politicians now whose sole job is to get elected and re-elected," veteran New York Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf said.

"So that permanent class of professional politicians is now looking at Adams, who they think is kind of a carcass that they could pick on."

Sheinkopf said the sexual assault suit against Adams wasn't the "most significant" of his worries, but said that "the FBI investigation could be."

"The fact the people in his inner circle have been investigated is very important to people," he said. "If he’s indicted, it just goes against everything that people elected him to do, which is to clean up the place after [former Mayor Bill] de Blasio, and to make people safe."

Joseph Viteritti, a public policy professor at the city's public Hunter College in Manhattan, said it's "too early to predict how the various investigations will turn out."

"The net effect will be a drag on his reelection bid; but one should never underestimate the staying power of an incumbent New York City mayor, especially when no obvious challenger has emerged," he added.