There are new developments in the federal investigation of New York City Mayor Eric Adams over allegations his 2021 campaign conspired with the Turkish government and others to receive illegal donations. Now, a report from The New York Times suggests Adams pressured city officials [00:00:16] to open Manhattan's Turkish consulate that year, despite concerns over fire safety. Jake, what do you have to say about your people? My people are the American people. - I know, I'm know. - By the way, there's a meme online. I don't know if that's what you're referring to, where they say, [00:00:33] I'm the leader of Turkey. I didn't know I got it exactly right. Let's go to the last graphic here. Okay. Yeah. When did that happen? I don't know when that happened. When did you become the leader of Turkey, let alone. Like, any of it? Right. [00:00:49] So yes. No, I hate corruption. This Eric Adams story is interesting because now, first of all, apparently the deep state that's targeting Trump also randomly picking on Democrats like Menendez and Eric Adams. - Weird. - I thought they were super Partizan. I thought they were just all libs at the FBI and they would never touch Democrats. [00:01:09] But here's two Democrats working with foreign governments that they're going after. And the Adams is an interesting cat because he denies it super strongly that any of this happened. But there is a repeated history. So we'll give you the details. Yeah. So first let's there are two issues at play. [00:01:27] Right. So the first issue is super unclear. The second issue having to do with campaign contributions from Turkey. A little more clear. But first let's start with his involvement in the opening of the Turkish consulate in New York, despite numerous safety concerns. [00:01:43] The other one, by the way, is that Adams may have taken the campaign donations from the Turkish government or Turkish nationals, which I think is still considered illegal. Right? Taking bribes from foreign governments is still illegal. Yes, that is technically illegal currently. It could change in the near future. Who knows? [00:02:00] Hey, this government loves corruption. Yeah, foreign governments are people, my friend. Yeah, exactly. That's what they'll say soon. All right, so. Let's start with the consulate, and then we'll discuss the campaign finance violations that he is being investigated for. So the consulate, which The New York Times describes as Turkey's most expensive [00:02:17] foreign mission, is housed in a $300 million, 35 story high rise in Manhattan. The problem is the building is unsafe. It's got some issues, if you will. In 2021, the Turkey consul general texted the mayor, who was the Brooklyn borough [00:02:34] president, that there was difficulty getting a certificate of occupancy to open the building and asked if he could look into it. The mayor did not respond and instead forwarded the text to then New York City Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro, asking him to look into it. [00:02:53] Now. Adams was still Brooklyn Borough president at the time, but he had already won the Democratic mayoral primary, meaning that he was pretty much sure to be the next mayor of New York City. So that's important context to keep in mind now. Nigro texted Adams back a few days later that the certificate would go out so the [00:03:12] facility could open, according to sources. So as I mentioned, the building had some issues. On July 26th, 2021, for instance, the fire department had rejected the fire protection plan submitted by a consultant for the Turkish [00:03:27] government asking for changes. Around that same time, the building department issued a violation after a glass panel on the 17th floor fell off and plummeted ten stories. So that's a disaster. [00:03:43] Additionally, just three days before the building was set to open, a consultant on the building project cited multiple problems with the Consulate's alarm systems. Right now. On September 20th of 2021, the building opened anyway, with Turkey's [00:03:58] President Recep Erdogan attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for it. But that already looks suspicious. But before you consider Adams's history, you should consider Adams's history with Turkey. You should also consider that based on what we know about this part [00:04:16] of the investigation, there really isn't much proof that he did anything wrong. It seems like all he did was forward that concern to the appropriate person, and then they handled it. There's no evidence that Adams himself did anything corrupt or shady here. But as Brooklyn Borough president, Adams cultivated ties with local Turkish [00:04:33] community members as well as Turkish government officials who paid for part of a trip that he made to Turkey in 2015. Adams has said that he has visited Turkey 6 or 7 times in all, and again, Adams's text messages to the Turkey Consul General and Fire Department Commission [00:04:51] probably were not a crime on their own, as far as we know, based on the information that is currently public. Any any thoughts? Jake. Yeah. So the. FBI raided his top staffers on his campaign home. So that's very serious and seized a lot of evidence from there. [00:05:09] And then they went and told Eric Adams security to step aside. They entered Adams car and seized his two phones and his iPad. So the FBI is not going to want to do that unless they've got significant evidence. [00:05:27] They're not trying to mess around with politicians unless they really have something. So but on the other hand, Adams says, no, I'm a former cop. I'm part of law enforcement. I tell everybody that I work with, always cooperate with law enforcement, give them whatever they want. [00:05:43] I've done absolutely nothing wrong here. I'm happy to have the investigation. The investigation will conclude that that I didn't do anything wrong. So. So then. Okay, what are we to believe at that point? Right. Because usually the denials are not that clear and they don't usually ask everyone [00:06:01] to cooperate with law enforcement. You see what Trump does. He's like, burn the tapes, don't cooperate with them, never give them the evidence, etcetera. And Eric Adams is reacting in a completely different way. Now. My guess is how I solve that mystery is probably Adams took great lengths to [00:06:17] make sure that he never crossed the line. But you know, he did wind up getting all that money and they did wind up opening the the consulate. Right. And then he gets to say, well, look, you don't have any smoking gun here as the quid pro quo. [00:06:32] And so what did they do or not. We'll find out later because the FBI has enough information that they got a warrant to seize the mayor of New York's phones. Okay. That's serious. That's very serious. And a judge said, yes, go ahead and do that based on the evidence that he already saw. So now let's move on to the campaign finance, [00:06:50] potential campaign finance violations. And I want to note that he hasn't been charged with anything. This investigation is ongoing, but he isn't currently facing any charges. So apparently a warrant to search the home of Adams fundraiser Brianna Suggs [00:07:05] indicated that the investigation was examining the role of KSK construction, a Brooklyn building company owned by Turkish immigrants that organized a fund raising event for Adams on May 7th of 2021. On that day, 48 donors, including the company's owners, [00:07:24] employees and their families, along with others in the construction and real estate industries, donated $43,600 to Adams's campaign, reports show. Those contributions enabled him to obtain another $48,000 in public matching funds, for a total of nearly $92,000. [00:07:40] Now, specifically, federal agents obtained the search warrant for Suggs's home in order to search for evidence related to payments or reimbursements made to employees of KSK construction Group in Brooklyn, or other persons [00:07:56] serving as conduits for campaign contributions to the Adams campaign originating from Turkish nationals. So, in other words, it seems as though the feds believe that KSK construction could essentially be a front for Adams, basically receiving campaign donations [00:08:16] from foreign nationals, which would be against the law. Even in a country that has corruption baked into its system, there are some red lines. Taking campaign contributions from foreign nationals. - Happens to be one of them. - Man, I'd be surprised if they got him. I'm not sure they have enough evidence, but I haven't seen the secret evidence. [00:08:32] So the reason why I say that is, number one, a couple of foreign nationals send you money. That could just be an honest mistake. How do you know if a name is Turkish American or Turkish? Turkish. Really hard to tell, right? [00:08:48] So now there are safeguards that any campaign has to put in place that they put those safeguards in. If they found that if somebody was not a citizen, that they send it back, those would be very relevant facts to this. And the size of it. 1 or 2 guys, no big deal. 200 guys. [00:09:03] Big deal. Right. Then it's more organized. ET cetera. And and it makes it less likely that, golly gee, we didn't know, right? Right. So but I will tell you the main reason I say that I'm not sure that they got him is so they organized a fundraiser where a lot of people gave him money [00:09:20] and they bundled some of the money. That's called Tuesday. That is the most common thing that happens in American politics. Thank you. Look, I'm not justifying it. I think that all of this corruption should be completely banned and outlawed. However, think about think tanks serving as fronts for foreign nationals [00:09:41] who seek to bribe our politicians. How many foreign governments provide donations for liberal think tanks? Who then use that money to lobby our politicians to carry out what the foreign nationals want? Nationals want? - Yeah, guys, that happens. - All the time. And let alone we have no idea. [00:09:59] - Were the dark money comes from. - Exactly. Okay. So that's and then let alone the Saudis then funneling money to Donald Trump's golf courses and to Donald Trump's son in law in a $2 billion venture. I mean, there's so many different ways that foreign money is coming in [00:10:15] to buy our politicians, let alone Donald Trump saying, I like Russian money, I like Saudi money, right? All of these things, but it's Republicans and Democrats. But I'm actually a little bit surprised they even put this detail in the in the news story, because he did a fundraiser, a bunch of people showed up [00:10:32] and gave him money that I'm telling you, that is the single most common thing that happens in American politics. Obviously, I agree with Anna. I think that's legalized bribery and we should ban it. It's absurd. They're obviously bribing him unofficially, but that's how every one [00:10:49] of our politicians gets bribed by donor after donor and let alone, by the way, other PACs, Turkish PACs, Israeli PACs, etcetera that go technically this is Turkish Americans or Jewish Americans or Pakistani Americans. [00:11:05] And so technically, we're not telling you you have to do everything that our government say. But everybody knows that AIPAC is not supporting Norway, they're not supporting Botswana, they're supporting Israel and and AIPAC Democratic majority for Israel. I mean, look at the name of that PAC, Democratic majority for Israel, right. [00:11:25] And the Democrats take millions of dollars from them. Millions Republicans take millions from AIPAC. All of this is legal. So they're going to bust Eric Adams on this. Well, you better have better evidence than this, because this looks like the very normal legalized bribery we're all used to. [00:11:45] Hey, thanks for watching the video. We really appreciate it, guys, and we appreciate it if you become members, because that allows us to be independent, honest, progressive, all the things that you don't get from corporate media and all of that is because of you guys. Hit the join button below and become one of us. Become a young Turk.