Nov 13, 2023
FBI Probes Eric Adams Over Campaign Finances And Turkish Consulate
NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ electronic devices were seized by F.B.I. agents over questions about whether he illegally cleared the way for a Turkish consulate.
- 11 minutes
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]
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