Photo by Cole Keister
When the feds start seizing government cell phones, that’s never a good sign for the officials to whom these devices belong. It’s also an omen for their boss that his days in charge may be numbered. This is exactly the hot water in which the brash, media-hungry mayor of New York City, Eric “Here for the Cops” Adams, finds himself. Target of a federal corruption probe that led investigators just recently to seize the phones of Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the mayor’s chief advisor, Adams pleaded not guilty to five felony counts on September 27. The charges include fraud and bribery, and led his sycophants to join a prayer circle around him. As Morgan Jerkins tweeted: “Once a prayer circle is formed around a jive turkey, he’s going to jail.”
Previously in a series of portents presaging trouble for the aggressively self-promoting mayor, Adams’ former chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, was reassigned after her home was searched and her phone was seized. Aide Rana Abbasova is cooperating with the investigation after the feds searched her home. In a sign that the prosecution may snare numerous bigwigs associated with Adams, the police commissioner, Edward Caban, and schools’ chancellor, David Banks, recently announced their resignations. Also abruptly departing city hall were the mayor’s counsel and chief legal advisor, Lisa Zornberg and health commissioner Ashwin Vasan. Then, on October 7, top Adams aide Philip Banks, whose phones were seized and who is the former schools’ chancellor’s brother – he resigned. As the rats flee the tacky, waterlogged ship Gotham City Hall, one can only marvel at the irony of Mr. Tough-on Crime Adams finding himself in the dock.
So what exactly did Adams DO – according to the feds? The 57-page indictment charges that he “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.” According to the Washington Post September 26, the Turkish official urged Adams to pressure “the city fire department to speed up the opening of a new Turkish consular building in time for a visit by Turkey’s president, even though the 36-story skyscraper would have failed a fire inspection.” The indictment charges that the FDNY official overseeing this matter was told he’d be fired if he didn’t hop to. He did. And now Adams is in the soup.
The feds also accuse Adams of pursuing illegal foreign donations. CNN reported September 28 that foreigners concealed these monies using ‘“straw donors’ – U.S.-based donors who falsely claimed they were contributing their own money.” And that’s not all. “In 2017, Adams allegedly accepted free business class tickets for three roundtrip international flights and a heavily discounted stay at a suite in the swanky St. Regis Istanbul. The trip was worth over $41,000 and Adams did not disclose it, the indictment alleges.” The mayor “allegedly accepted over $123,000 worth of luxury travel benefits between 2016 and 2021, without disclosing any of it.”
Far more veiled than such epics of corrupt daring-do is the amazing coincidence of “the world’s most gifted stock-picking family, the Pelosis” according to Zerohedge September 25, who JUST HAPPENED to sell over $500,000 in Visa stock “less than three months before the company was hit with federal antitrust charges.” Nancy “My Husband’s Stock Trades Are His Business” Pelosi’s spouse Paul sold 2000 Visa shares worth between $500,000 and $1 million. Pelosi opposes prohibiting stock trading by congress members and “their spouses due to potential conflicts of interest.” How convenient. Pelosi is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and this is not the first time her husband has executed trades on the eve of pertinent legislation or government action. Could this be insider trading? Well, according to some conventional definitions, uh, maybe it is. And lots of people in congress do it. They also block legislation to ban it. Somehow that give the public the impression congress is corrupt. Funny people should think that, isn’t it?
Some congress critters, however, do get indicted. Remember senator Bob “Gold Ingot” Menendez? Convicted of bribery, he resigned from the senate August 20, and is due to be sentenced October 29. Charged with selling his office for a fancy car, gold bars and other gifts, Menendez compounded his ignominy by taking to the airwaves to insist he would fight to the finish, despite a slew of Dem senators calling for his head as far back as September 2023, among them Vermont’s Peter Welch, Montana’s Jon Tester, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, Nevada’s Jacky Rosen, Colorado’s Michael Bennett…and many more. In fact, Menendez’s behavior sent the Dems up a tree, and it wasn’t till his conviction finally concentrated his mind, that he bowed to common decency and vacated public office.
There has been much less brouhaha about Texas House Democrat Henry Cuellar. Indicted back in May, he, like Menendez, refused to step down – however, Cuellar’s defiance caused little hubbub among his colleagues. On June 7 came the news that his corruption trial was delayed until after the November election – in which he’s running again – and he has gone about his business as if nothing much has occurred. Indeed, on October 2, we heard from Cuellar that border communities are very safe, according to recent FBI statistics, and that the congressman wants to work with Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum on matters like security and trade. Sheinbaum would be wise to decline that invitation.
So why the outrage over Menendez and not Cuellar? After all, Cuellar and his wife Imelda are accused “of accepting almost $600,000 in bribes from Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank,” the Texas Tribune reported May 3. “Cuellar allegedly accepted the payments from Azerbaijan’s state-run oil and gas company after they had been laundered through fake consulting contracts to shell companies owned by Imelda Cuellar…In exchange, the Laredo congressman allegedly pushed U.S. policy in favor of Azerbaijan.”
And yet no congressional squawks of outrage over Cuellar, no House members climbing up on their high horses and fulminating with appropriately righteous indignation, no newspaper editorials bellowing about this alleged betrayal of the public’s trust. Could it have anything to do with Cuellar being Pelosi’s darling in the last election, when she boosted him over a far more progressive candidate? It could be that it helps to have friends in high places who know how to wield power undetected, who are comfortable making back room deals and who can decrease the heat on their proteges. I have absolutely no inside info to support the hypothesis that Pelosi has helped save Cuellar, and it could, of course, just have happened osmotically: congressmembers all knew the former House speaker famously had beamed sunshine on Cuellar and so they curried favor by ignoring his transgressions. But still, maybe Menendez should have found such a patron. Maybe Adams should too – and with Trump thundering against the mayor’s corruption difficulties, Adams may yet.
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