TURKEY!
Straw donors, Turkey, *NSYNC, my parents won an Emmy #61
Here’s a timeline of the big story from Thursday, when the FBI raided the Crown Heights home of a top fundraiser for Eric Adams.
On Wednesday night, the mayor confirmed in an interview on NBC4 that he would travel to Washington the next morning to join the mayors of Denver and Chicago to to discuss the asylum seeker crisis with federal officials. He’s made traveling to Washington to discuss the migrants a priority, even taunting other elected officials (like the comptroller) for not going.
Early Thursday, he and his spokeswoman tweeted a video of him on his way down to D.C. Fun, the mayor’s away all day, I thought. I can work on other stuff.
A few hours later I was biking to Central Park to check-in on a lifeguard meet and greet. While biking through Sunnyside at around 9 a.m., my work group chat lit up with the news of the mayor canceling all of his D.C. meetings. When I finally reached a spokesperson for the mayor, he said he was returning to New York City to deal with “a matter.” “What’s ‘the matter’,” I asked. “I’m fine, Katie, how are you?” (My internal monologue: “Cut the cutesy shit right now and just f—ing tell me.”) I kept pedaling.
Some of my City Hall sources started asking me what’s going on as I was creeping outside the boathouse. “You’re supposed to be telling me!,” I said.
By 11:30 or so, the Times drops their story, and we got more insight into why the mayor rushed back home. We learned later that it is part of a larger corruption investigation looking at whether the mayor received illegal campaign donations from Turkey.
We did our first take at THE CITY. I stupidly waited behind City Hall for like 45 minutes before realizing, the mayor would have to be really stupid to come to his office right now. I went inside.
Thanks to our previous reporting on the mayor’s campaign donations, we quickly had a second take, which you can read the start of here –
Internal documents obtained by THE CITY show that city regulators repeatedly asked Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign about a cluster of donations that are now part of a federal probe into one of the mayor’s top fundraisers.
The investigation, which triggered an FBI raid at the home of Adams’ campaign operative Brianna Suggs on Thursday, is examining contributions to the mayor’s 2021 campaign that came from employees of KSK Construction Company, a Brooklyn-based firm whose founders hail from Turkey, according to The New York Times.
We finished a can of EZ Cheese in the press office. The mayor appeared on Telemundo in a pre-taped interview, where he was asked about Christmas.
Later in the evening I went to the Dia de los Muertos celebration at Gracie Mansion, where the mayor briefly addressed the “inquiry” as he called it. He also briefly answered one question I yelled from the crowd.
I shared vegan Mexican food with my fellow reporters, sent more notes, and figured I’d go home. After I couldn’t find a working e-bike (thanks CitiBike) I walked and talked on the phone down Second Avenue, stopping to buy flowers, and hopped on the Q32 bus by the Queensboro Bridge, taking my spot in the back row’s window seat. When the timing’s right, the bus is cheaper than a cab and takes about the same time and the height offers a great view of the beautiful, sparkling city below, swirling with energy and maybe a little campaign finance corruption.
Here are some other campaign finance-related stories from THE CITY (and DOCUMENTED)
New Questions Arise Over Adams Donors: One Says She Was Reimbursed, Others Say They Never Gave
Behind a Chinatown Real Estate Deal, a Web of Shifting Alliances and Political Connections
🥳SOMETHING FUN! 🥳
Enjoy this delightful cover story from my friend Michelle on the *NSYNC reunion tour – and all of the nostalgia that brings [WSJ]
📺WATCH📺
Mayor Adams had a full interview with PIX 11’s Dan Mannarino on Friday, where he discussed what’s going on. It’s a great interview and example of asking the right questions.
And! Last week I mentioned the NBC4 story featuring my parents was up for a New York Emmy award. It won (alongside another entry) in its category! You can watch the award video here, starting at the 3:02:47 mark (I’m not kidding, these awards shows are long.)
Thanks for reading!