Mayor Adams pointed to his dyslexia as the explanation he couldn’t unlock his telephone for federal investigators who requested entry amid a corruption investigation into political contributions to the mayor’s marketing campaign, he mentioned Tuesday.
“Hey, folks, I’m dyslexic. I couldn’t get numbers. That’s a byproduct,” the mayor mentioned at his weekly press briefing, including that he “always” provides his numbers to staffers.
New paperwork within the mayor’s now-dismissed federal corruption case revealed that federal brokers thought the mayor’s explanations about his telephone had been lies that confirmed “evidence of consciousness of guilt” on Adams’ half.
The mayor, upon being intercepted by brokers in Greenwich Village in November 2023, informed feds that he had left it at Metropolis Corridor. Nonetheless, GPS knowledge confirmed the telephone was really transferring alongside his path from Metropolis Corridor to close Washington Sq. Park and north on sixth Avenue, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.
“If someone stated that I had a phone on me based on the GPS data, they’re liars,” the mayor mentioned Tuesday. “They’re liars. And the GPS data clearly pings in showing you where phones are. They had the evidence.”
Adams later blamed an aide, saying a staffer took the telephone.
When the telephone was turned over the following day, Adams informed the feds he had forgotten the passcode — which he had modified simply two days earlier, simply previous to the preliminary raid in Greenwich Village.
The feds had struggled to get their fingers on Adams’ many units — even securing a choose’s permission to get electronics-sniffing canine to look Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, the paperwork present.
The over 1,700 pages of paperwork, launched late final week, confirmed a glimpse of what prosecutors’ case towards the mayor might need seemed like had it gone to trial. Feds had been finishing up raids simply days earlier than Trump’s Division of Justice put a cease to the probe.
Adams’ indictment charged him with taking unlawful marketing campaign money and bribes, like free luxurious airline tickets, from associates of the Turkish authorities in trade for political favors. Adams has denied the costs.
The mayor additionally mentioned Tuesday that feds’ deserted plan to intercept and seize his units on the end line of the New York Metropolis marathon was supposed to “humiliate,” “embarrass” and “display” him.
