Is Eric Adams' growing Turkish scandal a distraction or disaster for his administration?

Perhaps never in the colorful, boisterous history of New York City politics has there been a mayor quite like Eric Adams. Whether holding court in the VIP section of his favorite nightclub, extolling the "special energy" emanating from the city's unique geology (according to New York news outlet Hellgate, Adams is "NYC's first Crystals Guy mayor"), or detailing his experience with purported poltergeists ("You hear squeaks ... You hear a door close") Adams has already managed in carve a unique niche for himself in the illustrious annals of Big Apple bosses. As Adams sees it, "swagger" is as crucial a component of his leadership as any one policy initiative or legislative goal, because as he's explained: "When a mayor has swagger, the city has swagger."

Still, for as much as Adams has worked to establish himself as a singular figure for a new era of New York City, he finds himself this week grappling with a decidedly unoriginal challenge: a political scandal over money, influence, and corruption emanating from the heart of his inner circle. 

Just hours after posting a video on Thursday encouraging the public to "follow along" as he flew to Washington, D.C., for a series of meetings over the influx of migrants into his city — an issue he has long made one of the tentpoles of his administration — Adams quickly returned home to New York, as his office explained, to "address a matter" in need of his urgent attention. 

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Just hours later, multiple news agencies and outlets reported that the FBI had raided the Brooklyn home of Brianna Suggs, Adams' campaign adviser and top fundraiser as part of a federal investigation into alleged illegal business transactions and influence peddling between Adams' mayoral campaign and Turkish government officials.

What the commentators said

While Adams himself has not been personally implicated or accused in the investigation, a "broad public corruption investigation involving his chief fundraiser and his 2021 campaign has drawn the mayor even closer to the edge" and "poses a serious threat" for someone whose cozy relationships with various donors has raised eyebrows throughout his political career, The New York Times reported. 

When Adams retreated home from his scheduled D.C. agenda, "he may have been heading toward political peril," Politico concurred, noting Adams' promise to "fully participate" with any inquiry. While there are no serious challengers to Adams should he run again in 2025, the investigation has nevertheless left "some on the left smelling blood in the water" with one progressive organizer in the city telling the outlet simply "Drip, drip, drip, drop."

In particular, investigators are looking into a series of donations to Adams' campaign from employees of the Brooklyn-based KSK Construction Company, whose founders are Turkish. According to The City, New York regulators "repeatedly asked Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign about a cluster of donations" from a 2021 event in which nearly 100 KSK employees were listed as having donated more than $69,000 to Adams' campaign. When contacted by the outlet, "multiple people listed in Adams 2021 campaign donation records as KSK employees either said they did not donate to Eric Adams or refused to state whether they had ever donated." Moreover, this "isn't the first time" people in Adams' orbit have been accused of "creating 'straw donor' contributions, by using people's names without their consent to get around campaign contribution laws, and then using those donations to secure matching funds" for Adams' campaign, Hellgate reported, cautioning that it's unclear whether this latest raid is related those previous instances. 

What next?

Even if Adams has yet to be directly implicated in the investigation, it could still embolden potential challengers to step up ahead of the 2025 race, Basil Smikle, director of the Public Policy Program at Hunter College, told the Times. "The question has always been how close the scandal is to the mayor, and this is getting pretty close."

The investigation has also renewed scrutiny about Adams' self-professed closeness with Turkey, including comments made just last week at a flag-raising ceremony at which Adams bragged that he's "probably the only mayor in the history of this city that has not only visited Turkey once, but I think I'm on my sixth or seventh visit."

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