The saga surrounding Mayor Eric Adams and his cell phone continued to unravel with the recent release of previously sealed documents related to his criminal corruption case. The disclosure of these files follows legal pressure from media outlets, including The Post, and gives a newfound peek into the federal investigation that accused Adams of misrepresenting the location of his cellphone, a detail pointing to possible attempts to obstruct justice.
According to Gothamist, federal agents were not convinced by Adams' explanation that he simply forgot the new passcode to his phone after changing it from four digits to six. This, in conjunction with other evidence, led to suspicions of misconduct. Further complicating the narrative, location data contradicted lawyer claims that the cellphone was left at City Hall, with an affidavit showing the device moving away from the area, according to the same report.
Moreover, The Post has revealed the extensive measures deployed by the FBI and prosecutors to assemble their case, documenting auto-deleting Signal messages, recovery of missing iCloud conversations, and Adams' alleged attempts to keep technology out of federal hands - including other devices found at Gracie Mansion such as a satellite phone on his nightstand. These cases, steered into the public eye after a protracted legal tussle by media organizations, showcase a thorny patch in Adams' tenure and the Trump-era Department of Justice's divisive decision to toss the indictment.
Judge Dale Ho's recent ruling against the DOJ's request to possibly revisit prosecution at a later time only adds to the intrigue, branding the dismissal suggestion as smacking of a trade-off. "Everything here smacks of a bargain," Ho wrote, as the case dimmed, leaving the mayor in a political limbo that affected his administration's stability, "dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions," as reported by The Post.
In defense against accusations of duping authorities, a spokesperson for Mayor Adams' 2025 re-election campaign, Todd Shapiro, argued that the "FBI's own tracking technology clearly showed the phone was not in the mayor's possession at the time in question." Shapiro added, "Any claim that he misled authorities is not only false, it’s a direct insult to his decades of service in law enforcement," as per the information obtained by Gothamist.
_(cropped).jpg){kind=link}