Hunter Harris’s talkback to our masters of entertainment has proven she has what it takes to become a vital voice of America. When she aims at official powers-that-be, the country benefits from her wit. Not that our ruling classes float above Harris’s usual beat. Her reporting in this swatch from her latest column places Mayor Adams inside the celebrity terrarium…
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is going through it to a degree that would make SZA¹ pick up her pen or make Martin Scorsese start storyboarding the saga of a new criminal conspiracy. On Friday afternoon Adams pleaded not guilty to five federal corruption charges, per The City.² He is the first New York City mayor to face criminal charges while in office. The news of his indictment went through Twitter like the night Trump got Covid, or the day Azealia Banks said Grimes smells “like a roll of nickels.” This is one of them ones.
 |
Adams is no regular mayor. He rotates between the city’s night clubs and late night haunts, favoring the members club Zero Bond and Osteria La Baia, a restaurant run by a pair of brothers accused of participating in a money-laundering scheme. Adams says he pays for these outings but has never provided receipts to that effect. He is a public official second; He is first and foremost a resident of the streets. A friend of mine went to Aoki Lee Simmons 21st birthday and promptly texted me that Eric Adams was there, because of course he was.³
If you don’t know him from his misses (cutting the funding of the city’s library system, slashing the funding of pre-k programs, increasing police funding) you might know Adams’ hits. There were significant questions over whether he lived in Brooklyn or New Jersey as he ran for New York City mayor. (His accountant put the wrong address on his tax returns, Adams said in a debate, because the accountant was distracted by his own homelessness. “He went through real trauma. And I’m not a hypocrite,” Adams said. “I wanted to still give him the support that he needed.”)
Remember the dizzying observation that “[New York City] is a place where everyday you wake up you can experience everything from a plane crashing into our trade center to a person who’s celebrating a new business that’s opened. This is a very complicated city – and that’s why this is the best city on the globe.” Lest we forget his Denzel-in-Flight cosplay: “I am the pilot, folks. And you are all passengers. Stop praying for me to crash the plane. Pray for me to land the plane. Because there’s no parachutes on this plane.” We cannot overlook “New York has a brand…Kansas doesn’t have a brand. When you go there there you go ‘okay you from Kansas.’ But New York has a brand.” And last but not least: “I was the first person in my family that left the country when I went to Morocco, and everybody on my block said why the hell are you going to Morocco?”
It turns out the FBI wanted to know why the hell Eric Adams was going to Morocco, too. Following a federal investigation that spanned three years, the government indicted Adams on Wednesday. His alleged corruption was outlined in the 57-page filing: the feds say Adams pressured the fire department to approve the opening of a Turkish consulate, that he sought and received illegal campaign donations that were later matched by public funds, and frequently enjoyed free or extremely discounted luxury travel as part of a decade-long scheme.
 |
“Otherwise seat number 52 is empty” is sooooo mean lmao.
In a pre-taped video posted after his indictment on Wednesday, Adams was adamant in asserting his innocence. “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target,” he said ominously, “and a target I became.” And standing for New Yorkers meant — checks notes — making a fire department official ignore safety concerns to allow the opening of a 35-story Turkish consulate on First Avenue in 2021. (The Buildings Department “issued a violation after a glass panel on the 17th floor fell off and plummeted 10 stories,” the New York Times reported in November.)
 |
Of particular interest to me in all of this is Ingrid Lewis-Martin, the longtime Adams advisor who made it onto New York Magazine’s list of the 49 “most powerful New Yorkers you’ve never heard of.” I have not stopped thinking about her since I read that she once told a reporter that “when they go low, we dig for oil.” Lewis-Martin was issued a subpoena on Friday just after she landed from a vacation in Japan, and her cell phone was seized, according to the New York Post. Gothamist obtained Lewis-Martin’s schedule archives through a FOIA request and her calendars appear to have several meetings with Turkish officials.
Would it surprise you to learn that the comments on this photo, of Adams handing the key to the city over to Diddy during a Times Square celebration last September, have been turned off? At this point, you’re either being questioned about a party at Diddy’s or a trip with Eric Adams.
xxx
Notes
1 The songstress of strife.
2 The City’s coverage of all of this has been spectacular.
3 An envelope is too high a bar — Eric Adams would go to the opening of a new Chrome window.