By Democracynow,
FBI agents seized electronic devices from New York City Mayor Eric Adams last week as part of an investigation into whether his 2021 campaign received illegal donations from Turkey. Adams’s two cellular phones and iPad were returned days later.
The seizure came in the wake of a federal raid on the home of Adams’s chief campaign fundraiser. The alleged donation scheme is believed to involve foreign businesses who used Turkish American citizens as “straw donors” to funnel money into Eric Adams’s mayoral campaign.
Federal investigators are also said to be looking into whether Adams, shortly before he was elected mayor, pressured the New York Fire Department into approving occupancy of a new Turkish consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns with the high-rise building. Adams reportedly pushed to open the building in time for a planned visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to New York to attend the 2021 U.N. General Assembly.
