City Councilwoman Gale Brewer shows support for Mayor Eric Adams amid FBI campaign investigation
NEW YORK -- The FBI probe into Mayor Eric Adams' campaign focuses on whether he tried to fast track the opening of the Turkish consulate. On Monday, another lawmaker came to his defense.
It has been 11 days since the FBI raided the home of the mayor's chief fundraiser, and while the headline-grabbing stories keep coming, Adams is going about the business of running the city.
Call it the "What? Me worry?" defense.
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An all-electric helicopter taking off from the East Side heliport -- the wave of the future for New York City -- was a big event for people who hate chopper noise, and maybe even a bigger event for a mayor hoping to get out from under the glare of an FBI investigation into his campaign financing. But CBS New York's Marcia Kramer asked him, "Are people getting distracted by your legal problems?"
"No, we focus straight ahead," Adams said. "No distractions and grind. That's what this administration is about, straight ahead."
The latest details of the probe indicate the FBI is trying to determine if the mayor attempted to fast track approval by the FDNY of a certificate of occupancy that would allow the Turkish consulate to open.
Sources told Kramer that when agents confiscated the mayor's iPhones and iPad, they found a text exchange related to the 2021 opening of the Turkish consulate across from the United Nations.
Sources said the mayor, who was then the Brooklyn Borough president, got a text from the consul general, asking if he could look into the delay. The mayor did not respond, sources said. Instead, he sent the text to then-FDNY commissioner Daniel Nigro, asking him to look into it.
Several days later, Nigro texted Adams that the certificate of occupancy would go out so the facility could open.
City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, the former Manhattan Borough president, was at the helicopter event on Monday. She told Kramer that she often calls city agencies, including the FDNY, to speed things up.
"I would ask them to help with whatever it is, if there was a C of O issue. What I would say is could you please hurry up, because this building has to open. I can understand that," Brewer said.
"So if Eric Adams did it do you think it would be a bad thing?" Kramer asked.
"No, I don't because if this is a consistent issue from what I've read in the papers so far, I don't have a problem with it. If there's anything else, I don't know. But in terms of helping a building open because the Fire Department is slow -- and I have to tell you, they're very slow because they don't have enough inspectors," Brewer said.
The mayor is clearly trying to get back to business. Tuesday is his regular off-topic press conference and on Thursday he is expected to release details of a 5% budget cut to help pay for asylum seekers. He has already said he expects the cuts to city services to be heartbreaking.
