Mayor Adams pointed to his dyslexia as the reason he couldn’t unlock his phone for federal investigators who requested access amid a corruption investigation into political contributions to the mayor’s campaign, he said Tuesday.
“Hey, folks, I’m dyslexic. I couldn’t get numbers. That’s a byproduct,” the mayor said at his weekly press briefing, adding that he “always” gives his numbers to staffers.
New documents in the mayor’s now-dismissed federal corruption case revealed that federal agents thought the mayor’s explanations about his phone were lies that showed “evidence of consciousness of guilt” on Adams’ part.
The mayor, upon being intercepted by agents in Greenwich Village in November 2023, told feds that he had left it at City Hall. However, GPS data showed the phone was actually moving along his path from City Hall to near Washington Square Park and north on 6th Avenue, an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit.
“If someone stated that I had a phone on me based on the GPS data, they’re liars,” the mayor said Tuesday. “They’re liars. And the GPS data clearly pings in showing you where phones are. They had the evidence.”
Adams later blamed an aide, saying a staffer took the phone.
When the phone was turned over the next day, Adams told the feds he had forgotten the passcode — which he had changed just two days earlier, just prior to the initial raid in Greenwich Village.
The feds had struggled to get their hands on Adams’ many devices — even securing a judge’s permission to get electronics-sniffing dogs to search Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, the documents show.
The over 1,700 pages of documents, released late last week, showed a glimpse of what prosecutors’ case against the mayor might have looked like had it gone to trial. Feds were carrying out raids just days before Trump’s Department of Justice put a stop to the probe.
Adams’ indictment charged him with taking illegal campaign cash and bribes, like free luxury airline tickets, from associates of the Turkish government in exchange for political favors. Adams has denied the charges.
The mayor also said Tuesday that feds’ abandoned plan to intercept and seize his devices at the finish line of the New York City marathon was intended to “humiliate,” “embarrass” and “display” him.
