NEW YORK — Federal agents investigating New York City Mayor Eric Adams were still seizing phones and applying for search warrants days before Justice Department leaders ordered prosecutors to drop the corruption case, according to documents released Friday.
The trove of court records, which had been sealed, opens a window into the criminal case and shows that even as Washington officials were backing away from the prosecution, investigators in Manhattan were moving forward.
The documents also confirm something prosecutors revealed previously: That a federal investigation into whether Adams took improper campaign contributions began in August of 2021, when the Democrat was still in his old job of Brooklyn borough president but was widely expected to win the mayor’s race that fall.
Adams has repeatedly said he believed he was prosecuted because, much later, as mayor, he criticized former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
The investigation first spilled into public view in November 2023, when FBI agents seized Adams’ phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. He was charged 10 months later with accepting free travel and illegal campaign contributions from people seeking to buy his influence, including a Turkish diplomat.
But on Feb. 10, weeks after President Donald Trump took office, the new leadership of the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop the charges, arguing the case was hindering the mayor’s ability to assist in the Republican administration’s immigration crackdown.
The extraordinary directive roiled federal prosecutors’ offices in Manhattan and Washington. Rather than implement the order, multiple prosecutors resigned, including the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon. A judge ultimately said he legally had no choice but to dismiss the case at the request of senior Justice Department officials.
Prosecutors were continuing to dig into Adams in the weeks before the case got halted, and Sassoon has said they were on the verge of bringing additional charges against him for obstruction of justice.
On Feb. 7 a judge had signed off on an application to search a phone that an unidentified subject of the investigation had turned over in response to a subpoena. Weeks earlier, a judge had signed a warrant to search a home in Middletown, New York, in connection with a probe of alleged straw donations made to Adams’ campaign in 2020. Around the same time, prosecutors requested a warrant to access location data for a mobile phone in that investigation. On Dec. 4, a judge had approved a request by federal investigators to search a home in Queens.
Searches and seizures
U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho ordered the records unsealed at the request of The New York Times and, later, the New York Post. The Times argued in court papers that there was a “particularly compelling” case for making them public because there would be no trial. Neither Adams’ lawyers, nor prosecutors opposed the request.
The documents offer a behind-the-scenes look at how investigators pieced their case together through searches of electronics and physical locations around New York and beyond.
The unsealed documents also revealed that in May 2024, a magistrate judge signed off on a warrant to search the Fort Lee, New Jersey, condominium home of the mayor’s longtime romantic partner, Tracey Collins, who formerly served as a senior official in the city’s Department of Education.
The warrant application does not name Collins directly but identifies her as Adams’ partner and says the mayor also sometimes uses the home. Agents wanted to do the search to get access to five iPhones as they looked into whether an official connected to the Turkish consulate sought help getting a child admitted to a highly sought-after public middle school.
Also included was the September 2024 application for a warrant to search Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence in Manhattan, providing photos of the building from multiple angles.
An affidavit from an FBI agent notes that location data for one of Adams’ phones suggests he spends the “overnight hours” of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the residence “and occasionally does so on other days as well.”
Adams meets with Trump
Asked for comment on the new documents, Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, criticized the now-ended prosecution.
“This case — the first of its kind airline upgrade ‘corruption’ case — should never have been brought in the first place and is now over,” Spiro, said.
Adams has touted the dismissal of the case as a vindication, while denying that he cut a deal with Trump in exchange for leniency. But he has maintained a warm relationship with the president after his case was dismissed. The two leaders met in Washington on Friday, with Trump later telling reporters that “I think he actually came in to thank me.”
Adams’ office released a statement that said they discussed “critical infrastructure projects, as well as the preservation of essential social services, among other topics.”
Even with the criminal charges behind him, Adams faces an uncertain political future. He recently announced that he would skip the Democratic primary in June and instead run as an independent in the November general election.
