New York City Mayor Eric Adams promised to "always" delete messages exchanged with one of his staffers who arranged Turkish government-funded trips, according to the indictment against him unsealed Thursday. Prosecutors got their hands on the messages anyway. "To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me," the Adams staffer wrote in a message to Adams, according to the indictment.
"Always do," Adams responded, according to prosecutors. In , the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York accused Adams of taking bribes from Turkey over the course of several years. Adams accepted free or heavily discounted flights around the world and luxury trips in hotels and yachts, among other perks, prosecutors allege.
He never disclosed the trips — worth over $100,000 — on official documentation and worked to fabricate documents to cover them up, prosecutors allege. According to prosecutors, in exchange, Adams pressured government officials to approve plans for a Turkish government-owned skyscraper in Manhattan that Turkey intended to become a global power center. Adams has called the charges against him politically motivated.
He has not yet entered a plea in court. In the indictment, prosecutors cited the plot to delete messages as evidence that Adams tried to "conceal the benefits he received from foreign nationals seeking to gain influence over him." The indictment says Adams "deleted messages with others involved in his misconduct" but doesn't deta.