Indicted NYC mayor to FBI: I, uh, forgot my phone’s passcode

According to Adams, this was done to “prevent members of his staff from inadvertently or intentionally deleting the contents of his phone” so that Adams could “preserve the contents of his phone due to the investigation.”

Unfortunately, Adams told the FBI, he couldn’t remember this new password he had set just two days before. And so the pristinely preserved personal phone was locked and without a key.

The government does not explicitly say what it thought of the truthfulness of this explanation, but the indictment against Adams includes the anecdote under the subheading, “ADAMS and His Co-Conspirators Attempt to Conceal Their Criminal Conduct.”

Deleting apps from the bathroom

It wasn’t just Adams who had some “issues” with digital devices. As part of its investigation, the FBI asked if one of his staffers would speak to them in a voluntary interview. The woman agreed, and she then “falsely denied the criminal conduct of herself and ADAMS,” says the indictment.

But the most interesting bit was her behavior. In the middle of the interview, the staffer left to use the bathroom “and, while there, deleted the encrypted messaging applications she had used to communicate with ADAMS, the Promoter, the Turkish Official, the Airline Manager, and others.”

Others in Adams’ orbit were a bit more careful. When an Adams employee met with the mayor to talk about Turkish issues, he and Adams “left their cellphones outside the room in which they met so that it would be ‘safe’ to talk.”

Another staffer who worked on booking subsidized Turkish travel once texted Adams, “To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me.” Adams replied, “Always do.”

This sort of care extended even to the creation of bogus PowerPoint presentations. At a 2023 fundraiser held in a Manhattan hotel, the FBI claims that a “promoter” putting together illegal foreign donations for Adams actually “provided a PowerPoint presentation billing the event as a dinner hosted by ‘International Sustainability Leaders’ with the subject ‘Sustainable Destinations’ and an attendance price of $5,000.” This was despite the fact that the event was listed on Adams’ private calendar as “Fundraiser for Eric Adams 2025.”