NEW YORK - Federal agents investigating New York City Mayor Eric Adams are still grabbing the phone and applying for a search warrant before Justice Department leaders ordered the corruption case to be removed, according to documents released Friday.
The sealed court records open a window to criminal cases and show that even if Washington officials withdraw from prosecution, Manhattan investigators are moving forward.
The documents also confirm what prosecutors have previously revealed: whether the federal investigation into whether Adams began in August 2021, when Democrats were still in the old job of the Brooklyn Borough president, but there was a widespread expectation to win a fallen mayoral campaign.
Adams repeatedly said he believed he was prosecuted because long later, he criticized former President Joe Biden's immigration policies.
The investigation first poured into the public in November 2023, when FBI agents caught Adams' phone and iPad while leaving an event in Manhattan. Ten months later, he was accused of accepting free travel and illegal campaign donations, and they sought to buy his influence, including Turkish diplomats.
But on February 10, weeks after President Donald Trump took office, new Justice Department leaders ordered New York federal prosecutors to waive the charges, saying the case hindered the mayor's ability to assist the Republican administration in immigrant repression.
The extraordinary order harassed the federal attorney’s office in Manhattan and Washington. Rather than enforce the order, several prosecutors resigned, including Danielle Sassoon, Manhattan's highest federal prosecutor. The judge eventually said he had no choice but to dismiss the case at the request of senior Justice Department officials.
Prosecutors continued to dig out Adams in the weeks before the case ceased, and Shatun said they were in a lawsuit that obstructed justice and made additional charges.
On February 7, a judge signed an application to search for a phone that handed over an unknown subject of investigation in response to a subpoena. A few weeks ago, a judge signed an arrest warrant to search a house in Middletown, New York, suspected of investigating straw donations conducted by the 2020 Adams campaign. On December 4, the judge approved a request from federal investigators to search for houses in Queens.
U.S. District Judge Dale E. The Times argued in court documents that there was a "specially convincing" case that had made them public because of the lack of a trial. Neither Adams' attorney nor prosecutors objected to the demand.
The documents provide a behind-the-scenes observation examining how investigators piece together cases by searching electronic and physical locations in New York and beyond.
Unsealed documents also show that in May 2024, a district judge signed an arrest warrant to search the apartment of Fort Lee, New Jersey, the mayor’s long-time romantic partner, Tracey Collins, who served as a senior official at the city’s Department of Education.
The warrant application did not name Collins directly, but identified her as Adams' partner and said the mayor sometimes uses the house. Agents wanted to do a search to access five iPhones as they looked at whether officials with connections to the Turkish consulate sought help to get a child to enter a highly sought-after public middle school.
It also includes a September 2024 search warrant that searched the mayor’s official residence in Manhattan, Gracie Mansion, providing photos of the building from multiple angles.
The affidavit of the FBI agents noted that location data from one of Adams' phones showed that he spent "suspended overnight hours" in his residence on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and "once do the same on other days." ”
Asked about comments on the new document, Adams' attorney Alex Spiro criticized the current prosecution.
"This case - the first of the 'corruption' case of escalating airlines of similar types - should definitely not be brought up first, and it is now over," Spiro said.
Adams touted the case’s dismissal as a defense, while denying that he reached a deal with Trump in exchange for leniency. But after dismissing the case, he maintained a passionate relationship with the president. The two leaders met in Washington on Friday and Trump later told reporters: "I think he was actually trying to thank me."
Adams' office issued a statement saying they discussed “critical infrastructure projects, as well as the preservation of essential social services, and other topics.”
Even with 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.