Mayor Eric Adams’ top attorney at City Hall said Tuesday that neither the mayor nor anyone working in his government office have been told they are targets of a federal investigation into his 2021 campaign’s ties to Turkey’s government.
The attorney, Lisa Zornberg, didn’t say whether the same applied to the Adams campaign or anyone who worked on it.
“I have not been informed of any individual being a target. You could speak to others outside the city, I’m speaking for the city,” Zornberg, the chief counsel for the mayor and his City Hall office, told reporters in a press conference.
Evan Thies, a spokesman for Adams’ 2021 campaign, referred comment to Vito Pitta, the mayor’s longtime political compliance attorney, and Brendan McGuire, his former City Hall chief counsel who now serves as his lead lawyer in the Turkey investigation. Neither Pitta nor McGuire immediately returned requests for comment.
Zornberg’s comments come after news broke last week that Adams, along with his office and campaign, were served with grand jury subpoenas in July from the Manhattan federal prosecutors leading the probe, which is scrutinizing whether Turkey’s government pumped illegal donations into the mayor’s 2021 campaign coffers.
The probe is reportedly also looking into Adams’ effort to help fast-track the resolution of fire safety violations at Turkey’s consulate in Manhattan and whether he accepted free upgrades on Turkish Airlines flights.
The mayor hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing in the probe, which burst into public view in November, when FBI agents raided the homes of his chief campaign fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, and longtime aide Rana Abbasova. Days after those raids, FBI agents stopped Adams in the street and seized his cellphones. Abbasova has been cooperating in the investigation.
As part of federal investigations, U.S. attorney’s offices typically issue so-called “target letters” to individuals they believe have committed crimes based on evidence they’ve collected. Target letters are more serious than subpoenas in that the feds issue them to individuals they are likely to indict.
It’s unclear whether any target letters have been issued by the feds investigating Adams’ campaign. A spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who’s spearheading the probe, declined to comment Tuesday.
When asked this past December and January whether any target letters had been issued in the Turkey probe, both the mayor and Zornberg offered similar answers to Tuesday’s.
“We made that clear before, no we have not,” Adams said on CNN in early January.
“I’m just going to jump in here and say the answer is no,” Zornberg said in December when asked if anyone connected to the mayor had received target letters.
At Tuesday’s press conference, the mayor deferred specific questions about the federal investigation to Zornberg. He did say he wants to let the probe “take its course.”
“I’ve stated over and over again when it comes down to the review that’s taking place on many levels, let it take its course, and then when that course is completed, then it will be reported on,” he said. “It’s going to take its course.”
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