A truly bizarre incident took place outside the campaign office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
A top aide working on his campaign was spotted handing a reporter a bag of potato chips that was stuffed with cash.
The campaign is writing it off as a cultural mistake, but based on Adams’ history, I am not buying it.
As the 2024 election season was heating up, corruption indictments were flying fast and furious against the Adams administration.
He had multiple members of his administration hit with charges, and eventually Adams himself was indicted on, among other charges, bribery.
A New York Times report on the matter, in part, stated, “Prosecutors said the illegal activity dated to 2014, when Mr. Adams became Brooklyn borough president. They said the scheme centered on currying favor with Turkish officials and businesspeople while accepting at least $123,000 in flight upgrades and airline tickets.”
This was brewing for some time, and the evidence I saw against Adams at the time reminded me of the corruption case of former Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and I was convinced he was guilty.
Adams started to play Trump went it became clear that the walls were closing in on him, telling Trump that he would help him with the immigration crisis.
This, in my opinion, was nothing more than a play to gain favor with Trump, knowing he would need his help to get out of legal trouble, and it worked.
Eventually, the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss the charges without prejudice, as it was then very clear to me that if Adams did not deliver, these charges would be used as leverage against him.
While the judge allowed the dismissal of the charges, the order was “with prejudice,” so the charges could not be refiled, with the judge specifically stating that this would not be used as “leverage” against Adams.
Winnie Greco, a former top adviser to Adams, now serving as an adviser on his re-election campaign, was spotted handing a bag of chips, which had an envelope stuffed with cash, to a reporter working for The City.
Greco handed the reporter, Katie Honan, the bag of chips, which were initially refused, but Greco insisted. When Honan opened the bag, there was an envelope with at least one $100 bill and several $20 bills inside. Honan called it a “failed payoff,” but the Adams campaign and Greco said this was just a cultural misunderstanding, which I do not believe for a second.
Greco tried to explain, “I make a mistake. I’m so sorry. It’s a culture thing. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t understand. I’m so sorry. I feel so bad right now. I’m so sorry, honey.”
The accused has been in this country long enough that she knows you don’t “pay” for friends, as she insisted was the tradition in China. I don’t know what she was trying to get from Honan for this cash payment, but knowing Adams’ past, there is just no way I believe this was a mistake, nor do I believe that Adams was ignorant of anything that was taking place. To be clear, this is my opinion on the reports I have seen. Now we just have to wait and see if any investigation or charges come of the incident, or they just brush it off as a cultural misunderstanding, as Greco has stated.
