On June 25, the New York Post reported that federal agents are currently investigating New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ use of private email addresses and how documentation from seven different trips he made to China have vanished.
According to the Post’s exclusive report, both the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Manhattan federal prosecutors have taken issue with at least one trip to China taken by Adams when he headed the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office that was funded in part by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The revelations are part of a deepening investigation into Adams and his alleged public corruption involving his advisor Winnie Greco, a source close to the matter told The Post.
At the core of the issue is a personal email address that Adams used, [email protected], which did not store emails on government servers.
It’s believed that this email was used to arrange trips to China and may have had details concerning who paid for the trips, who Adams met with and what was discussed.
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“Adams, Greco and their aides used the non-official emails between 2014 and 2021 while he was Brooklyn Borough president,” The Post reported, adding that repeated requests for records related to a 2014 trip to China were denied.
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Adams denies wrongdoing
The Mayor’s office is denying that Adams used a private server and noted that his use of a private email for non-governmental matters is permitted.
The Mayor’s Office said on June 23 that Hizzoner’s trip to China was “approved in writing by COIB through official email channels.” The Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB) however has refused to produce a copy of the letter authorizing the trip.
The current Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso, says he can’t locate any information on the trip in the office and that he can’t access data outside of the office, according to a document seen by The Post.
The document, a nine-page letter from Gregory Louis, general counsel for the Brooklyn Borough president said, “Because the prior administration … might have kept records such as those outside this office’s infrastructure such as on a private Google drive, it is possible that this office does not maintain the records.”
“I note that this office would lack access to the prior administration’s records maintained on private servers,” Louis clarified.
It remains unclear what specific information the federal government is looking for concerning Adams’ trips to China and how it would fit into the wider investigation into the mayor.
It is clear that Adams’ 2014 trip to China was funded by the Sino-America New York Brooklyn Archway Association Corp., a non-profit run by Adams’ advisor Winnie Greco.
According to documents seen by the Post, at the time, Greco was a volunteer with the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office.
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‘Not our role to report’
According to The Post, Adams wrote, “We have great government meetings. It is not our job to give the cost of any item on the trip. Information of cost of hotel, food, etc that is paid for by china government or the Sino American is not our role to report. We do not ask the government how much they paid for dinner. If anyone wants that information they must get it from them. In our report we will list the item … and only who paid.”
The Post alleges that in addition to Adams and Greco, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, an Adams administration senior policy advisor, at the time also used private Gmail and AOL email addresses.
The post revealed last year that Greco, 61, who heads Asian affairs for the city, is a longtime “consultant” to Chinese Communist Party supported organizations.
So far, neither Greco, nor other members of the non-profit she heads, have explained where the funds came from for other trips to China.
