Former NYC official’s bribery trial sheds light on Eric Adams’ early worries about facing scrutiny as mayor

Por Chris Sommerfeldt — POLITICO – TOP Stories

NEW YORK — Eric Adams was worried.

He had just been elected mayor of New York City and was in the Dominican Republic for a few days with his chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, and now they needed someone to immediately go to his campaign offices and empty the place out.

“Ingrid just called me, and we have to take care of something like ASAP,” Eric Ulrich, a campaign surrogate who was later appointed Adams’ buildings commissioner, told an associate, Joseph Livreri, in a Nov. 8, 2021 call. “They want tonight for a carting company to go to the campaign offices to throw out a lot of stuff that they need to throw out because if they do it tonight, nobody’s there. … So I think maybe you can help with this. I know you got a friend, right?”

The mysterious call was played in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday by prosecutors who are trying to convict Ulrich on corruption charges alleging he took $150,000 in bribes from Livreri and other co-defendants in exchange for using his government powers as a top Adams administration official to do favors for them. Ulrich has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The call — part of hours of wiretapped phone conversations prosecutors expect to play at Ulrich’s trial — didn’t make clear what Adams’ team needed to dispose of or why they needed to get rid of it so quickly. But prosecutors did say in court Tuesday that the “friend” who was going to help with getting rid of it was Royal Waste, a Queens company that prosecutors claim Ulrich tried to secure government favors for as part of his allegedly corrupt dealings with Livreri. (Royal Waste hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing).

Ulrich stressed in the call with Livreri that time was of the essence, even though Adams was returning to New York the very next day.

“We gotta get there whatever time, x, y and z, and get rid of this stuff before [Adams] even gets back,” Ulrich said.

“Will people be there?” Livreri asked.

“I’m talking with her on Signal,” Ulrich replied, referring to Lewis-Martin. “She doesn’t want to talk on the phone or text. … I’ll forward you whatever she sends me.”

After the trial was adjourned for the day, Ulrich told POLITICO outside the courtroom that Adams and Lewis-Martin needed him and Livreri to clean the campaign office because the lease was up. “There was nothing nefarious,” he said.

But Ulrich, who was first indicted in 2023, didn’t say why it was apparently so important to Adams and Lewis-Martin that no one else was at the campaign office when it got cleaned out.

A spokesperson for Adams declined to comment Tuesday, as did a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is prosecuting Ulrich. Representatives for Royal Waste could not be reached late Tuesday.

While the November 2021 call leaves many questions unanswered, it was one of several conversations played by prosecutors in court Tuesday in which Ulrich described Adams as being worried in the days after his election. The mayor was especially anxious about facing public scrutiny as he prepared to take office.

“You just got elected mayor, everybody’s up your ass,” Ulrich said in a call with Livreri, describing how he had tried to assuage Adams a few days earlier as the incoming mayor was fretting about being in the spotlight.

“[Adams] goes, ‘I know, I know.’ I said, ‘But you know, like, the scrutiny now is even higher, we have to be more careful with the circles,’” Ulrich continued. “And mayor said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m concerned about it too. I’m on it.’”

The intercepted conversations shed light on the fears Adams and his team harbored as he was preparing to become the city’s 111th mayor. And the fears weren’t unfounded.

In September 2024, federal prosecutors indicted Adams on charges alleging he took bribes and illegal campaign donations, including from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for doling out government favors, making him the first sitting New York City mayor in modern history to face prosecution.

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice quashed Adams’ indictment last year as part of a controversial deal. But there are several others from Adams’ inner circle who have not been so fortunate.

In addition to the case against Ulrich, Bragg’s office is prosecuting Lewis-Martin over allegations that she used her role as Adams’ chief adviser in City Hall to do favors for private businesses in exchange for bribes. And Frank Carone, Adams’ first chief of staff and longtime political confidant, is battling a separate federal corruption case in Brooklyn.

Like Ulrich, Lewis-Martin and Carone have pleaded not guilty. Livreri and his brother Anthony Livreri, who was also ensnared in the Ulrich investigation, both pleaded guilty last month to bribing Ulrich. The brothers were also major fundraisers for Adams’ 2021 campaign.

Adams’ name came up in several other contexts in Tuesday’s trial proceeding.

Guy Tardanico, an assistant district attorney in Bragg’s office, showed text messages Ulrich exchanged with Adams in late 2021 as Ulrich was trying to help broker a city sanitation contract that Livreri was interested in.

“I guess City Hall didn’t take your advice. This is going to be a disaster,” Ulrich texted Adams on Nov. 16, 2021, panning then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration for already releasing the request for proposals on the contract.

Adams wrote back: “Going to hit him again.” It’s not clear from the records presented in court who Adams was referring to.

Ulrich, who sent screengrabs of those exchanges with Adams to Livreri, wrote in a message to Livreri that same day: “Adams not happy.”

“This isn’t going to end well for DSNY,” he wrote in another message to Livreri, referring to the Department of Sanitation. “Ask your friend who he thinks should be the next sanitation commissioner lol.”

Later that day, Ulrich wrote again to Livreri: “Eric just called me … says not to worry, we will fix this in January.”

Ulrich’s trial, which started Monday, is expected to last a month, according to Bragg’s office.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories