On the menu today: Prosecutors indicted New York City mayor Eric Adams last night, after a herd of the mayor’s top officials ran to the exit doors in recent weeks. (If the mayor wanted a way to distract from last year’s decision to give the key to the city to Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, who was recently indicted on sex-trafficking charges, he found a way!) It’s just the latest shameful allegation of a U.S. official eagerly signing on for some foreign bribes. Meanwhile, a poll out in Nebraska contends that the usually deep-red state will engage in epic ticket-splitting in November.
Local Government, State, Congress — They’re All for Sale
The indictment of New York City mayor Eric Adams doesn’t really count as an October surprise because it’s not yet October, it’s not quite so surprising after the drip-drip-drip of investigation reports and sudden resignations, and it probably won’t have much influence on this year’s races. (Obviously, it will have a big impact on the city’s mayoral race next year.) But there is an ominous parallel between the first indictment of a sitting mayor in New York City history and some other recent allegations and convictions surrounding foreign bribery.
New York City mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges on Wednesday evening, following a sprawling federal probe into allegations that Adams received illegal campaign contributions from foreign governments in 2021. . . .
Adams maintained his innocence in a statement and implied that the corruption probe and resulting charges were politically motivated.
“I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became. If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit,” Adams said in a statement.
The indictment is likely related to allegations that the Adams campaign conspired with the Turkish government to accept illegal donations from Turkish real-estate developers.
This morning, federal agents searched Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence. The New York Times fleshes out the allegations a bit:
Investigators have focused since 2021 on whether Mr. Adams and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations, and on whether Mr. Adams pressured Fire Department officials to sign off on the opening of a high-rise consulate building for the Turkish government despite safety concerns.
The allegations have been floating around for a year, after the FBI raided the home of Brianna Suggs, a close associate and chief fundraiser of the mayor’s; the FBI then seized at least two cellphones and an iPad from the mayor.
It’s easily missed if you live outside the New York City metro area, but the executive branch of the city government is resigning piecemeal:
- Earlier this month, “New York Police Department commissioner Edward Caban announced his resignation . . . eight days after authorities seized his phone as part of a federal investigation into possible corruption.”
- A day later, “New York City Hall’s chief legal counsel, Lisa Zornberg, who has defended Mayor Eric Adams amid several federal probes, resigned.”
- A few days later, New York City Schools chancellor David Banks announced that he would resign at the end of the year. “Federal investigators also seized phones belonging to Banks’s longtime girlfriend — New York City first deputy mayor Sheena Wright — and his two brothers, New York City deputy mayor for public safety Philip Banks III and consultant Terence Banks. The brothers are reportedly at the center of a federal probe into an alleged bribery scheme involving city contracts.”
- Monday, New York City health commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan announced his resignation, saying he would leave his post by the end of the year for personal reasons.
(This is separate from Jay Varma, a senior adviser for public health and Covid-19 to New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, who was caught on hidden camera bragging about organizing sex parties during the strict Covid lockdowns he oversaw in 2020. When we were told to shut down all human contact outside of our immediate families for a year or more, Varma was into the mass sharing of bodily fluids.)
Will the last New York City official to leave the city government turn out the lights?
It’s easy to think, “I don’t live anywhere near New York City, so why should I care?” And yes, somehow the Big Apple will find a way to go on without the mayor who awarded the key to the city to Sean Combs a year ago. (A week ago, Combs was charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution, with prosecutors contending he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others, and led a racketeering conspiracy that engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”)
You could well argue that the most surprising thing about this indictment is that, as far as we know, it doesn’t involve the multitude of ways the Chinese government is in bed with New York politicians. (Read Jimmy Quinn’s reporting.)
But the criminal acts alleged in New York are cropping up in more and more places.
Ask yourself: Why did the Turkish government find it worthwhile to have the mayor in its pocket?
Why did the Egyptian government find it worthwhile to have Senator Bob Menendez in its pocket?
Why did the Chinese government find it worthwhile to have Linda Sun, former aide to New York governors Kathy Hochul and Andrew Cuomo, secretly on its payroll?
Why did the Russian government find it worthwhile to launder money and send massive payments to right-wing social-media influencers as part of a “$10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging”?
Easily forgotten and overlooked: Why did an oil and gas company wholly owned and controlled by the government of Azerbaijan and a bank headquartered in Mexico City allegedly pay approximately $600,000 in bribes to Texas Democratic representative Henry Cuellar and his wife?
Barely noticed: Why did two dual citizens plead guilty to trying to bribe an Internal Revenue Service to target U.S.-based practitioners of Falun Gong — a spiritual practice banned in China?
Those bribes were offered because what those politicians and officials could do was worth the cost to those foreign governments. In the end, a whole lot of people inside and outside of government are for sale. And foreign governments are often the highest bidder.
The name “Samuel Dickstein” really ought to be more widely remembered and loathed:
Dickstein, a Democrat from New York City who served in the House of Representatives from the early 1920s to the mid-1940s, conducted himself in public life with none of the refined elegance that his self-presentation suggested. . . .
So over-the-top as to be ineffectual — he had the poor taste to call for Noel Coward to be barred from the country because the English wit made a quip about the manliness of Brooklyn soldiers — Dickstein left Congress in 1946, and served as a state Supreme Court justice until his death in 1954. In 1963, a portion of the street grid close to where he used to live on East Broadway was christened “Samuel Dickstein Plaza.” No controversy attended the occasion. He then went about the time-honored practice of being forgotten.
That is, until 1999, when Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev published The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America — the Stalin Era, which through the use of previously unavailable KGB records went a long way toward convincing those who could be convinced that Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg were in fact working for the Soviet Union. The authors also revealed that Stalin had a spy in Congress, an exasperating character who once “blazed up very much, claiming that if we didn’t give him money he would break with us,” according to his Soviet contact. To this day, Sam Dickstein is the only known U.S. representative to have served as a covert agent for a foreign power. His codename was Crook. . . .
According to Weinstein and Vassiliev, Dickstein had earned a total of $12,000 during his time on the Soviet payroll, about $200,000 when adjusted for inflation. [Emphasis added.]
(I just want to point out that if I had a corrupt representative working for the Russians with the codename “Crook” in one of my novels, readers would complain it was a little too on the nose.)
At a recent speech while accepting an award from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the legendary George Will observed, “The way you lower the temperature of politics is to lower the stakes of politics.” Similarly, if you want fewer opportunities for foreign corruption, reduce the size, power, and personnel in government. A big, sprawling government, whether it’s federal, state, or local, with Byzantine regulations and lots of staffers who can do favors or ensure paperwork gets approved, creates lots of motive, means, and opportunity for bribery and illicit favors.
Meanwhile, out in Nebraska . . .
Why is it so hard to find a non-internal poll of Nebraska’s Senate race? RCP doesn’t list any. FiveThirtyEight lists the internals and those conducted for outside interest groups.
The big news, of a sort, is that a SurveyUSA poll conducted for the campaign of “independent” (wink, wink) Dan Osborn has him ahead of incumbent Republican senator Deb Fischer, 45 percent to 44 percent. Now, the same poll has Donald Trump winning the state, 56 percent to 40 percent, and Pete Ricketts winning the state’s other U.S. Senate race, 53 percent to 35 percent.
You’re telling me that in a state that Trump won by 19 percentage points last time around, Trump’s going to win the state by 16 percentage points or so, the GOP nominee is going to win the other Senate race by 18 percentage points or so . . . and Nebraska’s going to elect a de facto Democrat, when his own poll shows 24 percent of likely voters have no opinion about him, and 19 percent of likely voters say they haven’t heard or seen anything about him?
ADDENDUM: You can find Megyn Kelly’s show, featuring our Charlie Cooke and myself, here.