By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JAKE OFFENHARTZ
NEW YORK (AP) — A former New York City official was charged Tuesday with witness tampering and destroying evidence in a federal investigation that led to Mayor Eric Adams’ bribery indictment. The arrest came amid yet more high-profile departures from Adams’ administration as federal prosecutors delve deeper into allegations that the mayor was involved in a coverup.
Mohamed Bahi, who resigned Monday as a liaison to the Muslim community, is accused of encouraging a businessman and campaign donors to lie to the FBI in June and of deleting an encrypted messaging app from his cell phone just as FBI agents arrived to search his home in July. At one point, federal prosecutors said, Bahi told the businessman that Adams believed he wouldn’t cooperate with law enforcement.
Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Adams denied that he had any hand in telling anyone to lie. “I would never instruct anyone to do anything illegal or improper,” he said.
Bahi, 40, of Staten Island, was arrested Tuesday and is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan. Information on a lawyer who could speak on his behalf was not listed in an online court docket.
Bahi is the first person other than Adams to be charged in the investigation. Adams praised him as a “thoughtful” liaison who worked to “really bring down the noise in some of the conflicts we’re seeing today.”
In recent weeks, more than half-dozen of the mayor’s top aides have departed amid a rash of searches and subpoenas, as Gov. Kathy Hochul continues to pressure Adams to shake up his administration and bring stability to city government.
In the latest high-level departure, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright submitted her resignation Monday. Adams on Tuesday appointed another deputy, Maria Torres-Springer, as Wright’s replacement. She had been the deputy mayor for economic development, housing, and workforce development.
Torres-Springer’s first assignment will be to conduct an immediate review of personnel, programs and policies, Adams said. The mayor denied that Hochul had influenced or signed off on the pick.
Adams called Wright a “constant, constant supporter” and said she had served New Yorkers well in his administration.
“Sheena, job well done. You make us all proud,” he said.
Wright’s exit came one day after Adams confirmed the resignation of Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, and Winnie Greco, his director of Asian affairs whose own fundraiser efforts for the mayor have come under scrutiny. Last week, he announced the school’s chancellor David Banks – Wright’s husband, Philip Banks’ brother – would step down later this month.
The city’s police commissioner, Edward Caban, and a senior mayoral advisor, Timothy Pearson, also resigned. All of the officials have had their devices seized by federal investigators. Each has denied wrongdoing.
A voicemail left with a representative for Wright was not immediately returned.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Bahi’s charges “should leave no doubt about the seriousness of any effort to interfere with a federal investigation, particularly when undertaken by a government employee.”
“Our commitment to uncovering the truth and following the facts wherever they may lead is unwavering,” Williams said.
Adams, a Democrat, has vowed to stay in office after pleading not guilty Sept. 27 to charges that he accepted about $100,000 worth of free or deeply discounted international flights, hotel stays, meals and entertainment, and sought illegal campaign contributions from foreign interests.
Hochul, a Democrat who has the power to remove Adams from office, said last week that she was working with the mayor to make sure key positions “are filled with people who are going to be responsible.”
“We expect changes, that’s not a secret, and changes are beginning,” Hochul said.
Bahi’s criminal complaint alleges that he organized a fundraiser for Adams at the Brooklyn headquarters of a construction company in December 2020, where Bahi suggested that the company’s owner have his employees make donations to Adams’ campaign and then refund the workers for the $2,000 payments – a little under the maximum allowed by any individual donor in the city.
Four employees and the owner made donations to the campaign, with the workers’ payments reimbursed by the company, according to the complaint. All have subsequently spoken to law enforcement, and the owner admitted his involvement in the illegal straw donations, according to prosecutors.
In his own indictment, Adams is also accused of knowingly accepting illegal donations from straw donors – in his case, conspiring to take campaign contributions from Turkish nationals and disguising the payments by routing them through U.S. citizens. That enabled Adams to unlock public funds that provide an eight-to-one match for small-dollar donations, prosecutors said.
At a hearing last week, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten said prosecutors are pursuing “several related investigations” and that it is “likely” additional defendants will be charged and “possible” that more charges will be brought against Adams.
Bahi’s criminal complaint states that federal and city authorities began investigating straw donations to the Adams campaign in 2021, when he was running for mayor while holding a different elected office, Brooklyn borough president. Adams was sworn in as mayor in 2022.
Associated Press journalist Ruth Brown contributed to this report.
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