NYC NOW - November 13, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

Flights to Israel are slowly coming back to New York City's airports almost two months after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War. Also, the NYPD has more than tripled its use of police drones in recent months. WNYC’s Bahar Ostadan reports from police headquarters. Finally, a federal investigation into Mayor Adams’ campaign and alleged illegal campaign donations from Turkish officials is intensifying. Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing but the probe involved the mayor for the first time after FBI agents last week approached the mayor with a search warrant and seized several of his electronic devices. WNYC’s Elizabeth Kim joins our own Michael Hill for the breakdown.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, November 13. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Flights to Israel are slowly coming back to New York City's area airports. Almost two months after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War, all three major airlines, Delta, United and American, will resume non-stop flights in the coming weeks.

The NYPD has more than tripled its use of police drones in recent months. WNYC's Bahar-Ostadon reports from police headquarters. The next time you're at a protest or parade, you may want to look up, see if you spot an NYPD police robot flying hundreds of feet in the sky. At two protests last month, police say they used drones to film protesters, and they turned over that footage to prosecutors to use as evidence in criminal charges. The NYPD has used drones almost 150 times in recent months. That's up from 40 in the same period last year.

They say it's the future of policing. It's faster and cheaper than helicopters or patrol cars. But some activists say it's a dangerous violation of privacy. Sunny today in a high of 48 and breezy. And then tomorrow's sunny, slightly warm up to 52 in breezy and Wednesday. a repeat. A federal investigation into Mayor Adams' campaign and illegal campaign donations

from Turkish officials is intensifying. Adams has not been accused or wrongdoing, but the probe involved the mayor for the first time after FBI agents last week approached the mayor with a search warrant and sees several of his electronic devices. We should say alleged illegal campaign donations. Here to break down what happened, and what it means is WNYC's Elizabeth Kim, who covers the mayor.

Let's start with the news that the FBI, the agent, sees the mayor's electronic devices in public. Walk us through what happened here. This story broke late Friday after the New York Times reported that FBI agents approached Adams in downtown Manhattan Monday night. They presented him with a search warrant for his electronic devices. The agents then proceeded to search the mayor's SUV. and remove at least two iPhones and an iPad, according to the story. Now, WMIC reached out to the Adams campaign.

An attorney for the mayor said that Adams immediately complied and provided the agents with the devices. He also said the mayor has not been accused of wrongdoing and is fully cooperating with the investigation. The lawyer also added that the campaign had, quote, discovered that an individual had recently acted improperly. and quote is that his behavior was immediately and proactively reported to investigators. However, it's unclear who this individual is and what kind of improper conduct the campaign believed they may have committed. The week before we learned that the FBI raided the mayor's campaign fundraiser's Brooklyn home, what does they say that investigators are now interested in looking at the mayor's electronic devices?

Is it unusual for them to get a warrant to do it in this way? This is the first time that the investigation has directly involved the mayor. And yes, the encounter between the FBI and mayor was very unusual. Search warrants are a significant investigatory step. To get a search warrant requires a prosecutor to prove to a judge that there was probable cause to believe that a crime had been committed. And that the devices taken from the mayor would show evidence. of that. Now, investigators could have simply asked the mayor to provide them with these devices, but instead they opted for a more invasive method in which FBI agents searched the mayor's vehicle

after an event. It doesn't get more public than that. One former prosecutor told me that he thought the investigation was entering a, quote, overt stage where those who were concerned about their own liability in the case may want to start reaching out to talk with prosecutors. Do we have any idea what the FBI was looking for? The New York Times is reporting that the search of the mayor's devices, it might be related to his potential involvement in pressuring fire department officials to sign off on a consulate building for the Turkish government, even though there were safety concerns. Now, this occurred when Adams was still Brooklyn Borough president, but it was,

was after he had clinched the primary. In fact, the president of Turkey, Erdogan, visited the building during the grand opening in 2021. Is it connected to the FBI search of his fund raiser's home? Possibly. The search warrant for Brianna Suggs' home was also tied to links to Turkish donors, according to the Times, which obtained a copy of the warrant. But it's important to point out that the full scope of this investigation is unclear. This could be the sole focus or it could just be part of it. Federal corruption investigations are notoriously shrouded in secrecy. And what we know so far have been through leaks to the New York Times.

This is not the only investigation that's threatening the mayor. Is that right? No, it's not. Now, over the summer, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg indicted six donors for a straw donor scheme that took advantage of the city's general. matching funds program. That enables campaigns with small donors to tap into public taxpayer money. Bragg has also brought bribery charges against Eric Ulrich, who's Adams' former building commissioner. Liz, how's the mayor responding to all this?

As he was coming from an event Sunday, the mayor told reporters that he was carrying out, quote, his basic duties as borough president and that he wished that the leak's would stop. Throughout this, the mayor has insisted that he's followed the rules when it comes to his campaign. Interestingly, he held a conference, a press conference two days after FBI agency seized his devices, but he made no mention of the encounter. But he did reveal that he's hired a private law firm, Wilmer Hale, to represent him in the campaign. One of his lawyers is Brendan McGuire, who was previously his chief counsel in City Fall. Now, McGuire, will also be representing Suggs, the mayor's campaign fundraiser. That will be something to watch,

because if she is charged with the crime, then prosecutors could argue that it's a conflict of interest for both her and the mayor to have the same counsel. How is the political world responding to all this? Are elected officials criticizing the mayor publicly or even privately? Well, talk about a potential primary challenge for the mayor started heating. up after the news of the FBI raid on Suggs. It's considered a very rare move against a sitting mayor. Now the possibility that a federal corruption investigation may directly involve the mayor, that's only emboldened more people to think about mounting a run. So there's already a list of potential candidates. It includes two state senators, Jessica Ramos and Zellner-Mirey,

Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Ray Noso, city council member Diana Ayala, and Christine Quinn, the former city council speaker who ran for mayor in 2013. In terms of criticism, we've heard critics of the mayor say that this is a distraction that hurts New Yorkers. And when news of the FBI raid on his fundraiser broke, the mayor in fact canceled an important meeting on the migrant crisis with President Biden to return to the city. And it hasn't been clear what he came back to do in the aftermath of the raid. Now, I reached out to the public advocate, Jumani Williams, and his spokesperson gave me a comment. He called the ongoing developments around the investigation, quote, very troubling. And he added that New Yorkers deserve consistent transparency and clarity about the situation. So I think we're going to expect to hear similar calls for transparency in the coming days,

especially if more damaging information comes out about the mayor and the investigation. Wow. WNYC's Elizabeth Kim. Liz, thank you. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. More soon.