Former New York Gov. David Paterson defended Mayor Eric Adams amid the federal probe into fundraising during his 2021 campaign — describing the FBI’s actions as “Orwellian.”
Paterson, during an interview on WABC 770 AM’s “The Cats Roundtable” Sunday, said the FBI’s decisions to raid the homes of Adams aides while the mayor was in Washington, DC to push for more federal assistance to address the migrant crisis — and to confront him in his vehicle to retrieve his mobile devices — “seems very unusual.”
“They bother the mayor by going to his fundraiser’s home on the same day that he’s coming to Washington to talk to [the White House] about the migration situation. And then they run up on him at some event and say that they wanted security to get out of the way. They get in the car with him. They take his cell phones and electronic equipment,” he told host John Catsimatidis.
“That is sounding a little more Orwellian to me than what has gone on in the past.”
Paterson, who served as New York’s first black governor after Eliot Spitzer resigned over a prostitution scandal, questioned the way the investigation has been handled.
He noted that Adams is grappling to close a budget gap — by cutting police manpower and funding to schools and the arts — attributed in part to the burgeoning costs to shelter tens of thousands of asylum seekers.
“I would be shocked to find out that they did this because the mayor was criticizing [Biden administration] on migration. Where they were sending the migrants. That would be an all-time low. I would be shocked,” Paterson said.
The FBI and Manhattan federal prosecutors are investigating whether Adams’ 2021 campaign conspired to accept illegal donations, including from straw donors with links to Turkey, via a Brooklyn construction company.
Neither Adams nor his campaign officials have been accused of a crime and he has denied any wrongdoing.
Amid the probe, it was revealed that Adams, after winning the Democratic primary for mayor in 2021 and while he was Brooklyn borough president, had asked the FDNY commissioner to look into delays regarding the opening of the Turkish Consulate building.
But Paterson said such an inquiry is not a crime.
“They’re saying that when he was [Brooklyn] borough president, he asked the Fire Department to look into the [building approval] for the Turkish consulate. Maybe he did do that. It’s not a crime,” Paterson said.
Sources close to the probe have said the FBI swooped on Adams and his team to prevent potential evidence from being destroyed.
Rana Abbasova, who was director of protocol in the Office for International Affairs and did events planning for the mayor, was suspended from the $80,000-a-year post after Adams’ lawyers learned of her efforts to erase text message exchanges, the sources said.
Federal investigators then obtained a court warrant to retrieve Adams’ mobile devices to determine if he had also received messages from Abbasova.
There was nothing incriminating in regards to the mayor, a source said.
Adams’ popularity has plummeted amid headlines about fundraising probe as well as the ongoing migrant crisis and budget woes.
The Marist College Poll released last week found 54% of Big Apple residents gave thumbs down to Adams’ job performance while just 37% approved — a precipitous decline from a year ago.
More than seven in 10 New York City residents — 72% — said they thought Adams did something wrong in regards to the federal probe.
That figure included 33% city respondents who said they believed Adams personally did something illegal, and 39% who said they thought did something unethical, but not illegal.
Only 18% said they believed Adams had done nothing wrong, and 10% were unsure.