FBI seizes New York Mayor Eric Adams' phones in campaign probe

FBI has seized New York city mayor Eric
Adams electronic devices including his
cell phone as part of an investigation
into campaign fundraising CBS News
correspondent Roxana Saar has new
reporting CBS News has learned the
seizure of Mayor Eric Adam's phone and
other electronic devices happened on
Monday and comes days after FBI agents
raided the home of Adam's Chief
fundraiser Brianna sugs a 25-year-old
former intern for alleged campaign
Finance violation
Adams addressed that raid on Wednesday
and I just want to be completely
transparent is what I've stated all the
time I sleep well at night uh I am clear
that we follow the rules that I will
support the it's a dramatic escalation
of a federal corruption investigation
into weather Adams 2021 campaign
conspired with the Turkish government
and others to receive a legal foreign
donations according to the New York
Times Eric Adams Attorney telling CBS
News tonight it was discovered that an
individual had recently acted improperly
the mayor has not been accused of any
wrongdoing and continues to cooperate
with the investigation according to
Sugg's LinkedIn profile she claims to
have helped raise more than $18 million
for the 2021 Adam's campaign and tonight
to Source close to the investigation
tells CBS News after the FBI sees the
mayor's devices on Monday he found and
later handed over additional electronic
devices including iPhones and laptops
some of the devices seized have now been
returned to the mayor Katherine roxan
sairi thank
you we're joined Now by Joshua scho he's
a former executive assistant director
for the FBI and president of bow wave a
national security company Joshua you and
I both know that it's a high threshold
to get a warrant for a sitting
politician what does that tell you about
the strength of the

evidence well I think the strength of
the evidence is the fact that they
executed a search warrant at suggs's
residents and they have compiled what
they uh FBI agents believe is probable
cause to look at the devices used by the
mayor certainly as you well know
Katherine this has had to have gone up
the chain of command not just in the US
attorney's office or the FBI but likely
to the Department of Justice for
approval that's right so for a lay
person what are investigators trying to
find on his phone and
iPad so they are looking to see whether
or not the mayor is culpable in the
allegations that that the FBI has
received did he have knowledge of
campaign donations from the government
of turkey was he complicit did he direct
them was there a kickback scheme as
alleged by the uh reporting by the New
York Times to the ksk construction
company and was there any other
nefarious activity ongoing that would
have led the mayor had knowledge of
receiving illegal campaign
contributions so what kind of criminal
charges could uh either the mayor or his
campaign team member be looking
at well first of all it's the underlying
allegations of of the campaign uh
Finance elicit campaign Finance

fraud they could also be looking at a
conspiracy charge uh depending on
whether or not they were interviewed or
or uh conspired to lie to
investigators and potentially the reason
they seize them is to prevent the
destruction of evidence and they had
proof uh that somebody was getting ready
um destroy evidence that was located on
either the cell phones or the iPad based
on your experience it feels like this
investigation is really accelerating
would you expect uh an indictment or a
criminal complaint in the near
future that's a great question I think
we'll have to see in the coming days
what evidence what other evidence uh the
FBI seized at sugs residents who else
might be involved in this what other
search warrants or executed across New
York City uh I would expect this to be a
fome investigation by those folks and
looking at the totality of the mayor's
circle on who may have been involved so
I'm not sure if an indictment uh will be
forthcoming and even if it was I'm not
sure that would be public Joshua school
thank you for your
analysis thank you