Ex-aide to New York City mayor charged with witness tampering, destroying evidence

By Michael R. Sisak and Jake Offenhartz

Oct. 8, 2024 8:35 AM PT

NEW YORK — 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 exits from Adams’ administration.

Federal prosecutors allege that Mohamed Bahi, who resigned Monday as a community affairs liaison, told a businessman and campaign donors to lie to the FBI in June, and deleted the encrypted messaging app Signal from his cellphone as FBI agents arrived to search his home in July. Bahi had used the app to communicate with Adams, prosecutors said.

Bahi, 40, of Staten Island, is the first person other than Adams to be charged in the investigation. More than a half-dozen of the mayor’s top aides have quit amid a rash of searches and subpoenas, and as Gov. Kathy Hochul continues to pressure Adams to shake up his administration and bring stability to city government.

Bahi 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.

In the latest high-level departure, First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright submitted her resignation Monday, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel changes.

Wright’s exit comes days after resignation announcements from her husband, the city’s schools chancellor David Banks, and her brother-in-law Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety. The city’s police commissioner, Edward Caban, and a senior mayoral advisor, Timothy Pearson, have also stepped down.

All five officials had their devices seized by federal investigators in early September. Each has denied wrongdoing.

In a statement following Bahi’s arrest, U.S. Atty. Damian Williams said: “The charges unsealed today 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.

Bahi’s complaint alleges that he organized a fundraiser 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.

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. Atty. 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.

Sisak and Offenhartz write for the Associated Press.