Eric Adams and the missing password: Feds say NYC mayor locked phone before FBI seized it

Who among us hasn’t misplaced a password?

There’s hardly a device or service that doesn’t demand a unique series of digits, letters, phrases – or fingerprints and facial views – before the user can access what’s rightfully theirs.

Or rightfully court-ordered.

Last November, New York Mayor Eric Adams told FBI agents he’d made an innocent mistake by changing – and then forgetting – the passcode to his mobile phone, making it more difficult for investigators to probe its contents.

A five-count federal indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Thursday says it was more than just a slip of the mind.

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More: NY Mayor Eric Adams charged with bribery, foreign funding

Prosecutors say Adams accepted illegal foreign donations from Turkey, defrauded the city’s public campaign finance program, and leaned on the fire department to allow a new Turkish consulate skyscraper to open without a safety inspection.

Adams, who has proclaimed his innocence, is the first sitting New York mayor to face indictment in modern times.

Phone calls, phone stalls

The 57-page indictment is riddled with mobile phone shenanigans, a damning trail that includes messages in which an Adams campaign staffer allegedly bites at the chance for $100,000 in illegal Turkish contributions during the 2021 mayoral campaign. (Adams won the Democratic primary that year by a slim 7,000 votes.)

Last Nov. 2, the former police captain was in Washington for a meeting at the White House when he learned the FBI had visited the home of his top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs. Suggs phoned Adams five times before answering the door, prosecutors say.

The mayor canceled the White House meeting and dashed back to New York.

During an interview with the FBI, an Adams staffer excused herself and, while in the bathroom, allegedly deleted from her phone encrypted messaging apps she’d used to communicate with Adams, a Turkish businessman, and others, the indictment said.

Four days later, the FBI came armed with a search warrant for Adams’ own phones – but the mayor was only carrying his two official devices. His personal phone – the one he used to discuss campaign finance and, allegedly, official favors for the Turkish government  – was at home.

An absent-minded (now indicted) mayor

On November 5, Adams surrendered that mobile phone – but there was a hitch.

“When Adams produced his personal cellphone the next day in response to a subpoena, it was 'locked,' such that the device required a password to open,” the indictment said. “Adams claimed that after he learned about the investigation into his conduct, he changed the password" that same day "and increased the complexity of his password from four digits to six.”

The mayor said he’d changed the password to prevent members of his staff from accidentally deleting anything.

“But, Adams further claimed, he had forgotten the password he had just set, and thus was unable to provide the FBI with a password that would unlock the phone,” the indictment says.

It’s unclear if investigators were able to crack Adams’ phone without the newly minted six-digit password. The indictment quotes from numerous text messages exchanged by members of his circle.

More: Forgot your password? That's because common password advice is bad, experts say

The phone gambit was just one of several moves by Adams and others to “conceal their wrongful conduct from scrutiny by the public and law enforcement,” the indictment charges.

Earlier this month, federal agents seized phones belonging to Adams' police commissioner, who later resigned, two deputy mayors, the schools chancellor, and a close aide.

Early Thursday morning, federal agents raided Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, to seize yet another Adams telephone.

There was no answer at that number when USA TODAY called on Thursday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Eric Adams 'forgot' password when FBI came for his phone, feds say