NYPD 'Wellness Check' Before Feds Raided Mayor Eric Adams' Fundraiser Called Into Question: 'FBI Would Never Ask For One' - The Messenger
By: Ben Feuerherd (The Messenger)
Hmmmm. Heads up?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Former agents said they'd never heard of the practice, let alone in a corruption probe like the one looking into whether the mayor's campaign illegally accepted Turkish contributions
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Former Justice Department officials are calling into question the New York City Police Department's claim that the FBI sought a "wellness check" at the home of Mayor Eric Adams' chief fundraiser hours before a federal raid there.
"Public corruption investigations are some of the most sensitive in the FBI and the agents who work those investigations don't discuss their cases with others who don't have a need to know," Jeff Cortese, a former FBI supervisory special agent who once served as acting chief of the bureau's public corruption unit, told The Messenger.
The NYPD insisted Friday, in a nothing-to-see-here response that publicly confirmed The Messenger's reporting, that it regularly conducts wellness checks at locations targeted for raids like the early morning search and removal of boxes of potential evidence at the Crown Heights home of Adams' 25-year-old campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs.
Adams is a former NYPD captain.
The raid was conducted as part of Manhattan federal prosecutors' probe of whether Turkish money was funneled into Adams' successful 2021 run for City Hall.
"They don't even discuss with others in the FBI who don't have a need to know," emphasized Cortese, who now works in the private sector and as a law enforcement analyst.
"The FBI diligently works to protect their public corruption investigations for a number of reasons, one of which is their awareness that there are individuals who might take steps to undermine the credibility or success of the investigation," he added.
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Indeed, multiple former FBI agents tell The Messenger that the bureau would rarely, if ever, order such a check before conducting a federal search warrant.
Cortese, for one, said the circumstances sounded particularly strange because of the sensitive nature of corruption investigations.
"So, while I've never heard of any law enforcement agency ever performing a wellness check prior to a search warrant, more significantly is that the FBI would never ask for one prior to a public corruption search," he said.
The night before the Suggs raid, an Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) official requested that the 77th Precinct send two officers to her home to get the names of everyone living at the house, a law-enforcement official with knowledge of the matter told The Messenger.
In a statement Friday night, the NYPD said federal law enforcement "regularly ask the NYPD to perform wellness checks before warrants are executed" to ensure accuracy and safety of those involved.
The statement added "federal law enforcement representatives" reached out to IAB Wednesday evening and requested the wellness check at Suggs' Crown Heights brownstone that night.
Like Cortese, other former FBI agents who spoke to The Messenger said they'd never heard of such a practice.
Mayor Eric Adams speaks about the raid at Gracie Mansion in Manhattan on Thursday, after canceling meetings with the White House to race back and deal with the potential scandal.NYC Mayor's Office/YouTube
Mike Zummer, a former FBI special agent who worked public corruption investigations at the bureau's New Orleans field office, also told The Messenger he has never heard of local police doing a wellness check prior to the execution of a federal search warrant.
"It's strange," said Zummer, who now runs a federal law enforcement accountability non-profit and graduated from Stanford Law School.
The Office of the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan is reportedly investigating an alleged kickback scheme involving campaign contributions made by officials and employees of a Brooklyn construction company with ties to Turkey.
Employees of the company, KSK Construction Group, donated $14,000 to Adams' 2021 campaign, the New York Times reported.
"I've never heard of FBI agents asking local officials to do a wellness check before a search warrant, and it would be even more unusual to involve local police when the FBI is investigating campaign contributions to a mayor," Zummer said.
But, he added, if the FBI had a good relationship with an internal affairs officer, and needed to check a residence, it's a possibility they could make the request of local law enforcement.
Home surveillance video shows a police cruiser traveling on the block where Brianna Suggs, chief fundraiser for Mayor Eric Adams, lives in Brooklyn on Nov. 1, 2023, hours before her home was raided by the FBI.Obtained by The Messenger
Anthony Coley, the former chief spokesman for the Department of Justice, also said, in a post on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, that he had never come across the circumstances during his employment there.
"Never heard of this in my two years running public affairs at DOJ," Coley wrote in the post.
"There's more to this…" he added.
The NYPD did not immediately respond when asked by The Messenger how many times in the past year they've conducted wellness checks prior to the execution of a federal search warrant.
The FBI did not respond to request for comment.
In a statement Friday, a City Hall spokesperson said neither the mayor nor any senior officials were aware of the wellness check.
Adams has not been accused of wrongdoing and has said he's not been contacted by any law enforcement agency regarding the investigation.
He also said he would "fully participate" in any investigation "and make sure that it's done correctly."
No Trump, trolling, fascism crap, shooting the messenger
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Why the hell a wellness check hours prior to an FBI raid? Someone spilled the beans. That is why Adams left DC so fast........
Are we supposed to believe the investigators didn't know who was residing in the house? Hard to see this any other way than they were giving a heads up.
Exactly