A close adviser to Mayor Eric Adams was suspended from his re-election campaign on Wednesday after giving a journalist cash tucked inside a potato chip bag.
The adviser, Winnie Greco, who was the mayor’s former director of Asian affairs at City Hall and one of his best fund-raisers, had returned to the campaign trail as a volunteer during Mr. Adams’s run for a second term. She had been at the center of controversy after the F.B.I. raided her homes last year as part of a federal investigation into possible Chinese government interference in the 2021 mayor’s race.
On Wednesday, Ms. Greco attended an event with Mr. Adams in Harlem and gave more than $100 in a red envelope stashed inside the snack bag to a reporter for The City, according to an article in the online news outlet. The City promptly reported the incident to the city’s Department of Investigation, and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn contacted the newspaper’s lawyers, according to the newspaper’s account.
“We are shocked by these reports,” Mr. Adams’s campaign spokesman, Todd Shapiro, said. “Winnie Greco holds no position in this campaign and has been suspended from all volunteer campaign related activities.”
He said Mr. Adams has “always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards.”
Ms. Greco’s lawyer, Steven Brill, said that it is common in Chinese culture to give cash to reporters “in a gesture of friendship and gratitude.”
“I grant you this looks odd,” Mr. Brill said. “But I assure you that Winnie’s intent was purely innocent.”
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The post Adams Adviser Suspended From Campaign After Giving Cash to Reporter appeared first on New York Times.
