A former aide to New York Mayor Eric Adams is charged with destroying evidence as top deputy quits

NEW YORK (AP) — 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 departures 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 cell phone 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, 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.

Bahi is the first person other than Adams to be charged in the investigation.

In recent weeks, more than half-dozen of the mayor’s top aides have departed amid a rash of searches and subpoenas, as Gov. Kathy Hochul continues to pressure Adams to shake up his administration and bring stability to city government.

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 the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel changes.

That exit came one day after Adams confirmed the resignation of Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety, and Winnie Greco, his director of Asian affairs whose own fundraiser efforts for the mayor have come under scrutiny. Last week, he announced the school’s chancellor David Banks – Wright’s husband, Philip Banks’ brother – would step down later this month.

The city’s police commissioner, Edward Caban, and a senior mayoral advisor, Timothy Pearson, have also resigned. All of the officials have had their devices seized by federal investigators. Each has denied wrongdoing.

A voicemail left with a representative for Wright was not immediately returned.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Bahi’s charges "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.

Hochul, a Democrat who has the power to remove Adams from office, said last week that she was working with the mayor to make sure key positions “are filled with people who are going to be responsible."

"We expect changes, that’s not a secret, and changes are beginning,” Hochul said.

Bahi's criminal 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.

Four employees and the owner made donations to the campaign, with the workers’ payments reimbursed by the company, according to the complaint. All have subsequently spoken to law enforcement, and the owner admitted his involvement in the illegal straw donations, according to prosecutors.

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. Attorney 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.

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Associated Press journalist Ruth Brown contributed to this report.

New York City mayor Eric Adams, right, appears with his attorney, Alex Spiro, outside Manhattan federal court after an appearance, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, right, appears in Manhattan federal court with his attorney, Alex Spiro, left, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

FILE - New York Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright attends a press conference at City Hall, in New York, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)

New York City Mayor Eric Adams looks on while surrounded by faith leaders and other supporters during a rally and prayer vigil on the steps of City Hall in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - Mayor Eric Adams, right, is flanked by deputy mayor Sheena Wright, left, during a press conference at City Hall in New York, Dec. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter K. Afriyie, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday he is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to remain at the White House to monitor Hurricane Milton, which is bearing down on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“I just don’t think I can be out of the country at this time,” he said at the White House. Biden warned that Milton “could be one of the worst storms in 100 years,” and he's working “to increase the size and presence” of the federal government's response.

The president said people in the storm's path should listen to local officials and evacuate.

“Kamala and I are keeping all of you in our prayers,” Biden said, referring to Vice President Kamala Harris.

It was not clear when Biden's overseas trip might be rescheduled. He had promised to go to Africa during his term in office, which ends in January. He was also planning to host a summit on the war in Ukraine with dozens of allied nations at a U.S. military base in Germany.

The German government issued a statement saying “we very much regret the cancellation, but of course we understand due to the situation in Florida.”

Biden said he's working to figure out new times to go to Africa and Germany in the limited that that he has left in his presidency.

“I’m still planning on visiting all the places I said I’d be,” he said.

Hurricane Milton weakened slightly Tuesday but remained a ferocious storm that could land a once-in-a-century direct hit on the populous Tampa Bay region with towering storm surges and turn debris from Helene’s recent devastation into projectiles.

Most of Florida’s west coast was under a hurricane or tropical storm warning as the storm and its 145 mph (230 kph) winds spun just off Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, creeping toward the state. With the storm expected to remain fairly strong as it crosses Florida, parts of the eastern coast were put under hurricane warnings early Tuesday. Milton’s center could come ashore Wednesday night in the Tampa Bay area, which has a population of more than 3.3 million people.

This year's hurricane season has caused havoc for political calendars in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign. Less than two weeks ago, Harris, the Democratic nominee, cut short a West Coast trip to return to Washington after Helene made landfall. She later visited Georgia and North Carolina, where some of the worst damage took place.

Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, has also traveled through the Southeast, including two trips to Georgia.

President Joe Biden speaks during a surprise appearance to take questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who was promoted to senior adviser to the President, speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)