It's a question I'm sure no one is asking anyone. No talking heads will discuss the NYT sending their reporter-at-large, Sarah Lyall on a sumptuous trip to Turkey with a photographer to bring back the visuals on what the alleged Mayor Adam Adams upgrades actually look like to those of us who sit next to people who take their shoes off and trim their toenails on flights while being offered packaged pretzels.
The accompanying photographs—and there are many—show the over-the-top luxury Adams would have enjoyed on his flight, and his stay in a suite that usually goes for $2,500 a night (not the most expensive in the place, mind you) but one in which it is alleged he paid $300 for. Maybe that was the Turkish version of co-pay.
The photos are stunning. Missing from Ms. Lyall's reporting is the thread count on the sheets, but to her credit she does provide a full picture of being bathed in luxury.
She also irresistibly tells us that the Turkish lounge at JFK has the not-to-believed Wi-Fi password of...wait for it...TKNYADAMS.
Being the inquisitive reporter, Ms. Lyall finds out from the staff that this is due to the company that runs the Wi-Fi is headed by someone named Adams. If you go back to that lounge today, my bet is the password has been changed.
Ms. Lyall recognizes the need for transparency, and of course fully discloses what the NYT paid for the trip. Her r/t air fare was $9,236.90, while the photographer Clark Hodgin's air fare was considerably cheaper since the travel secretary at the NYT didn't act fast enough and he had to fly economy with a r/t price of $2,289.90. The guess is that Mr. Hodgin got his own room, but the venue and price is not disclosed.
Surely that can't be the total tab. Transportation to and from the airport, meals, bar bill and gratuities would have to be added in. The NYT doesn't spend any money to send a reporter to cover Saratoga races, but will do its best to ladle the goods on Adams. They must feel betrayed for endorsing him for mayor, to now seeing fit to write a huge editorial suggesting he resign. Fame and approval is fleeting.
I have some experience with being called for jury duty for federal court, as well as testifying in a health care fraud case that I worked on with the Southern District's AUSA and the F.B.I., as did many, many others.
In federal court the judge questions the prospective jurors in that I guess is the voir dire process. When the Adams trial comes up,—and it will come up—I can imagine the judge asking the prospective jurors taken from the Southern District (Manhattan/New York, Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan Counties) if they've read any pre-trial stories about the case.
There's no chance that living in Nassau County (the Eastern District) and being 75 that I would qualify to be a prospective juror. But if I were asked the question, and wanted out big time, I would make sure I believed Eric Adams beneffited from upgrades that looked like what the NYT paid for its reporter-at-large and photographer. How dare Adams do all that while I'm next to a toenail clipper and eating packaged pretzels. (No peanuts. Everybody on the flight is allergic to peanuts but me.)
My experience in seeing a federal case being assembled against the doctor who was found guilty and did 7+ years in prison, but who has since passed away, is that the Feds assemble a preponderance amount of evidence. If you're not found guilty in federal court, you are amongst the few.
The beauty of the Sarah Lyall story is that it is online with all the color photos. There is even a 12 -second video of the hidden champagne cooler tucked into the couch that opens with the press of a button to offer two flutes, and a bottle of chilled, to just the right temperature, of champagne.
Only an overpaid talking head or journalist will try and tell you the outcome to all this. Wherever it's headed, Eric Adams must have had a good time.
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