Mayor addresses alleged campaign finance fraud scheme

When six people were indicted in an alleged scheme to illegally funnel public funds to his campaign, Mayor Adams’ team responded in a statement.

When the New York Times reported that the wallet-sized photo of his fallen colleague that he frequently showed off is doctored, the response again was written.

On Monday, the mayor himself finally spoke.

“I sleep well. I’m consistent. Everyone must follow the rules,” he told reporters of his expectation that campaign finance laws be adhered to.

The mayor was not implicated in the case involving supporters who allegedly sought public matching funds for his 2021 mayoral bid using so-called straw donors in an effort to buy influence.

But he did know one of the indicted from their NYPD days: Dwayne Montgomery.

“No, he has never been here to visit me at City Hall,” Adams said Monday.

“I think he was at the Black History Month reception, I believe,” he added of Grace Mansion.

When NY1 asked about Vital Brooklyn, the construction project that other defendants allegedly sought to put before him for consideration, Adams said, “It’s possible during my time that someone mentioned it. But I don’t have any deep dive in them at all.”

The mayor, speaking after announcing a federal lawsuit against four vaping manufacturers, was visibly less patient was asked about the New York Times’ story on a photo that he carries of late Officer Robert Venable.

Adams said people who’ve come up to him have not said the story shook their faith in him.

“What they did say was that they were surprised the New York Times didn’t give an apology to his family and to his colleagues,” he said.

City Hall has said the Times called into question Adams’ friendship with Venable, but neither Adams nor his aides have directly refuted that the Venable photo he carries on him was manipulated to look weathered.

“It was brought up to all of us, that painful moment of losing Robert,” he said. “And I just believe the family is owed an apology.”

Adams was markedly less defiant on Monday than he was from the pulpit at the Christian Cultural Center on Sunday, when he said, “They want to paint this picture of ineptness and incompetence.”

But he still criticized the news media for not covering his accomplishments, asking, “What I find is: When do the goalposts stop moving?”