NYC Mayor Eric Adams to return campaign donations from indicted ex-official

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is planning to return campaign cash he took from an indicted former official who previously worked for the Democrat.

The Adams campaign is in the “process of identifying any contributors connected to the indictment” of ex-Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich, who was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in a sweeping corruption case, as well as six co-defendants and their family members, Eric Thies, an Adams campaign spokesman, told the Washington Examiner. The cohort steered around $31,000 combined to the mayor’s campaign, the Daily News reported.

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“Those found to be connected will have their contributions returned,” Thies said in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday.

The campaign finance-related revelation comes after Bragg unsealed five indictments on Sept. 13 accusing Ulrich, a 38-year-old Republican whom Adams appointed as commissioner in May after serving as the mayor’s senior adviser, of using his positions of power to provide favors while pocketing $150,000 in bribes.

In August 2021, Ulrich reportedly co-hosted a fundraiser for Adams in the New York borough of Queens with three co-defendants, Michael Mazzio and brothers Joseph and Anthony Livreri, following a $175 donation Ulrich handed to Adams in January of that year.

(Seth Wenig/AP)

“Eric Ulrich, we allege, monetized each elected and appointed role that he held in New York City government,” Bragg said this month. “Each and every one. Rather than serve the public, he used his roles to benefit himself and his friends.”

Adams and his administration are not accused in the indictments of wrongdoing, though prosecutors say that the mayor and his head adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, met with Ulrich and others on various occasions prior to and after the inauguration of Adams in January 2022. Ulrich is being accused of helping to land Joseph Livreri a city council job in exchange for gifts.

Nevertheless, Ulrich maintains his innocence, and he pleaded not guilty to all 16 bribery counts in Manhattan Criminal Court two weeks ago. An attorney for the ex-official said that he “unequivocally denies these charges and looks forward to his day in court where the only evidence that will be considered will be tested by the process of trials,” Fox 5 reported.

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Last November, Ulrich resigned from his commissioner role, and his phone was seized by Bragg.

Ulrich did not return a request for comment.