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A longtime ally, adviser and fundraiser for New York Mayor Eric Adams was suspended from his re-election effort after she was accused of trying at hand an area journalist a cash-stuffed potato chip bag.
Winnie Greco was outed by a native information group, The Metropolis, for making an attempt to provide money surreptitiously tucked inside a Herr’s Bitter Cream & Onion ripple potato chip bag to considered one of its Metropolis Corridor reporters after a marketing campaign occasion Wednesday afternoon in Harlem.
In response to the information outlet, the reporter, Katie Honan, initially refused the potato chips, which she believed to be a real snack provide, however Greco insisted. Upon discovering the wad of money, which reportedly included at the very least one $100 invoice and several other $20 payments, she instantly contacted the Adams confidant to return the undesirable reward.
“I can’t take this, when can I give it again to you,” Honan texted Greco, to no response, in accordance with The Metropolis.
Greco later known as the cash provide “a mistake” and apologized profusely when The Metropolis contacted her about why she tried to provide a reporter who covers Adams’ administration a money reward after an occasion meant to help his re-election. Greco, who’s Chinese language, stated the act was “a tradition factor,” a place her legal professional supported in an announcement to The Metropolis.
“I can see how this appears to be like unusual,” Greco’s legal professional, Steven Brill, advised The Metropolis. “However I guarantee you that Winnie’s intent was purely harmless. Within the Chinese language tradition, cash is usually given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude. Winnie is apologetic and embarrassed by any damaging impression or confusion this may increasingly have brought on.”
Todd Shapiro, a spokesperson for Adams’ mayoral marketing campaign, stated in an announcement that “Grecco [sic] holds no place on this marketing campaign and has been suspended from all VOLUNTEER campaign-related actions.”
“We’re shocked by these experiences,” Shapiro stated, including, “Mayor Adams had no prior information of this matter.”
Greco has been a detailed ally of Adams for greater than a decade, serving as a conduit between the mayor and the town’s Asian American communities and a high fundraiser for his campaigns and touchdown a job in his administration as director of Asian affairs. She resigned from that position final 12 months, months after the FBI raided two of her properties as a part of an investigation right into a straw donations scheme in Adams’ 2021 marketing campaign.
The probe into the straw donations was considered one of a number of authorized scandals surrounding Adams, whom federal prosecutors charged final 12 months with abusing his place “as this Metropolis’s highest elected official, and earlier than that as Brooklyn Borough President, to take bribes and solicit unlawful marketing campaign contributions.” The Trump Justice Division later dismissed the fees.
Shapiro stated Adams “has at all times demanded the best moral and authorized requirements.”
Richard Kim, the editor in chief of The Metropolis, known as Greco’s money reward “deeply disturbing.”
“The truth that considered one of mayor Adams’ closest, longtime advisors would try and ingratiate herself to any reporter, a lot much less Katie Honan, with a money reward is deeply disturbing and speaks to a rampant and blatant disregard for the position of a free and truthful press,” Kim stated. “The selection of bitter cream and onion chips can be questionable.”
Amanda Terkel, Melissa Russo, NBC New York and Andrew Siff, NBC New York contributed.
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