Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, who's running as a Democratic mayoral candidate, appears in front of Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in New York City. | Spencer Platt/Getty Images
NEW YORK — Eric Adams released E-ZPass records for several government vehicles Thursday as part of an evolving inquiry into how much time the mayoral candidate and Brooklyn borough president spends at the Garden State co-op he owns with his partner.
The readout of toll payments indicates Adams took city cars over the George Washington Bridge or through the Lincoln Tunnel on six separate weekends in July, August, September and October of the previous year, as well as once in February this year. The campaign released the records in reaction to attacks from rival campaigns in the wake of a a news outlet story concerning the unusual hours Adams keeps at Borough Hall and conflicting official documentation about where he lives.
An analysis also showed Adams' activity prior to the EZ-Pass disclosure appeared inconsistent with some of his public comments relating to time spent across the Hudson during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The vast majority of Eric’s travel is in his government vehicle because as borough president he is expected to be on call for Brooklyn 24 hours a day — and the E-ZPass records clearly show that he visited his partner every once in a while on weekends,” campaign adviser Evan Thies said in a statement. “There were a few other trips when he also took a bus across the bridge in the the previous year.”
Indeed, a news outlet separately found Wednesday that Adams dialed into campaign and borough president functions from the Garden State on five other occasions — including two weekday trips — that were not reflected in the year’s worth of toll records that began in mid-May 2020. Thies said that Adams traveled by bus on those occasions.
In addition, Adams beamed into two other events at the height of Covid in April and early May, according to a a news outlet analysis confirmed by the campaign. Those appearances have contradicted some of Adams’ accounting of his whereabouts during that time period.
“When it was during Covid I didn’t get there at all,” he said Thursday morning during a television interview, referring to the New Jersey co-op. He added that, even now, he is rarely able to make the trip to see his significant other because of his campaign and work schedule.
At a Wednesday press conference outside the Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone he owns, Adams said that he did travel to see his partner during the pandemic, but only rarely.
“I spend the bulk of my time in Brooklyn, even if it wasn’t campaign season,” he said. “But during the time of Covid I was rarely, if ever, there.”
In a January New York Times report, Adams said he never spent a night outside of the city, only traveling to the Garden State for between eight to 12 hours. At the time, he was sleeping at Borough Hall, an arrangement he said was necessary to maximize the time he could work.
After a news outlet reported that Adams appeared to be still spending nights in Borough Hall during campaign season, Adams invited newsmen to the Bedford-Stuyvesant brownstone for coffee and vegan pastries and a tour of his basement apartment to clarify his living arrangement — though some inconsistencies remained on official government paperwork and tax forms.