(Photo
by
TIMOTHY
A.
CLARY/AFP
via
Getty
Images)
New
York
Mayor
Eric
Adams
faces
a
five-count
indictment
that
boils
down
to
a
bribery
scheme
involving
illegal
foreign
donations.
As
this
Supreme
Court
has
made
pretty
clear
that
it
doesn’t
think
most
bribery
is
a
crime,
Adams
and
his
high-powered
lawyers
are
leaning
into
recasting
all
those
payments
as
innocent
gratuities
from
Turkey
for
good
government
service
rendered.
And
by
“good
government
service
rendered”
we
mean
“waiving
fire
codes.”
The
allegations
in
the
indictment
include
specific
references
to
a
dizzying
array
of
incriminating
messages
grabbed
from
phones
seized
from
the
mayor
and
his
team.
Making
the
whole
affair
a
valuable
reminder
that
some
—
if
not
most
—
people
are
very,
very
stupid
about
their
phones.
Or
what
they
think
they’ve
deleted
or
otherwise
kept
hidden
on
their
phones.
That’s
a
big
deal
for
everyone
who
isn’t
stupid.
Because
phones
are
increasingly
taking
over
as
our
discoverable
evidence
repositories.
And
forensics
expert
David
Greetham
of
Level
Legal
sees
this
transition
from
paper
to
computer
to
phone
as
the
primary
vector
of
evidence
as
accelerating.
“Last
year,
it
was
52%
of
mobile
devices
—
the
first
time
it
had
been
more
than
half
—
and
so
far
this
year
we’re
at
64%,”
he
said.
Whether
it’s
a
criminal
conspiracy
leaving
a
glaring
digital
paper
trail
or
civil
litigants
creating
themselves
a
nightmare
discovery
problem,
let’s
consider
a
few
of
the
ridiculous
data
collection
issues
involved
in
this
case.
Do
Not
Passcode,
Do
Collect
Several
Million
Dollars
When
Adams
handed
over
his
personal
cellphone
to
the
FBI,
he
told
them
it
was
locked
because
he’d
forgotten
the
passcode
because
he’d
recently
changed
it
to
protect
the
evidence
from
his
staff
potentially
deleting
it.
ADAMS
claimed
that
after
he
learned
about
the
investigation
into
his
conduct,
he
changed
the
password
on
November
5,
2024,
and
increased
the
complexity
of
his
password
from
four
digits
to
six.
ADAMS
had
done
this,
he
claimed,
to
prevent
members
of
his
staff
from
inadvertently
or
intentionally
deleting
the
contents
of
his
phone
because,
according
to
ADAMS,
he
wished
to
preserve
the
contents
of
his
phone
due
to
the
investigation.
How
conscientious
of
him!
Note
that
he
also
doesn’t
have
his
phone
set
up
to
open
through
facial
recognition,
complicating
the
process
since
forcing
someone
to
open
their
phone
through
facial
recognition
avoids
a
lot
of
Fifth
Amendment
self-incrimination
issues
if
it’s
non-testimonial.
Surely
this
is
coincidence.
So
far,
the
government
hasn’t
cracked
the
code
yet.
Bathroom
Break
To
Do
A
Number
3
(Delete
Incriminating
Evidence)
Among
the
more
comical
episodes
included
in
the
indictment
involved
an
Adams
staffer
who
allegedly
showed
up
to
chat
with
the
government
and
then
tried
to
take
a
quick
break
to
shed
some
potential
evidence
The
Adams
Staffer
also
agreed
to
speak
with
FBI
agents
and
falsely
denied
the
criminal
conduct
of
herself
and
ADAMS,
among
others.
At
one
point
during
her
voluntary
interview,
the
Adams
Staffer
excused
herself
to
a
bathroom
and,
while
there,
deleted
the
encrypted
messaging
applications
she
had
used
to
communicate
with
ADAMS,
the
Promoter,
the
Turkish
Official,
the
Airline
Manager,
and
others.
Once
you’re
talking
to
the
FBI…
they
already
know
about
the
messaging
apps.
But
it’s
even
more
futile
than
that.
Greetham
explained
that
people
don’t
seem
to
understand
that
removing
the
app
from
the
phone
is
pretty
much
useless.
I
think
what
people
forget
is
that,
if
you
destroy
your
phone,
or
you
forget
your
passcode,
or
you
upgrade
your
phone,
the
messaging
apps
survive
that.
Messaging
apps
like
Signal,
Telegram,
Snapchat,
ephemeral
messaging
—
you
can
log
on
on
a
different
phone.
It’s
not
built
into
the
OS
in
the
same
way
SMS
or
iMessage
for
iPhone
is.
And
even
iMessage
messages
can
be
recoverable
through
iCloud
if
the
user
employs
that
system.
Even
without
getting
into
the
user’s
account
through
another
device,
an
FBI
document
uncovered
by
a
FOIA
request
a
few
years
ago
suggested
that
the
government
may
have
limited
access
to
information
on
these
encrypted
services
already.
But
the
moral
of
the
story
is
that
removing
the
app
as
a
cute
icon
on
the
phone
is
not
doing
much
to
clear
that
evidence.
It
will
go
a
long
way
toward
making
you
look
like
you’re
engaged
in
spoliation
generally
though!
Gone
But
Not
Forgotten
In
addition,
in
March
2019,
while
exchanging
text
messages
to
plan
another
possible
to
trip
to
Turkey
in
which
the
Airline
Manager
would
arrange
travel
for
ADAMS,
the
Adams
Staffer
texted
ADAMS,
“To
be
o[n
the]
safe
side
Please
Delete
all
messages
you
send
me.”
ADAMS
responded,
“Always
do.”
Pobody’s
nerfect!
Unfortunately,
this
is
one
of
those
moves
where
99
percent
still
isn’t
enough.
Because
the
existence
of
even
one
message
like
this
sets
up
the
prosecutor
or
adversary
counsel
to
seek
negative
inferences
and
it
sets
up
a
forensics
expert
to
do
a
little
more
digging.
Greetham
compared
it
to
a
situation
that
“happens
more
than
you
think,”
where
a
computer
may
appear
clean
but
“you
check
some
internet
history,
and
you’d
find
the
recent
search
terms
were,
‘how
do
I
delete
data
without
being
caught?’”
But
if
Adams
really
meant
“USUALLY
do.”
It
turns
out
there
are
still
ways
to
potentially
recover
deleted
messages.
But
there
is
a
cost.
Greetham
explains:
In
cases
where
you
need
deleted
messages,
you
take
more
of
full
forensic
image
like
the
old
way
of
doing
laptops
and
desktops.
The
downside
to
that
is
that
the
iOS
updates
that
come
out
very
frequently
have
added
security
every
time
[ed.
note:
we
were
using
the
example
of
an
iPhone,
but
the
issue
is
similar
for
other
phones].
And
with
the
current
iOS
version,
the
only
known
way
to
do
that
is
to
jailbreak
the
phone.
And
technically
jailbreaking
the
phone
is
changing
the
evidence.
That
said,
“changing
the
evidence”
in
this
manner
isn’t
the
end
of
the
world.
There
are
procedures
for
authenticating
the
results
involving
witnesses
supervising
the
project
that
can
affirm
that
nothing
in
the
process
compromised
the
ultimately
relevant
data.
But
it’s
an
additional
consideration
to
evaluate
before
rooting
around
in
a
phone
looking
for
deleted
messages
still
buried
in
the
database.
Of
course,
maybe
the
government
won’t
need
to
get
all
the
way
into
the
deleted
messages…
Some
people
are
very
stupid
about
their
phones.
It’s
possible
that
some
people
are
just
very
stupid
generally.
Earlier:
Eric
Adams
Argues
That
Turkish
Delights
Slipped
Into
His
Pasties
Were
Tips,
Not
Bribes
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
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