New York City Mayor Eric Adams accused of falsifying photo of police officer friend who died in the line of duty

new york Mayor Eric Adams He has been accused of manipulating photos of police officers who died in the line of duty to make them look much older than they really are.

Adams reportedly asked two office workers to print out a copy of a photograph of the murdered NYPD Robert Venable from Google, print it in black and white, and spill coffee over it to make it look dated. said to have ordered New York Times.

of violent reactionaccused by Mayor’s Press Secretary Fabian Levy of times He claimed that “a campaign to portray the mayor as a liar has failed,” but did not dispute the article’s central claim.

Adams publicly referenced the photo at a solemn press conference months after taking office. Mourning the deaths of NYPD officers Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera In January 2022.

“I have a picture of Robert in my wallet,” the former said. brooklyn So said the police chief, adding that he still thinks a lot about the murder of his friend in 1987.

later new york times A week after the press conference, Adams was asked to see a photo and posed for a portrait with a “wallet-sized” photograph.

The photo is wrinkled and appears to have browned around the edges over time.

The newspaper now claims Adams allegedly used city resources to make photocopies and ordered two city employees to give them an aged look.

and statementLevy claimed that the mayor kept for years a photo of his former NYPD colleague printed from a November 1987 NYPD traffic news bulletin.

“Times“Any attempt to attack the mayor here would be laughable if it wasn’t offensive at all,” Levy said.

“It’s disgusting new york times In a failed campaign to portray the mayor as a liar, the newspaper chose to let Mayor Robert Venable’s friends and family relive the tragic murder of their loved ones by revisiting every moment of Mayor Adams’ life. It was to cultivate the tenacity to perform an autopsy. ”

The mayor’s statement included comments from Venable’s daughter, Januari Venable, and sister, Dennis Benson, who acknowledged Adams’ close relationship with the murdered police officer.

It included statements from nine of Venable’s former partners, many of whom attacked him. times for that report.

“As someone who literally carried the coffin at Bobby’s funeral, I am appalled by this series of questions and baseless accusations.” new york times Eric Adams,” former detective Sam Calhoun said in the mayor’s press release.

The paper noted that Adams featured the photo in at least two TV interviews after the January 2022 deaths of NYPD officers Mora and Rivera in Harlem.

He also pulled out a photo of Venable during a speech at the NYPD’s annual Medal Day ceremony in 2022.

“This picture is of Robert Venable. He was one of my best friends when I was a traffic police officer. Robert was shot in the head and died while responding to the job,” Adams said. Said.

Since entering politics, Adams has made a series of statements that have been difficult to verify or have proven to be false.

The mayor, who promised to restore New York’s “arrogance”, claimed he was vegan but later admitted he ate seafood. A mini-scandal later called “Fishgate”.

During the 2021 mayoral campaign, he claimed to have transferred ownership of a Brooklyn property he co-owned. later cited its joint ownership in financial disclosures.

Before starting his campaign for mayor, Adams described himself as “just an office worker.”

But in the midst of his mayoral campaign, he spent his summer vacation on the Riviera on the Côte d’Azur, reports say. Politico. Adams often spends his evenings at the members-only Zero Bond Club in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood. Other celebrities reportedly spotted there include Kim Kardashian, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gigi Hadid, and others.