Feds can't get into New York City mayor Eric Adams' phone

New York City mayor Eric Adams is facing a wall of charges accusing him of corruption, bribery and other related crimes. But the case has a problem: he has not provided his phone's password, which he claims to have forgotten, and the feds are yet to crack it after a year of trying. The New York Post reports that it's a "significant wild card," quoting prosecutor Hagen Scotten.

The mayor's supposed memory lapse came just a day after federal agents took two more of his phones when they dramatically stopped him on the street in November 2023, court papers state. Adams didn't have his personal cellphone with him, so he handed it over to the feds the next day –claiming he'd changed the password after learning about the investigation to prevent his staff from accidentally or intentionally deleting the device's content. "According to Adams, he wished to preserve the contents of his phone due to the investigation," the indictment states.

In other words, they gave him a day to change his password from eric1960 to something similar to but not fNnhSsyR;"8{TB4Mw-Hqp%!Kert^&6.)>}$YC2me_z:GE]~?LaF w5zdfhd)'][f.U8Q}^<W@yxgBJAEr%?#=cVK~FL*-PaDC&uS;s(: VJHcq+=;_r@T^2LtR3fC{gerhSe~DZg4,YMAWj]/vdPCf3Vu[Az9 and they are out of luck.

Scotten: "Decryption always catches up with encryption.=."

Sure it does. But whether it catches up to it in time is another matter. Encryption works! Use it! Adams is constitutionally entitled to use it and if they can't convict him without the evidence that they let him encrypt, too bad.

It's funny that New Yorkers voted in a right-wing Democratic Party cop and he so quickly set about looting the city that he ended up the first sitting mayor in its history to be charged with corruption while still in office.