If Eric Adams were a normal incumbent New York City Mayor, he’d have a decent chance of winning re-election against slick TikTok-mastering bourgeois communist Zohran Mamdani and the decaying boomer persona of Andrew Cuomo. But Adams and his cronies can’t manage that. His New York is so corrupt it makes Coleman Young’s Detroit look like deacons passing a church collection plate. Even in the height of election season, Adams Inc. can’t help itself.
Cockburn is delighted to announce the special election winner replacing Trayon White (who was unanimously expelled from office in February) in his Ward 8 DC City Council seat: Trayon White. The Department of Justice charged White for bribery in August 2024, alleging that the councilman “corruptly agreed to accept $156,000 in cash payments in exchange for using his position” to “pressure government employees” in several offices to influence $5.2 million in violence intervention contracts. These impending charges were not enough to deter White from seeking reelection last November, which he walked away from overwhelmingly victorious with 84 percent of the vote.
Former senator Bob Menendez was sentenced yesterday to eleven years in prison on charges of bribery, acting as a foreign agent and more. The sentence followed a nine-week jury trial, where it was shown beyond a reasonable doubt that Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, accepted bribes of cash, furniture, gold bars and a car to influence his role as a member of the federal legislature and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on behalf of Egypt and other parties between 2018 and 2022. Menendez was prosecuted and sentenced alongside Wael Hana and Fred Daibes, who were sentenced to over eight years and seven years, respectively, for bribery and conspiracy.
Leaving the Democratic Party is becoming something of a trend in the Senate. Just days after Joe Manchin filed as an Independent, New Jersey senator Bob Menendez followed his lead last week. Cockburn, as well as Democratic sources, suspects the latter’s decision has less to do with ideological disillusionment and more to do with a shakedown worthy of Tony Soprano. Menendez, along with his wife Nadine Arslanian and three New Jersey businessmen, was indicted last September on bribery charges. The years-long scheme allegedly benefited the Egyptian government in addition to lining the senator’s pockets. Cockburn uses the idiom literally here — almost half a million dollars was found stuffed in jackets at Menendez’s home.
Over the last couple of weeks, the FBI has been ramping up a corruption investigation of New York mayor Eric Adams. The mayor is a political newcomer who was formerly a senior police official in New York, elected, in part, to restore public safety. He has failed to do so. Now, he’s the center of a federal corruption investigation, centered on illegal foreign contributions. No one has been indicted yet. The first shoe to drop publicly was a raid on the Brooklyn home of Adams’s top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs. She was only twenty-three when she headed that major effort. The FBI conducted a surprise search of her home and seized documents and electronic devices. Although the search warrant has not been released, the New York Times reports that they obtained it.
Corruption and influence peddling seem to be running rampant in Washington these days, but that’s nothing new. We have a rich history of political scandal that goes back to our founding. America loves the spectacle of bringing a politician down: it’s part of our heritage. The tyrant King George started it all when he demanded higher taxes on tea and quartering soldiers in colonialists’ homes. Our rebel forebears weren’t having it and thankfully we have the Third Amendment to ensure it can never happen again. Aaron Burr, of course, is one of America’s favorite politicians to have been run out of public life.
“Because that’s where the money is.” That was the answer that Willie Sutton, an expert in his chosen field, gave when asked why he robbed banks. Maybe the Bidens, Joe and Hunter, should consider employing a kindred candor about their business activities in Romania, Ukraine and elsewhere back when Joe was Obama’s VP. So far, they have been disappointing on that score. Here’s the state of play: an FBI whistleblower revealed the existence of a complicated bribery scheme that allegedly funneled millions of dollars into the Bidens’ coffers via a network of at least twenty shell companies set up to launder the dough.
