纽约讯——埃里克·亚当斯（Eric Adams）很担忧。他刚当选纽约市市长，正和首席顾问英格丽德·刘易斯-马丁（Ingrid Lewis-Martin）在多米尼加共和国待上几天，现在他们需要有人立即去他的竞选办公室，把那里清空。
YORK — Eric Adams was worried. He had just been elected mayor of New York City and was in the Dominican Republic for a few days with his chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, and now they needed someone to immediately go to his campaign offices and empty the place out.
“英格丽德刚给我打电话，我们得马上处理点事，”竞选代言人埃里克·乌尔里希（Eric Ulrich）——后来被任命为亚当斯的建筑局局长——在2021年11月8日的一个电话里告诉助手约瑟夫·利夫雷里（Joseph Livreri）。“他们想今晚就让一家运输公司去竞选办公室扔掉很多他们需要扔掉的东西，因为今晚去那儿没人。……所以我觉得也许你能帮上忙。我知道你有个朋友，对吧？”
“Ingrid just called me, and we have to take care of something like ASAP,” Eric Ulrich, a campaign surrogate who was later appointed Adams’ buildings commissioner, told an associate, Joseph Livreri, in a Nov. 8, 2021 call. “They want tonight for a carting company to go to the campaign offices to throw out a lot of stuff that they need to throw out because if they do it tonight, nobody’s there. … So I think maybe you can help with this. I know you got a friend, right?”
检方周二在曼哈顿刑事法庭播放了这通神秘的电话，试图以腐败罪名定乌尔里希的罪，指控他收受利夫雷里及其他共同被告15万美元贿赂，作为交换，利用其作为亚当斯政府高级官员的职权为他们谋取利益。乌尔里希对所有指控均表示不认罪。
The mysterious call was played in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday by prosecutors who are trying to convict Ulrich on corruption charges alleging he took $150,000 in bribes from Livreri and other co-defendants in exchange for using his government powers as a top Adams administration official to do favors for them. Ulrich has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
这通电话——属于检方预计将在乌尔里希审判中播放的数小时窃听电话录音的一部分——并未说明亚当斯团队需要处理掉什么，也不清楚为何需要如此快地清理。但检方周二在法庭上表示，将要帮忙处理东西的那个“朋友”是皇家废物处理公司（Royal Waste），这是一家位于皇后区的公司，检方称乌尔里希试图为其谋取政府优惠，作为其涉嫌与利夫雷里进行腐败交易的一部分。（皇家废物处理公司未被指控有任何不当行为）。
The call — part of hours of wiretapped phone conversations prosecutors expect to play at Ulrich’s trial — didn’t make clear what Adams’ team needed to dispose of or why they needed to get rid of it so quickly. But prosecutors did say in court Tuesday that the “friend” who was going to help with getting rid of it was Royal Waste, a Queens company that prosecutors claim Ulrich tried to secure government favors for as part of his allegedly corrupt dealings with Livreri. (Royal Waste hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing). Ulrich stressed in the call with Livreri that time was of the essence, even though Adams was returning to New York the very next day.
乌尔里希在与利夫雷里的通话中强调时间紧迫，尽管亚当斯第二天就要返回纽约。
“We gotta get there whatever time, x, y and z, and get rid of this stuff before [Adams] even gets back,” Ulrich said.
“我们得不管几点，怎么着都得去那儿，在[亚当斯]回来之前把这些东西处理掉，”乌尔里希说。“会有人在那儿吗？”利夫雷里问。
“Will people be there?”Livreri asked.
“我在用Signal跟她通话，”乌尔里希回答，指的是刘易斯-马丁。“她不想打电话也不想发短信。……她发给我的东西我会转发给你。”当天审判休庭后，乌尔里希在法庭外告诉《政治报》（POLITICO），亚当斯和刘易斯-马丁需要他和利夫雷里清理竞选办公室，因为租约到期了。“没有任何邪恶意图，”他说。
“I’m talking with her on Signal,” Ulrich replied, referring to Lewis-Martin. “She doesn’t want to talk on the phone or text. … I’ll forward you whatever she sends me.”After the trial was adjourned for the day, Ulrich told POLITICO outside the courtroom that Adams and Lewis-Martin needed him and Livreri to clean the campaign office because the lease was up. “There was nothing nefarious,” he said.
但乌尔里希——他在2023年首次被起诉——并未说明，为什么对亚当斯和刘易斯-马丁来说，清理办公室时显然如此重要，以至于不能让其他任何人在场。
But Ulrich, who was first indicted in 2023, didn’t say why it was apparently so important to Adams and Lewis-Martin that no one else was at the campaign office when it got cleaned out.
亚当斯的一位发言人周二拒绝置评，曼哈顿地区检察官阿尔文·布拉格（Alvin Bragg）的一位发言人也拒绝置评，布拉格的办公室正在起诉乌尔里希。皇家废物管理公司（Royal Waste）的代表周二晚间无法联系上。
A spokesperson for Adams declined to comment Tuesday, as did a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office is prosecuting Ulrich. Representatives for Royal Waste could not be reached late Tuesday.
虽然2021年11月的这次通话留下了许多未解之谜，但它是检方周二在法庭上播放的几段录音之一，在这些录音中，乌尔里希描述了亚当斯在当选后的几天里感到担忧。这位即将就职的市长特别焦虑，担心在准备就职时面临公众审视。
While the November 2021 call leaves many questions unanswered, it was one of several conversations played by prosecutors in court Tuesday in which Ulrich described Adams as being worried in the days after his election. The mayor was especially anxious about facing public scrutiny as he prepared to take office.
“你刚当选市长，所有人都盯着你，”乌尔里希在与利夫雷里的通话中说，描述了几天前他如何试图安抚正为处于聚光灯下而烦恼的当选市长。
“You just got elected mayor, everybody’s up your ass,” Ulrich said in a call with Livreri, describing how he had tried to assuage Adams a few days earlier as the incoming mayor was fretting about being in the spotlight.
“[亚当斯]说：‘我知道，我知道。’我说：‘但是你知道，现在的审视程度甚至更高，我们必须对圈子更加小心，’”乌尔里希继续说道。“市长说：‘别担心，我也担心这事。我正在处理。’”这些被截获的对话揭示了亚当斯及其团队在准备成为该市第111任市长时所怀有的恐惧。而这些恐惧并非毫无根据。
“[Adams] goes, ‘I know, I know.’ I said, ‘But you know, like, the scrutiny now is even higher, we have to be more careful with the circles,’” Ulrich continued. “And mayor said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m concerned about it too. I’m on it.’”The intercepted conversations shed light on the fears Adams and his team harbored as he was preparing to become the city’s 111th mayor. And the fears weren’t unfounded.
2024年9月，联邦检察官起诉亚当斯，指控他收受贿赂和非法竞选捐款，包括来自土耳其政府代理人的捐款，作为交换给予政府优惠待遇，这使他成为现代史上首位面临起诉的在任纽约市市长。
In September 2024, federal prosecutors indicted Adams on charges alleging he took bribes and illegal campaign donations, including from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for doling out government favors, making him the first sitting New York City mayor in modern history to face prosecution.
唐纳德·特朗普总统的司法部去年作为一项有争议的交易的一部分撤销了对亚当斯的起诉。但亚当斯核心圈子中的其他几人却没有这么幸运。
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice quashed Adams’ indictment last year as part of a controversial deal. But there are several others from Adams’ inner circle who have not been so fortunate.
除了针对乌尔里希的案件外，布拉格的办公室还在起诉刘易斯-马丁，指控她利用担任亚当斯市府首席顾问的职务，为私营企业谋取利益以换取贿赂。而亚当斯的首任幕僚长、长期政治亲信弗兰克·卡罗内，正在布鲁克林应对另一起单独的联邦腐败案件。
In addition to the case against Ulrich, Bragg’s office is prosecuting Lewis-Martin over allegations that she used her role as Adams’ chief adviser in City Hall to do favors for private businesses in exchange for bribes. And Frank Carone, Adams’ first chief of staff and longtime political confidant, is battling a separate federal corruption case in Brooklyn.
与乌尔里希一样，刘易斯-马丁和卡罗内均认罪不成立。利夫雷里及其兄弟安东尼·利夫雷里也卷入了乌尔里希调查，二人于上个月均认罪，承认行贿乌尔里希。这两兄弟也是亚当斯2021年竞选活动的主要筹款人。亚当斯的名字在周二的庭审中多次被提及。
Like Ulrich, Lewis-Martin and Carone have pleaded not guilty. Livreri and his brother Anthony Livreri, who was also ensnared in the Ulrich investigation, both pleaded guilty last month to bribing Ulrich. The brothers were also major fundraisers for Adams’ 2021 campaign. Adams’ name came up in several other contexts in Tuesday’s trial proceeding.
布拉格办公室的助理检察官盖伊·塔达尼科展示了乌尔里希与亚当斯在2021年底交换的短信，当时乌尔里希正试图帮助促成一份利夫雷里感兴趣的城市环卫合同。
Guy Tardanico, an assistant district attorney in Bragg’s office, showed text messages Ulrich exchanged with Adams in late 2021 as Ulrich was trying to help broker a city sanitation contract that Livreri was interested in.
“我猜市府没采纳你的建议。这将是一场灾难，”乌尔里希于2021年11月16日发短信给亚当斯，批评时任市长比尔·德布拉西奥的政府已经发布了该合同的提案请求。
“I guess City Hall didn’t take your advice. This is going to be a disaster,” Ulrich texted Adams on Nov. 16, 2021, panning then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration for already releasing the request for proposals on the contract.
亚当斯回复道：“再去敲打他一次。”根据法庭出示的记录，不清楚亚当斯指的是谁。
Adams wrote back: “Going to hit him again.”It’s not clear from the records presented in court who Adams was referring to.
乌尔里希将与亚当斯的那些对话截图发送给了利夫雷里，并在当天给利夫雷里发了一条信息：“亚当斯不高兴。”
Ulrich, who sent screengrabs of those exchanges with Adams to Livreri, wrote in a message to Livreri that same day: “Adams not happy.”
他在另一条发给利夫雷里的信息中写道：“这对环卫局不会有好结果”，指的是环卫局。“问问你的朋友，他认为谁应该成为下一任环卫局局长，哈哈。”
“This isn’t going to end well for DSNY,” he wrote in another message to Livreri, referring to the Department of Sanitation. “Ask your friend who he thinks should be the next sanitation commissioner lol.”
当天晚些时候，乌尔里希又给利夫雷里发信息：“埃里克刚给我打电话……说别担心，我们会在一月份解决这个问题。”根据布拉格办公室的说法，乌尔里希的审判于周一开始，预计将持续一个月。
Later that day, Ulrich wrote again to Livreri: “Eric just called me … says not to worry, we will fix this in January.”Ulrich’s trial, which started Monday, is expected to last a month, according to Bragg’s office.