The cash Winnie Greco, a former top aide to Mayor Eric Adams, slipped into an opened bag of Herr’s sour cream and onion chips and handed to a reporter for THE CITY came to $300 — 10 twenties and a single one hundred dollar bill, according to investigators.
The apparent attempted bribe took place last week after an Adams campaign event in Harlem as Greco — at the time a campaign volunteer — spoke with senior reporter Katie Honan inside a Whole Foods market across the street from the campaign’s newly opened office.
Honan told Greco she didn’t want to accept the bag of chips, but Greco insisted. When Honan later opened the bag and saw cash tucked into a red envelope inside, she brought it to THE CITY’s editors, who — without counting or touching the money — reported the transaction to the city Department of Investigation (DOI).
DOI came to THE CITY’s office and took custody of the bag, and the cash inside it, as potential evidence. Prosecutors with Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella’s office are now working with DOI on the investigation.
Following THE CITY’s reporting on Greco’s actions, the Adams campaign announced she had been suspended from volunteering on the campaign. Last Friday Adams said he knew nothing about the encounter between Greco and Honan, adding, “We don’t give money to reporters.”
“We condemned that type of action,” he said. “If it was done for the wrong reason, I have no idea. And she’s no longer able to volunteer on the campaign because that’s an action — that is the perception of it, we don’t agree with it and I don’t tolerate it.”
In contrast, the mayor has declined to say whether the campaign has also suspended his former chief advisor, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, who was indicted Thursday for the second time in eight months on corruption charges. On Monday, the mayor continued to dodge that question, snapping at NY1’s Courtney Gross when she asked if Lewis-Martin was still a volunteer with the campaign.
“Last week I spoke about the case,” he said. “That’s a wrap. Speak to her attorney. It’s over. I have a campaign to run.”
On Monday Greco’s attorney, Steven G. Brill, declined to comment when asked by THE CITY about whether the money Greco gave to the reporter was her personal money or cash raised by the Adams campaign.
