reporter Ross Barcan has known the now indicted mayor of New York City,

Eric Adams, for a long time. And to Ross, who's something of a political

anthropologist, Adams has always been a puzzling figure, hard to pin down.

When they first met, Adams was on a glide path to be elected to the largely ceremonial role of Brooklyn Borough President.

And Ross could not understand why.

There were already allegations of corruption against Adams.

Sometimes Adams just said stuff that was weird.

And it's not like Adams had some ideological motivation.

If you look at his career, he's a police captain. He had founded an

organization that sort of fought for reform the department. So in one hand you

could look at him and go, oh yeah, he's sort of a

progressive reformer type. On the other hand, he can be found talking about

crime being out of control and how the Giuliani sort of style of Republican is the type of politics we need.

Sounds like a chameleon. Yes, I would say so. He's always colorful and there was always a sense that he played by his own rules that he could be brazen that he might or might not be corrupt and he kept ascending and I was not shocked he became

mayor I am also not shocked he has been indicted.

When Ross looks at what prosecutors released last week

he calls the story the US attorney is telling

very Adams-esque.

This is very petty corruption. This is not your grand scheme. This is not a Ponzi scheme. This is not something that took many years of thoughts and was meant to enrich to a great deal

him and those around. I mean this is taking favors. This is allegedly getting fraudulent campaign matching funds by taking foreign

donations. This is cutting corners.

For example, prosecutors allege that Adams got cheap hotels and plane tickets to Turkey in exchange

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