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New Yorkers Repulsed After Eric Adams Campaign Submitted Dead People's Signatures on Election Petition [1]
['Brad Reed', 'Brad Reed Is A Staff Writer For Common Dreams.']
Date: 2025-08-01 15:53:37+00:00
A major investigation from Gothamist published Friday found that firms working on behalf of New York City Mayor Eric Adams' reelection campaign "faked and fraudulently obtained" petition signatures needed for his run as an independent candidate.
Gothamist reporters spent weeks tracking down people whose names appeared on Adams petitions and found several of them who said their names were forged, as well as others who said they were deceived into signing the petition. What's more, the campaign submitted signatures of at least three dead people.
In one case, a petitioner working on behalf of the campaign apparently forged the signature of a man named Adam Lieberman, who died by suicide nearly 30 years ago. His stepmother, 93-year-old Leila Lieberman, expressed indignation that her late stepson's name was used in this manner.
"I'm sure that they [politicians] do things to get on the ballot, to get elected, but that is something they shouldn't have done," she said.
A woman named Liana Santiago was indignant after learning that her name appeared on the Adams petition, and she showed Gothamist reporters examples of her actual signature to back up her claims.
"I don't write like that at all," she said. "That sucks, whoever did that."
Gothamist traced some of the issues with the petitions to Public Appeal, a Wyoming-based company that was hired by the Adams campaign to collect signatures. A man named Phillip Harris, who worked for Public Appeal on both the Adams campaign and the 2024 presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., admitted to Gothamist that some of the people he sent out to collect signatures would not tell people that they were working on behalf of Adams, who has become toxically unpopular according to multiple surveys.
"A lot of people won't say [Adams'] name and just say it's to get an 'independent candidate' on the ballot," he told the publication.
People whose signatures were fraudulently added to the petition weren't the only New Yorkers to express disgust over the scandal.
Retired New York Police Department (NYPD) Lt. John Macari Jr. wrote on X that the scandal shows that "laws are a mere suggestion at this point" for Adams, who was criminally charged last year with counts of bribery and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions. The United States Department of Justice under U.S. President Donald Trump dropped the charges against Adams earlier this year.
New York attorney Sarena Townsend said that the signature scandal was a direct reflection of Adams' character, even though the mayor isn't personally implicated in the Gothamist story.
"Whatever you're thinking when reading the headline… it's 100 times worse," she wrote of the Gothamist report. "This article was shocking, even for me. Adams simply has never been able to get through life or win any accomplishments without cheating his way there."
Sal Greco, a former NYPD officer and open supporter of Trump, took the opportunity to tell the president to reconsider the DOJ's decision to drop charges against Adams.
"You need to reindict him and make up for your quid pro quo mistake," he urged Trump on X.
Adams legally cannot be reindicted after a judge earlier this year dismissed his case with prejudice.
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