{"id":166085,"date":"2025-08-22T09:02:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166085\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T09:02:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T09:02:21","slug":"winnie-greco-barred-from-adams-campaign-work-after-giving-reporter-cash-in-a-potato-chip-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166085\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnie Greco barred from Adams’ campaign work after giving reporter cash in a potato chip bag"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winnie Greco, a longtime adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams<\/a> who resigned from his administration while under FBI scrutiny, gave a reporter a potato chip bag filled with cash Wednesday following a campaign event, a gift her lawyer later insisted wasn\u2019t an attempted bribe.<\/p>\n

The local news site The City reported the episode<\/a> hours after one of its reporters said Greco had pressed a bag of potato chips into her hands containing a red envelope with a $100 bill and several $20 bills. The reporter, Katie Honan, had scrutinized Greco\u2019s conduct in the past as a major fundraiser for Adams in the Chinese American community.<\/p>\n

Greco\u2019s attorney, Steven Brill, told The Associated Press that the situation was being \u201cblown out of proportion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a bag of cash,\u201d Brill wrote in an email. \u201cIn the Chinese culture, money is often given to others in a gesture of friendship and gratitude. And that\u2019s all that was done here. Winnie\u2018s intention was born purely out of kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked why Greco wanted to make such a gesture to Honan, Brill said, \u201cShe knows the reporter and is fond of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City said it interviewed Greco later Wednesday and she apologized, saying she made \u201ca mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so sorry. It\u2019s a culture thing. I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t understand. I\u2019m so sorry. I feel so bad right now,\u201d Greco said, according to The City.<\/p>\n

In response to the report of the bag filled with cash, Adams\u2019 reelection campaign said it had suspended Greco from further work as an unpaid volunteer and that Adams had no prior knowledge of Greco\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are shocked by these reports,\u201d Adams campaign aide Todd Shapiro said. \u201cMayor Adams had no prior knowledge of this matter. He has always demanded the highest ethical and legal standards, and his sole focus remains on serving the people of New York City with integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

A City Hall spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The City reported Greco had texted Honan to meet her inside a Whole Foods store after they both attended the opening of Adams\u2019 campaign headquarters in Harlem.<\/p>\n

When given the chip bag, Honan at first thought Greco was just giving her a snack and said she could not accept it but Greco insisted, according to the report.<\/p>\n

Honan left and later discovered the money, then called Greco and told her she could not accept it and asked to give it back. Greco said they could meet later but then stopped responding, the report said.<\/p>\n

Greco later called The City back and asked them not to do a story, saying \u201cI try to be a good person,\u201d the news outlet reported.<\/p>\n

A text message sent to a phone number listed in public records for Greco was not immediately returned Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Since she resigned<\/a> as Adams\u2019 director of Asian affairs last fall, Greco has occasionally been seen at Adams campaign events. Before her resignation, Greco had served as Adams\u2019 longtime liaison with the city\u2019s Chinese American community. She was also a prolific fundraiser for Adams\u2019 campaigns.<\/p>\n

In February of 2024, federal agents searched<\/a> two properties belonging to Greco. Authorities didn\u2019t explain what the investigation was about, and Greco has not been charged with committing a crime, but she was a number of close aides to Adams who resigned or were fired amid the federal scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The City has reported extensively on the investigation and Greco\u2019s conduct, including a campaign volunteer\u2019s allegations that Greco had promised to get him a city job if he helped renovate her home.<\/p>\n

A separate federal investigation into Adams led to a 2024 indictment<\/a> accusing the mayor of accepting illegal campaign contributions and travel discounts from a Turkish official and others \u2014 and returning the favors by, among other things, helping Turkey open a diplomatic building without passing fire inspections.<\/p>\n

A federal judge dismissed the case<\/a> in April after the Justice Department ordered prosecutors<\/a> to drop the charges, arguing that the case was interfering with the mayor\u2019s ability to aid President Donald Trump\u2019s crackdown on illegal immigration.<\/p>\n

\u2014 By DAVE COLLINS<\/p>\n

Originally Published: August 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnie Greco, a longtime adviser to New York City Mayor Eric Adams who resigned from his administration while…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":166086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5296,8989,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,5341,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-166085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-politics","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkcity","16":"tag-ny","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-nyc-mayoral-election-2025","19":"tag-politics","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115071611287334587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}