Mayor Adams has gone to extraordinary lengths over the years to personally appease the Rev. Lamore Whitehead after Whitehead was in a spat with the mayor’s top adviser, Ingrid Lewis Martin, and pressured him for financial and political help, according to a trove of text messages exchanged between the two men.
Federal prosecutors seized the emails as part of their case against Whitehead, who described himself as a protégé of Adams and was convicted in March of defrauding people and banks, including falsely representing a businessman to the mayor as a government favor in 2022. The mayor was not accused of wrongdoing in that case.
The texts, which span from 2016 to 2022, have been referenced in Whitehead’s trial but most of them have never been reported before. The Daily News obtained the full 67-page texts this week, which were seized by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Whitehead.
The messages suggest Adams was willing to criticize Lewis Martin, a trusted chief adviser at City Hall, in order to appease Whitehead.
“You two have anger management issues and need to grow up,” Adams texted Whitehead and Lewis-Martin on Aug. 30, 2018. “The reason you two don’t get along is because you are both immature and need to grow up. I have too much on my plate to take it on.”
Lewis-Martin began working for Adams in the early 2000s and served as Brooklyn’s deputy borough president before taking his position at City Hall, and has been publicly praised by Adams.
Whitehead’s message about Lewis-Martin in 2018 came after he called her a “bitch” in messages and claimed she was interfering with his efforts to “make money” from a concert series Adams, who was Brooklyn’s borough president at the time, was helping to organize.
Adams, who was gearing up for his 2021 mayoral run at the time, responded directly to the expletive-filled message, texting Whitehead that he was meeting with a “potential donor” and that he “does not have time to address personality conflicts with Lewis Martin at this time.”
Mission – Pastor
Asked about the email, Adams’ spokeswoman, Kayla Mamelak, said Wednesday that the mayor considers Luis Martin a “sister” and has “the utmost respect and love” for her.
“These statements are a reaction to a specific incident and do not reflect the mayor’s true feelings towards Ingrid,” Mamelak added.
Whitehead, who is in jail awaiting sentencing, did not respond to a request for comment through his lawyer.
According to text messages obtained by The News, Whitehead had complained to Adams for years about preventing Lewis-Martin from making money from the Brooklyn concert series.
“I tried everything I could to make this concert a success and now I find out Ingrid… shitted me!!!… I put all my effort in!! And I’m the only one getting nothing!!!!… Everyone else is off my connections,” he texted Adams in the summer of 2017 about another event.
“We cannot control the situation from China, and we will not attempt to do so,” Adams, who was traveling in China at the time, wrote to Whitehead.
A few months ago, Adams had called on Whitehead to soften his tone.
“Life is all about disagreements. [sic] “The most powerful lesson I learned from my mentor is that when you feel like punching someone, you need to have the self-control to walk away,” Adams said in a text message on Aug. 26, 2016.
Whitehead also sought political advice from Adams after he was unsuccessfully trying to campaign to succeed him as ward mayor.
“Raise money and you win the election. We’ve already discussed this,” Adams texted after Whitehead asked him how he could win the BP election on Aug. 17, 2018. “You have to raise money. Everything else is worthless.”
On other occasions, Adams instructed Whitehead to stop publicly hinting at his political support.
“You are not the borough’s candidate for president,” Adams texted him on May 2, 2018, after Whitehead publicly hinted at his support for Adams. “You’re a good friend, but you have to be prepared. This is not a game.”
Three years later, on June 11, 2021, Mr Whitehead texted Adams a BP campaign poster claiming to be endorsing him.
“I am not endorsing the BP campaign…If the media receives this flyer, don’t put me in a position to ask if I support you. Then your opponent will immediately [sic] “Your article is misleading,” Adams, who won the 2021 Democratic mayoral primary, responded a few days later.
Whitehead, known as “The Bling Bishop” for his penchant for flashy clothing, began “mentoring” Adams in the early 2010s.
According to sources, Mr. Adams first met Mr. Whitehead in connection with a memorial event for Arthur Miller, a businessman and Mr. Whitehead’s father who was killed by police in 1978. Mr. Whitehead had served time in prison several years earlier on a separate fraud conviction.
Whitehead is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn awaiting sentencing; prosecutors are seeking 12-and-a-half years in prison.
As part of their prosecution of Mr. Whitehead, federal investigators stressed that Rev. Adams had no knowledge that Mr. Whitehead was using his name to further a scheme that included extorting $500,000 in real estate investments from a Bronx businessman by falsely claiming to have the mayor’s backing.
After becoming mayor, Adams no longer interacted regularly with Whitehead, email documents show.
“I’ve been trying to call and meet you for over 2 months now and you’re seeing everyone but me. I guess I’m not in your sights,” Whitehead texted him on Feb. 16, 2022. “I never thought you’d treat me like this!”
