FOREIGN AGENT’S QUIET SESSION AT CITY HALL
Amid Turkey probe, meet with ally Azerbaijan official not disclosed to feds
A longtime political consultant attended a City Hall meeting last year with Azerbaijan’s deputy foreign minister and top officials in Mayor Adams’ administration — but did not report it in federal filings.
Ezra Friedlander, who has worked as an agent for both Azerbaijan and Turkey, previewed the meeting on May 21, 2023, with a video posted on the X platform.
In the short clip, Adams’ international affairs commissioner, Edward Mermelstein, and mayoral staffer Rana Abbasova can be seen walking by City Hall with Friedlander and Elnur Mammadov, the deputy foreign minister for Azerbaijan, a country closely allied with Turkey.
“With Deputy Foreign Minister of @ AzerbaijanMFA @ElnurIMammadov walking to a meeting at City Hall hosted by NYC Commissioner of International Affairs Edward Mermelstein and Senior Advisor to @NYCMayor @joeleisdorfer!” Friedlander tweeted at the time, including a mention of Abbasova.
The meeting, which hasn’t been previously reported, comes as Adams’ ties to Turkey have come under scrutiny.
His 2021 mayoral campaign has become the subject of a federal investigation, which has led to the FBI seizing his phones and at least three raids — one of which was executed at Abbasova’s New Jersey home. Adams has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The Mayor’s Office of International Affairs, which Mermelstein heads, is housed at United Nations Plaza, about 50 blocks from City Hall. Adams’ schedule for that day lists a “Hold for Mayor” at 4:30 p.m., though it’s unclear what that time was reserved for.
Mermelstein told the Daily News he didn’t recall what transpired at the City Hall meeting or whether the mayor attended. Friedlander and a spokeswoman for the mayor, Amaris Cockfield, both said Adams wasn’t present, but neither would detail what specific role Abbasova played.
“I asked for a meeting to discuss how New York City could work with Azerbaijan, help bring the two people together, people to people, economic activity, restoration of direct flights from New York to Baku — that was the purpose of the meeting,” Friedlander said.
When asked why he didn’t disclose it as required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Friedlander said he’s “not an expert with FARA.” He then backtracked on his initial response about the meeting, saying it was city officials who asked him about flights, not the other way around.
“That’s what New York City asked,” he said.
Cockfield said she didn’t know who raised the issue, but noted the city doesn’t set policy on international travel.
“Our administration always follows the law, and we hold our employees to the highest ethical standards,” she said.
Federal disclosure forms Friedlander
filed for his Friedlander Consulting Group show that at the time of the City Hall meeting he was working as a foreign agent of both Azerbaijan and Turkey.
Friedlander denied approaching Adams’ team about Turkey and said he’d have his “compliance people” examine why the meeting wasn’t reported.
Foreign agents must follow stringent rules that require reporting the governments they work for and American officials they’re connecting those governments with. In a disclosure filed after the City Hall meeting, Friedlander reported contact with dozens of members of Congress on behalf of Azerbaijan and Turkey — but not the City Hall meeting itself.
Turkey entered into its arrangement with Friedlander on Jan. 10, 2022 — just days after Adams was sworn in as mayor, records show. His work as a consultant for Azerbaijan began in February 2023, with the stated goal of enhancing “U.S.-Azerbaijan relations.”
Disclosure forms filed on Oct. 30, 2023, cover the six months preceding Sept. 30 of that year — which would include when the City Hall meeting took place. They reveal Friedlander’s firm received payments totaling $175,000 from Turkey, as well as $833,330 from Azerbaijan.
The form stipulates foreign agents must report all political activity, which it defines as attempting to influence the U.S. government or “the public” toward U.S. policy, “or with reference to political or public interests, policies, or relations of a government of a foreign country or a foreign political party.”
According to FARA, if a foreign agent “willfully omits any material fact,” they risk getting hit with a $10,000 fine and up to five years in prison.
Steve Roberts, an attorney who specializes in FARA, said, based on Friedlander’s video, the City Hall meeting “should have been disclosed,” but added any potential punishment would depend on whether it was a “willful violation.”
“That’s what the Department of Justice investigatory process would figure out, if they were to engage in one,” he said. “There does seem to be a lot of smoke around this situation.”
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Before becoming mayor, Adams, as Brooklyn borough president, signed a sister city deal with the Üsküdar section of Istanbul. He has also traveled extensively to the region, having logged several trips to Turkey and at least one to Azerbaijan.
In November, months after Friedlander’s City Hall meeting, the FBI raided the home of Adams’ top fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, as well as those of Abbasova and Turkish Airlines exec Cenk Öcal, who served on the mayor’s transition committee.
Weeks later, Turkey terminated its connection with Friedlander. Asked what precipitated that, Friedlander said it was “nothing, zero.”
He added that he recently renewed his contract with Azerbaijan.