An aide to New York City's mayor gave a reporter a bag of money disguised as chips

By Juana Summers,

Jeffrey Pierre, Patrick Jarenwattananon

Published August 21, 2025 at 4:20 PM EDT

This story starts with a bag of potato chips — but there were no chips inside. A city hall reporter was handed an empty bag with a red envelope filled with money from someone working for Mayor Eric Adams' re-election campaign. NPR's Juana Summers speaks to Katie Honan, the reporter at the center of the incident, about what happened.

National

Juana Summers

Juana Summers is a co-host of NPR's All Things Considered, alongside Ailsa Chang, Ari Shapiro and Mary Louise Kelly. She joined All Things Considered in June 2022.

Jeffrey Pierre

Patrick Jarenwattananon

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate

An aide to New York City's mayor gave a reporter a bag of money disguised as chips

Support quality journalism, like the story above, with your gift right now.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.