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 3:20 PM CDT

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.

Juana Summers

Juana Summers is a political correspondent for NPR covering race, justice and politics. She has covered politics since 2010 for publications including Politico, CNN and The Associated Press. She got her start in public radio at KBIA in Columbia, Mo., and also previously covered Congress for NPR.

Jeffrey Pierre

Jeffrey Pierre is an editor and producer on the Education Desk, where helps the team manage workflows, coordinate member station coverage, social media and the NPR Ed newsletter. Before the Education Desk, he was a producer and director on Morning Edition and the Up First podcast.

Patrick Jarenwattananon