Ex-Adams aide cries as he dodges prison after defrauding taxpayers in campaign scheme: Feeling content

A disgraced ex-aide to Mayor Eric Adams cried Tuesday as he dodged prison time after defrauding taxpayers in a straw-donor campaign scheme.“I’m feeling content and just so happy it’s over,” said Mohamed Bahi, Adams’ former liaison to the Muslim community, on his way out of Manhattan federal court.Bahi, a 41-year-old married dad of two, had already pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit wire fraud when he was sentenced to three years probation, including one year on house arrest.He will be allowed to leave home to go to work, volunteer and attend religious events.Bahi was expected to serve around six months in prison for reporting “phantom donations’’ to boost public matching funds for his boss Adams’ coffers.Judge Dale Ho cited the defendant’s years of public service to his Muslim community — where he is beloved as a activist — for his no-prison decision.“It’s impossible not to be moved by the scope of your work,” Ho told Bahi.The judge added that Adams remains “the elephant in the room.“Mr.Bahi is placed in the pyramid and there’s a notable absence of the apex of that pyramid,” Ho said of Hizzoner, whose related charges were famously quashed by President Trump in March.Bahi received his light sentence after making an emotional plea to the judge.“I agreed to enter public service because I wanted to help people.

… My missteps have overshadowed much of that work,” Bahi said through tears in the courtroom, which was filled with dozens of his supporters.“The hardest thing to accept is leaving court today as a convicted felon,” he said.Bahi took a plea deal in August after being tied to Hizzoner’s since-dropped bombshell corruption case that defined the end of his now lame-duck mayoralty....