Ex-NYC mayoral staffer who called Charlie Kirk’s death ‘karma’ pocketed $16K in bribes: Feds

A former top mayoral staffer who was fired for calling Charlie Kirk’s assassination “karma” has been indicted for running two separate pay-to-play schemes that netted him $16,000 total in bribes, the feds announced Tuesday.

Tony Herbert, who served as then-Mayor Eric Adams’ citywide public housing liaison, allegedly pocketed $11,000 cash from a security company executive in exchange for pressuring City Hall officials to steer NYCHA contracts to his firm, court papers unsealed in Manhattan federal court state.

In the second alleged scheme, Herbert is accused of taking $5,000 in kickback from a funeral director after getting the city to approve $24,000 in public funds for burial services for low-income people, according to the indictment.

The embattled longtime community activist was also caught securing a $20,000 loan from the federal  COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program for a fake cake business, prosecutors charged.

Herbert, 61, also worked in the Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit during his time in the Adams administration from February 2022 to September 2025 — when he was infamously canned over his insensitive comments about Kirk’s death.

He was expected to make his first appearance in Manhattan federal court for an arraignment Tuesday afternoon on six counts of bribery and loan fraud.

The bombshell indictment comes just months after Adams’ former aide and close confidante Ingrid Lewis-Martin was hit with a fresh batch of bribery charges in August.

Adams himself was indicted on allegations of scooping up more than $120,000 in travel perk bribes from Turkish nationals to fast-track the opening of the Turkish Consulate building in Manhattan.

But the case was abruptly scrapped by the Justice Department at the behest of President Trump’s administration.