NEW YORK — Former City Hall aide Mohamed Bahi was sentenced Tuesday to three years probation for helping funnel bogus donations into Mayor Eric Adams’ 2021 campaign coffers.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Dale Ho said during a hearing in Manhattan Federal Court that the “elephant in the room” was the fact that President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this year tossed Adams’ corruption indictment, which charged the mayor with participating in the same straw donor schemes.

“It is hard to escape the impression that Mr. Bahi is left here holding the bag,” said Ho, who ordered that Bahi must serve one of the three years of probation in home confinement.

In August, Bahi pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy for helping to organize a fundraiser in December 2020 during which employees of the United Elite Group, a Manhattan real estate firm, contributed $10,000 in bogus donations to Adams’ mayoral campaign.

At Bahi’s urging, Tolib Mansurov, the firm’s CEO, reimbursed the employees for the donations in violation of federal and local laws, unlocking tens of thousands more dollars in illicit public matching funds for the soon-to-be mayor’s campaign, according to court records and prosecutors.

Mansurov, a prominent member of the city’s Uzbek community with major real estate-related business interests, was told he could get “influence” with Adams’ incoming administration in exchange for bundling the illegal donations, according to prosecutors. Mansurov was never criminally charged.

In an ironic twist, Adams — who critics have accused of being beholden to Trump since the Department of Justice quashed the mayor’s corruption indictment this past spring — was on Tuesday traveling to Uzbekistan for a taxpayer-funded trip to meet with officials from that country’s government.

Walking out of court after his sentencing, Bahi was told by a reporter that the mayor was en route to Uzbekistan.

“Oh really? Wow, breaking news. That’s interesting, as long as we don’t pay the tab,” he replied, a reference to taxpayer dollars being used for the Uzbekistan jaunt.

When informed the mayor is, in fact, getting the trip covered with city dollars, Bahi said: “It is what it is. I’m content. I’m happy this is over, it’s crazy … I hope this makes me a better person moving forward.”

Spokespeople for the mayor didn’t immediately return requests for comment on Bahi’s sentencing.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office had asked Ho to send Bahi to prison for at least six months.

The judge, who also oversaw Adams’ case, dismissed that request, in part, by referencing the fact that the mayor got off scot-free after the Trump administration stepped in to undo his prosecution.

“What am I to make of a person above him, the mayor, had his indictment against him dismissed?” Ho said.

In dropping the mayor’s prosecution, the Trump administration did not say it was doing so based on the merits of the case. Rather, a Trump appointee wrote in court papers the administration needed the case gone in order for Adams to better assist in the president “mass deportation” agenda — a caveat that prompted a number of career prosecutors who worked on the case to resign in protest.

Adams’ trip to Uzbekistan comes as he prepares to leave office Jan. 1, having in late September abandoned his bid to get reelected as he faced record low approval ratings.

The trip, which follows Adams’ visit to Israel over the weekend, comes as he has said he’s working on lining up a post-City Hall job that involves an international component.

Adams, the first mayor in modern New York history to face criminal indictment, maintained he never did anything wrong and had pleaded not guilty to all charges against him before the Trump administration stepped in and threw out his case.

Bahi, who was Adams’ Muslim community liaison at City Hall, is the first member of the mayor’s administration to be criminally convicted as part of the corruption scandal that rocked the mayor’s first term. Erden Arkan, a Turkish businessman, was also sentenced to probation earlier this year for helping orchestrate a separate straw donor scheme benefitting Adams’ 2021 campaign.

Adams’ indictment alleged the Arkan and Bahi straw donation schemes were part of a wider conspiracy the mayor engaged in to secure bribes and illegal campaign contributions, mostly from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for political favors.

One of the most specific allegations in Adams’ indictment was that he in late 2021, shortly before being sworn in as mayor, pressured the FDNY to drop fire safety violations at the Turkish consulate in Manhattan so the building could open in time for a visit by the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

When it came to Mansurov, the mayor’s indictment alleged he kept in touch with him after taking office, including in February 2023, when the real estate executive allegedly sought Adams’ help to resolve a stop-work order at a luxury condo project. Just over a week later, the stop-work order was lifted, the indictment charges.

The case against Adams alleged that Bahi informed the mayor when Mansurov was served a subpoena from the feds seeking records related to his donations. The feds, in charging Bahi, alleged he told Mansurov that Adams “believed” Mansurov would not cooperate with the feds.

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