Dr. Phil’s son sued to stop release of behind-the-scenes NYPD video – NBC New York

Nine months before his term expired, Mayor Eric Adams granted Jordan McGraw – the son of television personality Dr. Phil McGraw – unusual access to members of the New York Police Department: on duty, up close, with cameras moving.

The plan, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday and sources familiar with the matter, was for Jordan McGraw to develop and market a multi-episode series called “Behind the Badge.”

At the time, the deal was controversial. This was done in his official capacity as mayor and over the objections of his Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, according to two administration officials with knowledge of the plan.

“Everyone was extremely worried,” one of the officials said, describing the prospect of exposing sensitive police operations behind the scenes.

The same sources said that Mayor Adams intended to break the agreement with McGraw and exclude the NYPD from this decision. They said that late in his term, Adams apparently lost control of the previously undisclosed NYPD output run out of City Hall, even as his re-election campaign paid $500,000 to a McGraw-linked company for campaign advice, according to Adams’ campaign finance filings and his former campaign manager.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s city law department filed suit Wednesday against Jordan McGraw and his production company, alleging that portions of the “Behind the Badge” episodes he produced would pose “an imminent threat to the lives and safety of active police officers” if released in their current form. For example, the complaint states that “the faces, voices, and names of undercover agents conducting undercover operations are not obscured.”

City lawyers say McGraw intends to release images showing faces of witnesses, crime victims and people detained without their consent — and even reveals a secret password to a police station door.

According to the lawsuit, Jordan McGraw and his production company “blatantly ignored” a clause in their contract giving the city the authority to preview rough cuts of episodes and, within 10 days, veto any portion they deemed “unusable” for reasons of privacy or public safety.

The city filing says McGraw submitted four raw episodes and a larger “dump of unedited footage” in December and indicated he was seeking to sell the footage for broadcast in 2026 despite objections raised by Adams’ office on three occasions, including on Dec. 31, his last day in office.

The lawsuit seeks to stop McGraw and his production company from selling or distributing what it calls “extremely problematic” material in a project that was “intended to highlight the extraordinary work of the department” but would “undoubtedly tarnish their reputation.”

Chip Babcock, attorney for Jordan McGraw, told NBC New York in a statement “it appears the city is seeking to restrict publication on a matter of public concern, perhaps forgetting that prior restrictions are presumptively unconstitutional under the First Amendment.”

Todd Shapiro, a spokesman for the former mayor, said Adams was unavailable for comment. The NYPD had no comment when contacted by NBC New York.

The current relationship status of Adams and Jordan McGraw is unclear. If McGraw disregarded the terms of the “Behind the Badge” contract he signed with City Hall — a copy of which was included in the court filing and signed by Adams’ former vice mayor, Camille Joseph Varlack — as the lawsuit alleges, it was despite an apparently lucrative deal with Adams’ re-election campaign.

The contract for the show was signed the day after a judge dismissed the federal corruption case against Adams.

The lawsuit comes just five days after NBC New York reported that McGraw was linked to Fairfax Digital LLC, which campaign filings show received $500,000 in payments from Eric Adams’ 2025 campaign. Campaign filings did not reveal McGraw’s identity, which was confirmed by Adams’ former campaign manager, Eugene Noh, in an unrelated interview.

According to Adams’ campaign filings with the Campaign Finance Board, Fairfax Digital LLC is based in Wichita Falls, Texas, where Jordan McGraw is from, but Texas records show no evidence of a company with that name. Jordan McGaw did not respond to NBC New York’s efforts for comment on Fairfax Digital LLC.

Government watchdog group Reinvent Albany said payments made by the Adams campaign to LLCs “without clear human owners” were concerning.

New York Department of State records show that McGraw registered “Behind the Badge LLC” in September 2024, approximately two weeks before Mayor Adams was charged with corruption and campaign crimes that were ultimately dismissed by President Trump’s Justice Department. Adams always said he did nothing wrong.

Two administration members familiar with the plan said it was unclear exactly why the unusual access to the NYPD for Jordan McGraw was moving forward at Adams’ request, with the NYPD having no choice in the matter. They say it was in the fall of 2024 that McGraw’s father, Dr. Phil — a staunch Trump supporter — began expressing interest in highlighting the work of the New York Police Department and producing his own shows on the subject.

Dr. Phil also appeared alongside Adams in 2025 to discuss the fight against anti-Semitism and took credit for connecting the then-mayor with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan.