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New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted Thursday on charges that he took illegal campaign contributions and bribes from foreign nationals in exchange for favours that included helping Turkish officials get fire safety approvals for a new diplomatic building in the city.
Adams the 1st NYC mayor to be indicted in office, but has vowed to stay on and fight chargesThe Associated Press
· Posted: Sep 25, 2024 11:37 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
NYC mayor says media got details of indictment before he didNew York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is denying the charges against him, says his legal team got the details of the indictment against him on Thursday, when it was released.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted Thursday on charges that he took illegal campaign contributions and bribes from foreign nationals in exchange for favours that included helping Turkish officials get fire safety approvals for a new diplomatic building in the city.
Adams, a former police officer, faces conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery charges in a five-count indictment that describes a decade-long trail of crimes.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan alleges in the indictment that Adams “compounded his gains” from the illegal contributions by gaming the city’s matching funds program, which provides a generous match for small-dollar donations. His campaign received more than $10,000 US in matching funds as a result of the false certifications, according to the indictment.
At a news conference announcing the charges, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for Manhattan, said Adams had a duty to disclose gifts he received, but year after year “kept the public in the dark.”
Federal prosecutors allege in the indictment that Adams “not only accepted, but sought illegal campaign contributions” to his mayoral campaign. A senior official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment “facilitated many straw donations” to Adams and arranged for Adams and his companions to receive free or discounted travel on Turkey’s national airline to destinations including France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary and Turkey, the indictment alleges.
WATCH l ‘Long-running’ corruption dating back to 2018, prosecutors allege:
U.S. attorney alleges NYC mayor solicited illegal campaign donationsDamian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, alleges New York City Mayor Eric Adams ‘solicited and knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors and corporations.’
Adams allegedly “solicited and demanded” bribes, including free and heavily discounted luxury travel benefits from a Turkish official, the indictment alleges, noting that the official was seeking Adams’ help pertaining to regulations of the Turkish consulate in Manhattan. Adams created and instructed others to create fake paper trails in order to falsely suggest he had paid for travel benefits that were actually free, prosecutors allege.
He also deleted messages with others involved in his misconduct, at one point assuring a co-conspirator that he “always” deleted her text messages, according to the indictment.
Election to take place next yearAdams repeated a vow to stay on as mayor, which he first made Wednesday night in a videotaped statement. In that statement, he said he’d “fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
“I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defence before making any judgments,” he said on Thursday, surrounded by more than a dozen supporters and family members outside Gracie Mansion, the mayoral residence.
FBI agents entered the mayor’s official residence and seized his phone early Thursday, hours before the indictment was made public.
“They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in,” Alex Spiro, Adams’s lawyer, said in a statement.
A police officer closes the fence at Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, early Thursday. (Yuki Iwamura/The Associated Press)Adams called on supporters, including a pastor, to speak Thursday at his news conference, but they struggled at times to be heard over protesters demanding the mayor resign. One protester could be heard calling Adams “an embarrassment.”
The indictment marks a stunning turn for Adams, a former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime.
Adams spent 22 years in New York City’s police department before going into politics, first as a state senator.
He was elected mayor in 2021.
“I’ve been part of many campaigns and the scrutiny of those campaigns always revealed the same thing — I follow the rules, I follow the law … I’ve instructed not only in writing, but in verbal instructions to the team: we do not participate in straw donors, we do not participate in foreign donors.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams charged with bribery and campaign finance offenseshttps://t.co/AMftSSyzGB
—@SDNYnewsOnly New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams from office, though the process would be complicated.
The next mayoral election is Nov. 4, 2025, with primaries taking place in June. Two candidates other than Adams have declared their candidacy on the Democratic side.
Several aides investigatedFor much of the last year, Adams has faced growing legal peril, with multiple federal investigations into top advisers producing a drumbeat of subpoenas, searches and high-level departures that has thrust city hall into crisis.
Adams is the first mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office. If he were to resign, he would be replaced by the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who would then schedule a special election.
The federal investigations into Adams’s administration first emerged publicly on Nov. 2, 2023, when FBI agents conducted an early morning raid on the Brooklyn home of Adams’s chief fundraiser, Brianna Suggs.
In the last few weeks, federal investigators have homed in on members of Adams’s inner circle.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a news conference outside Gracie Mansion on Thursday. (Yuki Iwamura/The Associated Press)Federal investigators seized devices in September from his police commissioner, schools chancellor, two deputy mayors and other trusted confidantes. The police commissioner and head of the school’s system have announced their resignations.
Adams on Thursday criticized leaks to the media and what he characterized as the “demonizing” of his team before the legal process played out.
“For the last 10 months, you knew information before my attorneys knew information,” he told the assembled reporters. “This is not how our system of justice should operate.”
The New York Times first reported the impending Adams indictment on Wednesday night.
