New York, NY – A federal indictment accusing New York City Mayor Eric Adams of masterminding a decade-long scheme with illegal campaign contributions, bribery and other crimes was unsealed Thursday, hours after FBI agents executed a search warrant on his official residence, Gracie Mansion, and confiscated his phone.
The 57-page indictment, brought in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, centers around five criminal charges regarding illegal contributions made to his 2021 mayoral campaign and luxury travel benefits for Adams dating back to 2016, when he was Brooklyn borough president.
The indictment centers on Adams’ dealings with members of the Turkish community, including businessmen and a senior Turkish government official, whom he is accused of accepting more than $100,000 in foreign travel perks and illegal campaign donations, in exchange for using his political office to benefit foreign interests.
‘Public office is a privilege; it is not a right,’ said Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, at a press conference announcing the charges. ‘We allege that the mayor Adams abused that privilege and the law – laws enacted to ensure that public officials put the people they serve before foreign powers and private interests alike. Those are bright red lines. And Adams crossed them over and over again.’
It charges that a top Turkish diplomat provided illegal contributions to Adams’s campaign, arranged travel to France, China, Sri Lanka and Turkey for the City Council member and some of his associates, free or at a deep discount on a state-owned Turkish Airlines, and pressured Adams to get the New York Fire Department to rush its approval of permits for a new Turkish consulate in Manhattan before it had gone through the required inspection.
The indictment states that Adams’ connections to these Turkish entities also included threats to FDNY personnel. Adams supposedly threatened an FDNA official, ‘If you don’t clear that consulate – if you don’t clear that building, I will fire you!’ The building passed inspection after the order, even though it wasn’t fit to be cleared.
Adams Defends Himself, Denies Charges
Minutes after the indictment was unsealed, Adams faced the cameras outside Gracie Mansion, flanked by apparel draped over his suit sleeve and supporters. ‘I look forward to clearing my name and the name of the people of this city, which I am honored to serve,’ Adams said. ‘I have served this city with honor and will continue to do so.
His attorney, Alex Spiro, filed a motion in court later that day requesting that Adams’ arraignment be held either Friday or Monday – and potentially much earlier if federal agents would return Adams’ phone, which Spiro said they took needlessly on Friday morning from Gracie Mansion. The way Spiro framed it, he declared a ‘spectacle’ had been created when federal agents raided the mayor’s residence.
‘He’s not in jail, and his day in court is going to be a fun day. They sent 12 agents to come pick up a phone when we would happily have turned it in.’
Decade-Long Scheme Alleged in Indictment
The indictment said Adams’s illegal acts started in 2014, when he started accepting ‘improper campaign contributions and gifts of travel’ from wealthy foreign businesspeople and Turkish government officials seeking to buy influence over him in order to further their own interests.
The indictment alleges that by 2018, when Adams’s rising political profile led to his publicly declared quest for mayor, the Brooklyn borough president was actively soliciting illegal foreign-national contributions to his campaign for that post. Those contributions were allegedly crucial to his victory in the 2021 mayoral race, where he ran up a $10 million-plus pot of public matching funds. It’s further alleged that he brought in foreign-national funds while concealing their origin through the use of ‘straw donors’ in the US.
After he won reelection in 2021, the indictment charges, Adams ‘continued his schemes and artifices to defraud by giving preferential treatment to those who made campaign contributions’ and ‘to solicit and receive more unlawful campaign contributions in preparation for his next re-election campaign’.
Adams is charged in federal court in Virginia with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, receiving a campaign contribution from a foreign national, and two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national.
Political Fallout and Calls for Resignation
The indictment has quite literally shaken up politics in New York. Several elected officials have already called on the mayor to resign, with the progressive Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) one of the first to publicly call for his ouster. ‘New Yorkers deserve a City Hall that works. With a constant flood of federal subpoenas into his administration, it would be best for the City if our mayor stepped down,’ Ocasio-Cortez said.
City Comptroller Brad Lander and state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, both mayor candidates in the next election, also have called on Adams to resign. So did the former comptroller Scott Stringer: ‘We need the mayor to go,’ he told a press conference. ‘We need to move forward as a city.’
Adams would be replaced by the public advocate, Jumaane Williams, who would serve in an acting capacity. Williams called the charges ‘surreal’ and said the situation was ‘frustrating and painful’ for New York City. He urged Adams to lay out a road map for his administration to move forward while the allegations and scrutiny mount. ‘Justice presumes innocence until proven guilty,’ said Williams. ‘But the mayor’s window to show New Yorkers where he sees this city going forward is quickly closing.
Federal Probes and Investigations into Adams’ Administration
The indictment is part of a string of federal probes into Adams’ administration, and a slew of top officials have been implicated. Earlier this month, city schools Chancellor David Banks said he would resign after the FBI raided his home and the offices of several top city officials, including Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and her brother, the deputy mayor Phil Banks.
Additional probes are reportedly opened, including one on Phil Banks’s cousin Terence Banks, who is purportedly mentioned in a separate probe for supposed malfeasance, or misuse of authority, in winning city contracts.
Who knows how much more damage the ongoing federal case against Adams will do to the leadership of New York City, even as a spokesman reiterated that the indictment of a police commissioner will do little to undermine public respect and trust in the police force. With four commissioners and one deputy mayor under investigation, the fallout could continue reverberating through the city’s government for months.
Sources:
- The New York Times, ‘Mayor Eric Adams Indicted on Federal Bribery Charges Amid Campaign Finance Scandal’, September 2024.
- Reuters, ‘FBI Raids Gracie Mansion as New York City Mayor Adams Indicted’, September 2024.
- CNN, ‘New York City Mayor Eric Adams Indicted for Allegedly Accepting Bribes, Foreign Campaign Donations’, September 2024.
- NBC News, “Manhattan U.S. Attorney Accuses Adams of Years-Long Corruption Scheme,” September 2024.
- The Guardian, ‘New York Mayor Eric Adams Indicted in Federal Corruption Probe’, September 2024.
