Eric Adams, the New York City Mayor, is charged with bribery, fraud, foreign donations and his next mayor, J. D. Lander
It’s not certain how much warning the mayor might have had about being indicted. In that same news conference, he said, “I’m excited about what the future and what tomorrow holds for us.”
Adams did not mind that he was asked at the news conference if he would resign. I have a city to run.”
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho, the former director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, who was confirmed to the federal bench last year.
New York City’s next mayor would be a former City Council member named Jumaane D. Williams. Next after Williams would be the city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, a progressive Democrat who said in July that he would challenge Adams in the 2025 election.
Source: Read the indictment: NYC Mayor Eric Adams charged with bribery, fraud, foreign donations
An Indictment of Adams and Turkey’s Consul General Service During a Trip to Turkey: From India to Turkey, with Invitation to the New York City High Court
The amount of bribe that is solicited and accepted is the single count that has a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A maximum five-year sentence is imposed on the sole count of conspiracy. Each of the two counts for asking for foreign contributions carries a sentence of more than five years.
The most serious charge is wire fraud, which can lead to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if he’s convicted.
Along with a Turkish official, the indictment alleges that other nationals gave Adams lucrative travel benefits and/or arranged illegal campaign contributions, including a Turkish businesswoman who owns the St. Regis Istanbul hotel.
The indictment states that at the time, the building would have failed an inspection and a fire official would have lost his job if he refused to let it open.
In return, Adams gave the Turkish official’s request to put pressure on the New York City Fire Department to ensure Turkey’s new consular building would open in time for a visit by Turkey’s president.
Their destinations ranged from India to Turkey, according to the document. On those trips, the indictment alleges, Adams and his party would “receive, among other things, free rooms at opulent hotels, free meals at high-end restaurants, and free luxurious entertainment while in Turkey.”
The New York Mayor’s Indictment on Federal Bribery and Fraud indictment: Members of the Gothamist Inside the Gracie Mansion
It’s not surprising that the mayor has been indicted on federal Bribery and Fraud charges. Over the years, ethical breaches have gone hand in hand with New York City Hall. The indictment that Mr. Adams is the first New York mayor to be indicted for is unique and takes the city and state into novel territory. The question of why many mayors let us down has to be wrestled with by the citizens.
Early Thursday, federal agents descended upon the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion, member station Gothamist reported, citing law enforcement.
After the indictment was unsealed, Adams maintained his innocence, saying at an outdoor news conference that his legal team would “peruse the entire document.”
“If it’s campaign violations, I know I don’t violate the campaign [laws],” Adams said. “If it’s foreign donors, I know I don’t take money from foreign donors.”
“By smuggling their contributions to ADAMS through U.S.-based straw donors, ADAMS’s overseas contributors defeated federal laws that serve to prevent foreign influence on U.S. elections,” the indictment alleges.
NPR and member station reporters are reading through court records to understand the accusations against Adams, and will continue to update this story.
“We do know that part of the focus has been on illegal donations from Turkish officials,” Kim said. “Then there’s another investigation into one of Mayor Adams’ fundraisers who really focused on the Chinese community.”
The inquiry’s focus and how it might intersect with other investigations are the most pressing questions, according to Kim.
Kim said that what was unusual and raised people’s eyebrows was when the federal agents also seized the mayor’s phones. “That’s when the political observers started thinking that this is rather serious, because that was pretty much unprecedented in New York.”
A surprising but not shocking development is that the top Adams fundraiser, Briana Suggs, was one of the people raided.
Elizabeth Kim told NPR that federal agents conducted raids targeting people in the inner circle of Adams.
Michael Bloomberg, the lone multibillionaire mayor of New York, and his failure to bend the law to extend his time in office
Before him, Michael Bloomberg, New York’s lone multibillionaire mayor, ran a clean administration, but many New Yorkers saw his 2008-09 end run around the city’s term limits law to grab a third term as a profound ethical breach. The editorial board of the New York newspapers went along with that naked power grab at a time when the country was in economic distress. A later consensus, broadly held, was that Mr. Bloomberg’s extra four years were, to be exceedingly polite, lackluster.
At the end of his second term, polls showed that Rudy Giuliani was disliked and that he was viewed as washed up. The Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack made him a national hero. Almost forgotten is that he tried to use America’s worst day as leverage to bend the law to extend his own time in office. He failed.