NYC Mayor Eric Adams was charged with bribery, fraud and foreign donations

Eric Adams, the New York City, prosecuted for bribery, fraud and foreign donations in a news conference on a future city

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.”

When Adams was asked at a news conference this week whether he would resign, he was unfazed: “I’m stepping up, not stepping down. 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.

The public advocate of New York City is a man who once served on the City Council. 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

Eric Adams, a New York City Mayor, was arrested on charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting a political contribution from a foreign national

A maximum sentence of 10 years in prison is the consequence of the single count of soliciting and accepting a bribe. Another sole count, for conspiracy, carries a maximum five-year sentence. Five years is the sentence for each of two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals.

Adams, 64, is charged with five criminal counts — but the most serious charge is for wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison if he’s convicted.

According to the indictment, Adams used New York City’s public matching-funds system to make up his false claims and get more than $10,000,000 in public funds.

“At the time, the building would have failed an FDNY inspection,” the indictment states, adding that a fire official was told he would lose his job if he didn’t agree to allow the building to open.

In order to ensure Turkey’s new consular building opened in time for Turkey’s president to visit, the indictment states Adams put pressure on the New York City Fire Department.

Their destinations ranged from France, China, Sri Lanka and India to Hungary and Turkey, the document states. 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.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting a political contribution from a foreign national in a historic circumstance that comes after months of investigation.

Early Thursday, federal agents descended upon the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion, member station Gothamist reported, citing law enforcement.

Adams maintained his innocence after the indictment was made public, telling an outdoor news conference that his legal team would look at the entire document.

“If it’s campaign violations, I know I don’t violate the campaign [laws],” Adams said. 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.

Investigation of Mayor Adams’ fundraisers: a case study of illegal donations from the Turkish, Chinese and other mayors, as revealed by NPR

NPR and member station reporters are reading through court records to gather the full context of the accusations against Adams and will continue to update this story.

Kim said that part of the focus was on illegal donations from Turkish officials. “Then there’s another investigation into one of Mayor Adams’ fundraisers who was really focused on the Chinese community.”

The biggest questions about the investigation into the mayor, Kim said, centered on the inquiry’s focus and how it might intersect with other investigations.

“But what was unusual and really raised people’s eyebrows was when federal agents also seized the mayor’s phones,” Kim said. “That’s when the political observers started to think that this is serious, since it was pretty much unprecedented in New York.”

It’s not surprising that the top fundraisers for Adams were one of the people raided, but it’s also not surprising that other mayors have been investigated for their fundraising operations.

Federal agents conducted raids targeting several people in Adams’ inner circle last November, as Gothamist and WNYC reporter Elizabeth Kim told NPR last week.

New York’s Leaky Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2008-09: Why he was a lone millionaire and why he did not run that far

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. (At a time of deep economic distress nationwide, the editorial board of this and other major New York newspapers went along with that naked power grab.) A later consensus, broadly held, was that Mr. Bloomberg’s extra four years were, to be exceedingly polite, lackluster.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks elevated Giuliani to a national hero, however, as polls showed he was widely unpopular by the end of his second term. He tried to use America’s worst day as leverage to extend his own time in office. He failed.