New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the city’s first mayor to face criminal charges while in office, appeared on the morning of Oct. 2 in a Lower Manhattan federal courtroom, where Judge Dale Ho declined to set a trial date and federal prosecutors alluded to the possibility that new charges may be on the way.
The judge has yet to set a date for the commencement of the criminal trial, but Adams’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, asked it to be held in March 2025.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to having accepted bribes in the form of free first-class airline travel, free meals and hotel accommodations, and other perks from a representative of Turkey’s government, and at a Sept. 26 press conference, the mayor urged people not to jump to conclusions until his side of the story has been heard.
Extensive Allegations
The indictment sets forth a long and detailed history of corruption on Adams’s part from several stages of his political career going back to 2014. Various allegations in the indictment date to his time as Brooklyn borough president, as a New York City mayoral candidate, and as New York City mayor.According to the indictment, Adams allegedly received donations to his 2021 mayoral campaign from “straw” donors who, on paper, were making legal donations but were actually acting as proxies funneling money from foreign donors in violation of campaign finance laws. The mayor allegedly made improper use of a New York City matching funds program to rake in an additional $10 million in campaign funds in 2021.
As mayor, he allegedly received free or sharply discounted plane tickets and free meals, hotel rooms, and entertainment in Istanbul and other highly sought-after international destinations in return for political favors. He did not disclose the contributions on filings he was legally required to make as an employee of the city.
In return for all the alleged lavish gifts, discounts, and donations, the mayor allegedly used his political power and influence on behalf of representatives of the Turkish government. When they sought to have a 36-story consular building opened in time for the scheduled visit of a high-ranking Turkish official, the foreign actors allegedly prevailed on Adams to pull strings to allow the building’s opening even though the structure had not undergone a fire inspection as required by law and contained numerous fire safety violations that a proper inspection would have turned up.
The mayor and people in his circle allegedly went to considerable lengths to cover up the bribery. In some instances, the mayor allegedly paid a nominal fee to create the appearance that he had paid for travel but did not disclose the steep discount he had received, according to the indictment.
“Adams created and instructed others to create false paper trails, falsely suggesting that he had paid, or planned to pay, for travel benefits that were actually free,“ the indictment states. ”And Adams deleted messages with others involved in his misconduct, including, in one instances, assuring a co-conspirator in writing that he ‘always’ deleted her messages.”
A passage in the indictment quotes a text exchange between an Adams staffer and an airline manager, in which the staffer openly attempted to revise upward a fee for a flight upgrade because “his every step is being watched” and the $50 fee that the airline manager had proposed was not high enough to convince people that Adams was not receiving special favors.
In the event that the mayor does step down or Gov. Kathy Hochul exercises her legal authority to remove the mayor from office for 30 days, City Council Speaker Jumaane Williams, who has often feuded with the mayor on issues of policy, by law will take over as interim mayor.
The last governor of the state to take this step was Franklin D. Roosevelt, after then-New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker accepted bribes from contractors. Walker resigned in September 1932.
