NYC Mayor Says He Didn’t Discuss Legal Case With Trump During Florida Meeting

New York City Mayor Eric Adams leaves the federal court after being charged with bribery and illegally soliciting a campaign contribution from foreign nationals, in New York on Oct. 2, 2024. Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Friday that he discussed several key issues with President-elect Donald Trump during a recent meeting in Florida, but did not touch on the mayor’s corruption charges.

The Democratic mayor traveled to Florida on Friday to meet with the president-elect, just days ahead of Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

In a statement, Adams described their meeting as a “productive conversation” focused on the city’s priorities and how the incoming administration could support improving the lives of New Yorkers.

They discussed the positive impact of the Gaza cease-fire deal on U.S. public safety, efforts to bring manufacturing jobs back to New York, especially in the Bronx, and federal investments for the city, he said.

But the mayor emphasized that his legal case was not part of the discussion.

“To be clear, we did not discuss my legal case, and those who suggest the mayor of the largest city in the nation shouldn’t meet with the incoming president to discuss our city’s priorities because of inaccurate speculation or because we’re from different parties clearly care more about politics than people,” he stated.

Adams thanked the president-elect for the meeting and expressed his hope to boost the partnership with the incoming government in efforts to make New York City “safer, stronger, and more affordable.”

His remarks came amid growing speculation that the mayor was meeting with Trump to discuss a possible presidential pardon for the corruption charges he is facing.

City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running against Adams in the Democratic mayoral primary, has urged the mayor to “state immediately that he will not seek or accept a pardon from Donald Trump.”

“New Yorkers deserve to know that their Mayor is putting their interests ahead of his own—and whether our tax dollars, or Turkish Airlines, will be financing his trip to Florida,” Lander stated on social media platform X before the meeting.

Former City Comptroller Scott Stringer, another candidate for the New York City mayoral race, also questioned the purpose of Adams’s meeting with the president-elect.

“Who is this meeting for, New Yorkers or Eric Adams? Our city has too many problems right now for us to worry about if he’s fighting for New Yorkers or a hypothetical pardon for himself,” Stringer stated on X.

Trump has signaled that he would consider pardoning Adams. During a press conference last year, the president-elect said that he foresaw Adams’s indictment after the mayor spoke out against the illegal immigrant surge into New York City as “unsustainable.”

“I said he’s going to be indicted, and a few months later, he got indicted,” Trump told a Mar-a-Lago press conference on Dec. 16, 2024. “I would certainly look at it.”

When asked if he would consider the pardon, Trump said, “Yeah I would. I think that he was treated pretty unfairly.”

The mayor was indicted in September 2024 on bribery and corruption charges relating to events dating back to 2014. The charges include accepting luxury international travel from a Turkish government official and receiving illegal contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign.

The indictment alleged that as Adams’s mayoral influence grew, foreign nationals exploited their relationship with him, which Adams allegedly allowed by “providing favorable treatment,” such as allowing the opening of a Turkish consular building that prosecutors said would have failed a fire inspection, according to the indictment.

Adams has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing. His trial is set to take place in April.

After the mayor’s indictment, New York City Deputy Mayor Philip Banks, New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban, and Adams’s closest aide, Timothy Pearson, resigned from office amid the federal probe of the mayor’s alleged illegal campaign activity.

Matt McGregor contributed to this report.