(AFP) – New York’s scandal-plagued Mayor Eric Adams was charged Thursday with wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, and bribery conspiracy — stunning charges that fueled calls for his resignation. The grand jury indictment follows a sweeping probe into the mayor’s conduct and whether he conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal contributions in return for favorable treatment.
A defiant Adams told reporters that he looked “forward to defending” himself, and he dismissed demands to step down, urging New Yorkers to “wait to hear our side of the story.” But US District Attorney Damian Williams, whose federal office is bringing the charges, said the mayor was “secretly being showered” with gifts for years, breezing past “bright red lines.” “The conduct alleged in the indictment — the foreign money, the corporate money, the years of concealment — is a grave breach of the public’s trust,” Williams told journalists. He added that the investigation is ongoing: “We will hold more people accountable.”
The 57-page document accuses the mayor of the most populous US city of crimes going back a decade, when Adams took office as Brooklyn’s borough president. He accepted luxury international flights, hotel suites, and free high-end restaurant meals from at least one Turkish government official, the charges allege. As he began planning to run for mayor in 2018, Adams “not only accepted, but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value, from foreign nationals,” according to the court documents. “As Adams’s prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear” he would become mayor, reads the indictment. “Adams agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”
In one example, prosecutors say Adams pressured the city’s fire department to approve Turkey’s new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns. “The Turkish official got what he wanted, and as we explained in the indictment, just four days after Adams held up his end of the bargain, he went right back to soliciting more travel benefits,” Williams said. Scandal has swirled around Adams for months with several high-ranking allies resigning as others were indicted or raided by federal agents. The drama escalated with a pre-dawn raid of his official residence early Thursday.
Adams, who is up for reelection in 2025, had sought to brush off the mushrooming investigations. But many city and state officials are demanding he resign, including on Wednesday when influential New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said he must step down “for the good of the city.” Fellow New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House Minority Leader, stopped short of that call, saying that while the indictment was “a serious and sober moment for New York City,” the mayor was “entitled to the presumption of innocence.”
The indictment risks embarrassing Democrats weeks before the presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, who are polling neck and neck. On Thursday, Trump insinuated without evidence that Adams had been targeted for raising his voice against the arrival in New York of migrants — a key campaign issue for the Republican. “I watched about a year ago when he talked about how the illegal migrants are hurting our city (…) and I said you know what, he’ll be indicted within a year,” said Trump.
Revelations of multiple federal probes into high-ranking city officials have laid bare personal and business ties among the mayor’s inner circle. Adams, the second Black mayor in the city’s history, won the 2021 Democratic primary vowing to reduce crime, which did fall after rising during the Covid pandemic. But the city of 8.5 million people faces a housing crisis that has seen rents skyrocket to unprecedented levels.
Adams already faces a smattering of primary contenders in the run-up to next year’s vote, all of them to the left of the centrist mayor. If he steps down, the city’s public advocate, the progressive Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor ahead of a special election. According to court documents, Adams is due to appear before a judge on Friday for the notification of charges, but his lawyer has asked for a delay.
– Maggy DONALDSON and Andrea BAMBINO
© 2024 AFP
