New York City Mayor Eric Adams charged with bribery, fraud, soliciting foreign campaign donations
Eric Adams holds a tense press conference after a federal indictment was unsealed against him. Screengrab/Youtube
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Eric Adams is the first New York City mayor to be indicted while in office.
A sweeping indictment unsealed Thursday morning laid out an array of federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, plunging his already embattled administration into unprecedented territory.
Adams has been charged with bribery, fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations to his 2021 mayoral campaign, wire fraud and conspiracy, making the former police captain the first sitting mayor in New York to be charged with a federal crime. News of the investigation—which started in 2021 and centers on the mayor’s ties to Turkey—first sprung into the spotlight in November 2023 when federal agents raided the home of Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign fundraiser Brianna Suggs early in the morning, seizing multiple devices and documents. Several days later, federal agents seized Adams’ electronic devices.
The 57-page indictment details actions that stretch back long before Adams became mayor, dating to his time as Brooklyn borough president, an office he assumed in 2014. “Thereafter, for nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish (government) official seeking to gain influence over him,” the indictment reads.
The indictment alleged that soon after his inauguration as mayor, Adams started planning to solicit more illegal contributions to his reelection campaign. Starting in 2016, it alleges, Adams solicited and accepted free and discounted luxury air travel from Turkey’s national airline on multiple separate occasions as part of a senior Turkish official’s effort to gain influence. He also attempted to hide the benefits he received by deleting text messages and paying “a nominal fee to create the appearance of having paid for travel that was in fact heavily discounted.” The indictment also charges that Adams funneled illegal foreign donations through the U.S.-based straw donors, using said donations to garner public matching funds.
Roughly 30 minutes after the indictment was unsealed, a defiant Adams convened a tense press conference at Gracie Mansion as he stood surrounded by Black clergy. He did not appear to be joined by any elected officials. The press conference turned chaotic, as apparent protesters shouted him down from the start, and his supporters shouted to be heard over them. He urged the public to wait and hear “his narrative” following the release of the charges. Supporters Hazel Dukes, president of the NAACP New York State Conference, Rev. Herbert Daughtry, and others voiced their support, also imploring New Yorkers to give the mayor a chance to defend himself.
“We are not surprised. We expected this. This is not surprising to us at all. The actions that have unfolded over the last ten months, the leaks, the commentary, the demonizing,” Adams said. “I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments.”
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