Live Updates: Eric Adams Is Indicted in New York
“The indictment makes Mr. Adams the first sitting New York City mayor to face criminal charges. The mayor vowed to fight the charges.
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Mayor Eric L. Adams has been indicted on federal criminal charges, according to people with knowledge of the matter, and will be the first mayor in New York City history to be charged while in office.
The indictment is sealed, and it was unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams, a Democrat, will face or when he will surrender to the authorities. Federal prosecutors are expected to announce the details of the indictment on Thursday.
Just yesterday, Eric Adams was asked about the federal inquiries into his administration when speaking to reporters at City Hall. He has generally referred to them as “reviews,” as he did yesterday, although recently he has referred to them as what they actually are: investigations. Adams said: “Whatever information is needed, we’re going to turn over, but we’re going to respect the fact that federal agencies have stated they don’t want us talking on these reviews as they’re taking place. Let me respect that. It’s going to go to process.”
Even before news of Mayor Eric Adams’s indictment was made public on Wednesday, prominent elected officials had already called for his resignation, most notably Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. But after the news of the mayor’s indictment, the calls for his resignation promptly surged. Mr. Adams is not required to resign.
Scott Stringer, the former New York City comptroller who is among the Democrats running against Mr. Adams in next year’s Democratic primary, said on Wednesday night that the mayor needed to “resign for the good of the city,” repeating a line used by Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.
Emma Fitzsimmons
City Hall Bureau ChiefMayor Eric Adams released a video late Wednesday saying that any charges against him would be “entirely false, based on lies.” He added: “If I am charged, I know I am innocent. I will request an immediate trial so that New Yorkers can hear the truth.”
Emma Fitzsimmons
City Hall Bureau ChiefMayor Eric Adams has fought with the Biden administration over the migrant crisis, warning that it would destroy New York City, and he mentioned that dispute in his videotaped speech defending himself: “Despite our pleas, when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics.”
William Rashbaum
Reporting on municipal and political corruptionOne of the mayor’s lawyers, Brendan R. Maguire of WilmerHale, said they haven’t been notified of the charges.
William Rashbaum
Reporting on municipal and political corruptionProsecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office, the F.B.I. and the city’s Department of Investigation examined free flights and flight upgrades the mayor receivedfrom Turkish Airlines. But because the indictment remains sealed, it is unclear whether his receipt of those benefits is the basis for any crimes charged in the document.
A lawyer for the carrier, which is owned in part by the Turkish government, said in a statement that it had been in contact with prosecutors about the investigation for some time. “Turkish Airlines has been complying with law enforcement’s lawful requests for information, and at no point has been accused of any wrongdoing by the government,” said the lawyer, Timothy Sini, a partner with Nixon Peabody.
Emily Gallagher, a New York State Assemblywoman who represents neighborhoods in North Brooklyn, called for a new mayor.
“A mayor who cuts education, library budgets, and parks, who surrounds himself with criminals and alleged corruption up to the very top, does not deserve our trust,” she said.
Emma Fitzsimmons
City Hall Bureau ChiefA spokesman for Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate who would become acting mayor if Adams resigns, stopped short of calling on Adams to resign. He said in a statement: “The news of this indictment is itself incredibly serious. As the facts emerge, the public advocate will have more to say to the people of New York City, and right now, he is focused on how best to ensure that New Yorkers can regain trust, confidence and stability in city government.”
Shahana Hanif, a Democratic councilwoman from Brooklyn, joined the growing call from city council members for Adams to resign. “It’s clear that Mayor Adams can no longer effectively serve New Yorkers,” she said Wednesday.
Bill de Blasio, the former mayor who is Eric Adams’s predecessor, expresed “shock and concern for New York” in a CNN interview, while stressing that Adams was “innocent until proven guilty.” He also acknowledged his own dealings with federal prosecutors, saying that he had seen “ambition and other factors” lead prosecutors to “do things that turned out not to be the whole truth.”
Lincoln Restler, a Democratic councilman from Brooklyn, added his call for Adams to resign Wednesday night.
“If he refuses, he must be removed from office as prescribed by the charter,” he said. “New Yorkers deserve so much better.”
Jeff Mays
Reporting on New York City HallScott M. Stringer, the former comptroller who is now running for mayor, called for Adams to resign, saying there is “zero chance the wheels of government will move forward from this full steam.”
John Liu, a New York state senator, joined those calling for Adams to resign. He said in a statement that Adams was innocent until proven guilty and entitled to due process, but added that “it will take all of his might to defend himself against these federal charges.”
He said New Yorkers “need a mayor who is able to devote full time and full energy to putting the city on the right track, including recruitment and retention of top leadership for the City,” before adding that “Mayor Adams is simply unable to do that for the foreseeable future and therefore, for the good of all New Yorkers, must resign immediately.”
Adams has a complicated history with law enforcement, to be sure. As a boy growing up in Brooklyn and Queens, he has said, he witnessed abuses by the police and was beaten with his brother inside a station house. He later joined the Police Department, trying to transform it as an outspoken critic from within, he has said. Adams made fighting crime the signature issue in his 2021 campaign for the mayoralty. Now he will have to fight criminal accusations against himself.
Greater New York City has been rocked by public corruption cases and political scandals in recent years. Gov. Andrew Cuomo was forced to resign amid allegations of sexual harassment in 2021. The next year, federal prosecutors indicted the lieutenant governor, who resigned. Federal indictments followed for then-Representative George Santos and then-Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey. Both left office.
Jessica Ramos, a state senator who is running for mayor, stopped just short of calling for the mayor to resign on Wednesday: “A new day for our city is long overdue,” she said.
Emma Fitzsimmons
City Hall Bureau ChiefThe New York Working Families Party, a prominent progressive group, has called on Adams to resign: “Mayor Eric Adams can no longer govern. He has lost the trust of the everyday New Yorkers he was elected to serve.”
As calls for the mayor’s resignation pile up, a few voices will matter more than most: Gov. Kathy Hochul, a key governing partner for Adams; Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader; and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House Democratic leader who has known Adams for decades. None of them have spoken out so far, and very likely they will keep their options open until seeing the nature of the indictment.
Jeff Mays
Reporting on New York City HallOne of Adams’s goals was to become the first Black mayor to be re-elected to a second term. David N. Dinkins, the city’s first Black mayor who died in 2020, lost a close re-election campaign in 1993. Now, three decades later, Adams faces an uncertain future and a distinction he did not want — becoming the first mayor in New York City history who will face charges while in office.
Emma Fitzsimmons
City Hall Bureau ChiefMayor Eric Adams has insisted in recent days that he will not resign. If he changes his mind, Jumaane Williams, the public advocate, would become acting mayor and set a date for a special election.
Emma Fitzsimmons
City Hall Bureau ChiefZellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is running for mayor, called on Adams to resign: “We need a leader who is fully focused, without distraction, on the enormous challenges we face.”
If Mayor Eric Adams were to resign, New York City’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become the acting mayor.
Mr. Williams, a left-leaning Democrat from Brooklyn, has served as public advocate since winning a special election in 2019. He was re-elected to a full term in 2021 and ran unsuccessfully for governor the next year.
Emma Fitzsimmons
City Hall Bureau ChiefThe indictment was a stunning reversal of fortune for Adams, a former police officer who ran for mayor on a public safety message and boasted frequently of his own swagger. But he has faced ethical issues throughout his political career as a state senator and Brooklyn borough president.
William Rashbaum
Reporting on municipal and political corruptionThe investigation that led to the indictment has focused in part on whether the mayor conspired with the Turkish government to funnel illegal foreign donations into his coffers in exchange for pressing the Fire Department to approve a new, high-rise Turkish consulate in Midtown despite safety concerns. It first spilled into public view in November. That’s when F.B.I. agents searched the homes of Adams’s chief fundraiser, his liaison to the Turkish community and a former Turkish Airlines executive who had served on his transition committee. But the investigation began years earlier, during his 2021 mayoral campaign.
Jeff Mays
Reporting on New York City HallIf Adams knew that an indictment was coming, there was little indication of it from his public appearances on Wednesday. In the Bronx, he introduced a new schools chancellor. Asked on a news program about the resignations plaguing his administration, the mayor downplayed the changes as normal turnover.
The charges against Mayor Eric Adams stem from a broad public corruption investigation that began in 2021 and examined whether the mayor and his campaign conspired with the Turkish government that year to receive illegal foreign donations.
Additionally, the federal inquiry examined whether Mr. Adams pressured New York Fire Department officials to sign off on a new high-rise building for the Turkish consulate despite safety concerns. Agents also investigated valuable flight upgrades they believe the mayor received from Turkish Airlines.”
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