Whether the mayor can continue to govern after the revelation of charges, and amid growing calls for him to resign, is the subject of vigorous debate.
A federal indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams has fueled fierce debate about whether he can or should remain in office.
The 57-page criminal indictment, unsealed Thursday, lays out charges of soliciting and accepting illegal campaign contributions, attempting to cover up the bribes, and repeatedly misusing his political power on behalf of foreign donors.
Adams maintains that the effort to prosecute him has political motives, and the mayor has dug in his heels for what may be a protracted legal defense.
In a Sept. 26 press conference, the mayor said that the charges, leaks, and what he called the “demonization” of himself and his administration hadn’t caught him off guard.
“This is not surprising to us at all,” the mayor said. “I ask that New Yorkers wait to hear our defense before making any judgments.”
He said his attorneys will handle the case so that he can get on with his job as mayor.
“I will continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do,” he said.
Some observers, however, say that Adams’s public image is damaged beyond repair and it is inevitable that he will be forced to resign, paving the way for City Council member and public advocate Jumaane Williams—who has often feuded with the mayor on public policy issues—to take over as interim mayor at least through to next year’s election.
Even before the indictment was unsealed, prominent New York Democrat, Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, called on the mayor to resign “for the good of the city.”
“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet, citing the “flood of resignations” from his administration and “ongoing investigations.”
Political Turmoil
The mayor has been grappling with increasing political turmoil as high-ranking members of his administration, including his chief legal adviser and his police commissioner, resigned their posts. Prominent figures in New York politics had called for him to step aside at the time.
According to the indictment, Adams’s alleged corruption extends at least as far back as 2014 when he won the election as Brooklyn’s borough president. The indictment, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, spells out charges that, if proven in court, could result in decades in prison.
Unidentified “wealthy businesspeople” and a high-ranking official of the Turkish government, the indictment charges, began to lavish Adams with money and benefits, including international travel fare. Prosecutors allege the pattern intensified in the late 2010s as Adams grew serious about running for mayor of New York City.
By 2018, when Adams had publicly revealed his mayoral ambitions, the bribes were in full swing, the indictment states.
Unnamed foreign nationals allegedly stepped up their campaign to woo Adams in 2021 when his election as mayor appeared a virtual fait accompli.
The indictment alleges that Adams accepted “straw” campaign contributions, meaning donations from foreign nationals that went through stateside donors who could legally give money to his campaign and who claimed they were contributing their own funds.
“Wealthy individuals evaded laws designed to limit their power over elected officials by restricting the amount any one person can donate to a candidate,” the indictment states.
“And businesses circumvented New York City’s ban on corporate contributions by funneling their donations through multiple employees, frustrating a law that seeks to reduce corporate power in politics.”
In addition, the mayoral candidate allegedly enriched himself and stole public funds by applying for money from the New York City Campaign Finance Board matching funds program and falsely claiming the donations the program was to match complied with campaign finance laws, the indictment states.
Through this ruse, Adams’s 2021 campaign illegally took in an additional $10 million, according to prosecutors.
The indictment further details lavish favors that the defendant allegedly received from an unnamed high-ranking Turkish diplomat, including free or discounted travel on Turkey’s international airline to foreign cities, free stays at luxury Istanbul hotels, free dinners at fancy restaurants, and free entertainment.
Adams disclosed none of this in filings he had to make as a New York City employee, the indictment states.
Once elected, Adams allegedly used his power as mayor to rush through the opening of a 36-story Turkish consular skyscraper without a fire inspection required by law, the indictment states.
He did so in return for bribes that the unnamed Turkish official offered him in 2021 and 2022, prosecutors alleged, including flights to numerous international destinations and luxury accommodations in Turkey in particular, on the government of Turkey’s tab.
Can Adams Stay in Office?
When looking to Adams’s future in office, there can be no denying the seriousness of what the indictment alleges and the steep criminal penalties that may ensue, said Michael Alcazar, a professor in the Department of Law, Political Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
“The unsealed indictment against Mayor Adams includes serious allegations of bribery, wire fraud, and accepting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals,” Alcazar told The Epoch Times.
“The merit of these allegations will be addressed in the courtroom. Nevertheless, the seriousness of the accusations and the detailed indictment could seriously affect his ability to remain in office as mayor,” Alcazar said.
“Additionally, public and political pressure may influence whether he chooses to resign, or is forced to step down.”
Timing of Indictment
While the seriousness of the charges against the mayor is not in dispute, the timing of the indictment, a mere 39 days before Election Day, is difficult to overlook, according to Harvey Kushner, chair of the criminal justice department at Brookville University on Long Island.
As for what to expect from this point on, Kushner sees a number of possibilities. He has little doubt that Adams will continue to vigorously deny the charges.
Yet, in the current climate, whether Adams can remain in office is another question.
Kushner said that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has said little publicly about the matter, may exercise her legal power to remove the mayor from office for 30 days.
“Hochul can, in a situation like this one, remove the mayor and pursue her own inquiry as to whether these charges are accurate,” Kushner said.
Adams faces three progressive challengers in the upcoming mayoral primary, who disagree with him on crime, the illegal immigrant situation, congestion pricing, and other issues.
Kushner alluded to the near-constant fighting between the City Council and the mayor over issues such as police procedures when interacting with citizens in public, housing vouchers, the use of solitary confinement in city jails, and the migrant crisis that brought at least 200,000 new arrivals to the city beginning in the spring of 2022.
All these issues are microcosms of a larger power struggle between progressives and moderates in New York City’s government.
Mayor Adams’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.