Turkey bribery and campaign funding plan charges against New York Mayor Adams

U.S. prosecutors charged New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday with illegally taking campaign donations and high-class travel from Turkish citizens who wanted to influence him. This is the end of an investigation that has caused chaos in the government of the country’s biggest city.

prosecutors said in a 57-page indictment that Adams was involved in a scheme that started in 2014 and helped pay for his mayoral campaign in 2021. The plan involved giving Adams free stays at fancy hotels and meals at fancy restaurants.

Prosecutors say Adams then put pressure on city officials to skip safety checks and let the country’s new 36-story consulate open.

According to Adams, 64, who used to be a police officer and was promoted to captain, he did nothing wrong and said he would fight the claims. He stated that he would not quit.

“As mayor, I will keep doing my job,” he told the press.

The president’s office, the foreign ministry, and the embassy of Turkey in Washington, D.C., did not say anything right away.

Adams is charged with five crimes, one of which is conspiracy to commit wire theft. The prosecutors said he asked for and accepted gifts, such as high-class trips, from rich foreign businesspeople and a Turkish government official who wanted to influence him.

Federal officials searched the mayor’s home in Gracie Mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan earlier on Thursday. A witness told Reuters that there was a black SUV outside the house with a sign that said “Federal Law Enforcement” on the dashboard.

Twelve people dressed for work were seen going around the mansion’s grounds with briefcases and duffel bags.

The lawyer for Adams, Alex Spiro, said that the police were trying “to make a spectacle” and that they had taken the mayor’s phone. The detective Spiro said Adams “looks forward to his day in court.”

Adams was the first of the city’s 110 mayors to be charged with a crime while in office. He is a Democrat and promised to stay in office and fight the charges.

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, who is also a Democrat, can fire Adams, but Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace University Law School, said the process is hard to understand.

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Trying to get Adams re-elected in 2025 will probably be harder because of the case. Adams was once a close ally of Democratic President Joe Biden. Other Democrats, like New York City comptroller Brad Lander, want to run against Adams for the party’s ticket.

A Democratic U.S. Representative named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the first person in Congress to ask him to step down, saying it would be “for the good of the city.”

New York’s government has been in a mess for the past month. A week after the FBI took his phone, Edward Caban, the police commissioner, quit on September 12. Several days later, Adams’ top lawyer quit, saying she could “no longer effectively serve” in the role.

The city’s public school’s director, David Banks, announced on Wednesday that he would be retiring at the end of the year. This came weeks after the New York Times reported that federal agents had taken his phones.