The charges against Mayor Adams – DNyuz

Good morning. It’s Friday. We get details on the bribery and fraud allegations facing Mayor Eric Adams.

On Thursday — Mayor Eric Adams’ 1,000th day in office — federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal indictment accusing him of bribery and fraud that began long before he became mayor.

The indictment captured 10 months of fear and anxiety that had swirled around the mayor since the day the FBI ordered his security guard to step aside, got into his SUV with him as he left an event and confiscated his phones and iPad took.

Now, in 57 pages, prosecutors outlined what they called a scheme to solicit illegal foreign campaign donations. The indictment stated that Adams had accepted more than $100,000 in graft and used his power to help Turkey.

The mayor steadfastly maintained his innocence.

Adams is scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate on Friday, although an attorney for the mayor has asked the judge to move the hearing to early next week. When his arraignment takes place, Adams will enter a plea of ​​not guilty.

The indictment, like the indictment itself, will be unprecedented: Adams is the first New York mayor in modern history to be indicted while in office. And the coming days can determine whether he can stay at City Hall.

“The mayor owns this scandal, and that makes it very difficult for him to distance himself from it,” said Chris McNickle, who has written books about two former mayors, Michael Bloomberg and David Dinkins.

“He’s going to have to turn his attention to dealing with legal matters,” McNickle said. “Maybe he will be forced to resign, so that in a sense he becomes a quasi-lame duck mayor. And it will be difficult for someone who may not have been in office very long to govern with the authority that a mayor normally has.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove the mayor from office, indicated she was keeping her options open. In a statement on Thursday, she called the charges “the latest in a troubling pattern of events” and said she would assess what to do next and expected the mayor to do the same. She stopped short of calling for Adams to resign.

However, political alarm came from the Rev. Al Sharpton, one of the mayor’s closest supporters, who refused to defend Adams. Some Black power brokers are alarmed by Adams’ attacks on the Justice Department, including claims that he is being targeted for challenging the Biden-Harris administration on immigration.

“Does that hurt Vice President Kamala Harris?” Sharpton said, referring to the Democratic presidential candidate, before noting that the U.S. attorney in Manhattan whose office filed the charges is “a black man who we work with.”

“There are complexities in this,” Sharpton said, adding that he had convened a meeting for the weekend with a dozen black leaders, including Democratic House of Representatives leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate majority leader, called the allegations “serious,” as did the state’s attorney general, Letitia James. “No one is above the law, including the mayor of New York City,” Schumer said. “The legal process should now be swift and fair.”

James also called the allegations “disturbing.”

Prosecutors said the scheme outlined in the indictment began in 2016, when Adams was a top elected official in Brooklyn, and continued after he became mayor on New Year’s Day 2022. Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Adams had been “showered” with gifts that he knew were illegal.

The mayor had crossed “bright red lines,” Williams said, adding that “this investigation is continuing” and that other people would also be held accountable.

Adams said he had been demonized. “We’re not surprised – we expected this,” Mr Adams said. “The actions that have taken place over the past ten months, the leaks, the commentary, the demonization. We were not surprised that we reached this day.”

It was a day that began with an early morning raid on Gracie Mansion, where federal agents spent more than an hour. Adams later said that “today was about my phones.”

He insisted he would not resign despite calls to do so from some elected officials — and from troublemakers who repeatedly interrupted a news conference Adams was holding outside Gracie Mansion. “I ask New Yorkers to wait for our defense,” Adams said.

Shortly afterwards, Williams appeared at his own press conference in Lower Manhattan.

The indictment listed trips and upgrades on business airlines that prosecutors said Adams accepted, including a trip arranged the day he won the 2021 Democratic primary. Someone from Adams’ office, prosecutors said, had booked a trip to Turkey with an airline. manager who described the ride as “very expensive” because the arrangements were made at the last minute. According to the complaint, the airline manager suggested Adams pay only $50.

When it came to where Adams would stay, the airline manager mentioned the Four Seasons. But the staffer called that “too expensive,” according to the complaint.

“Why does he care?” said the airline manager. “He’s not going to pay. His name won’t be on anything either.”

“Great,” said the employee. (The trip was eventually canceled.)

Weather

Prepare for cloudy weather and a chance of showers throughout the day and night, with high temperatures in the 70s and lows tonight in the mid 60s.

ALTERNATE PARKING

In effect until October 3 (Rosh Hashana).

The latest New York news

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• A Guide to NYC Galleries: Bernice Bing’s fluid, vibrant paintings, Hồng-Ân Trương’s mattress installation, and Teresa Baker’s sublime abstractions are on display in New York City galleries through October.

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METROPOLITAN diary

Princess Leia for sale

Best diary:

Some Saturdays in the 1990s, during the blissful summer months when I was off school, my father would take me to the Chelsea Flea Market.

It was just me and him, making the long trip on the 1 train from the Bronx, I looked out the window at the few stops that were above ground, and my father kept an eye on me. During those years he bought me some strange, random things: once a small (blunt) kukri knife with an ornate sheath and other times a few ridiculously smooth balls of white stone.

Then there was the rare Princess Leia Organa action figure.

I had been collecting ‘Star Wars’ figures for a while. I would hang them on my wall, all still in their packaging.

My friends were confused: why didn’t I open them? But I knew that if I kept them in perfect condition, in the original packaging, they would retain their value.

That Princess Leia action figure at the flea market was still in its packaging. I had never owned a rare action figure before, and I really wanted one.

We asked the seller about the price.

“For you?” he said. “Sixty dollars.”

Then he turned to another potential customer and repeated the same stupid joke. Then he did it again. And again.

I loved this routine. Forget the action figure. I was captivated by the salesperson’s quirky chatter. To me, it reflected the wink-wink attitude of so many New Yorkers.

My dad ended up buying the action figure for me, and I still sometimes say, “For you…” when I’m asked to name a price for something, even though no one knows why.

–Ian Park

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send your entries here And read more Metropolitan Diary here.

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. – JB

PS Here is today’s Mini crossword And Game competition. You can find all our puzzles here.

Makaelah Walters, Ash Wu, Dana Rubinstein and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team via (email protected).

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The post The indictment of Mayor Adams first appeared in the New York Times.