New York City’s scandal-plagued Mayor Eric Adams, indicted due to his alleged corrupt dealings with Turkish government officials who wanted to exert influence over him, arrived in court on Friday where he was due to answer multiple fraud and bribery charges that have shocked the city, Agence France-Presse reported.
Prosecutors accuse him of wire fraud, soliciting illegal campaign donations and bribery conspiracy involving Turkish citizens and at least one Turkish official.
The allegations prompted calls for his resignation, but Adams has remained defiant, saying he was “looking forward to defending myself” and urging New Yorkers to “wait to hear our side of the story.”
Accompanied by aides, the 64-year-old mayor walked into the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Friday morning. He made no comments to waiting reporters but gave a thumbs-up.
Presenting the charges on Thursday, US District Attorney Damian Williams said the mayor was “secretly being showered” with gifts for years.
“The conduct alleged in the indictment — the foreign money, the corporate money, the years of concealment — is a grave breach of the public’s trust,” Williams told journalists.
The 57-page document accuses the mayor of the most populous US city of crimes going back a decade, when Adams, a Democrat, took office as Brooklyn’s borough president.
Luxury travel
According to the charges, he accepted expensive international flights and hotel suites and free high-end meals including from Turkish associates in return for favors.
In one example, prosecutors say Adams pressured the city’s fire department to approve Turkey’s new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns.
“The Turkish official got what he wanted, and as we explained in the indictment, just four days after Adams held up his end of the bargain, he went right back to soliciting more travel benefits,” Williams said.
Scandal has swirled around Adams for months, with several high-ranking allies resigning as others were indicted or raided by federal agents.
The drama escalated with a pre-dawn raid of his official residence early Thursday.
Some city and state officials have demanded that he resign, including influential New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said Adams must step down “for the good of the city.”
The indictment risks embarrassing Democrats weeks before the presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, who are polling neck and neck.
Adams, the second Black mayor in the city’s history, won the 2021 Democratic primary vowing to reduce crime, which did fall after rising during the Covid pandemic.
But the city of 8.5 million faces a housing crisis that has seen rents skyrocket. Adams is up for re-election next year.