Eric Adams, the very weird, very incompetent, and very shady mayor of New York City, is also now formally accused of being very corrupt. Adams was indicted by a grand jury and is being charged by federal prosecutors with five counts of bribery, wire fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. The news broke Wednesday night and the indictment was unsealed Thursday morning; the full 57-page indictment can be read at the bottom of this blog.
This follows a series of FBI raids, subpoenas and resignations among the mayor's confidants and cabinet members for a growing web of investigations that, incredibly, may be about assorted corruptions entirely unrelated to today's indictment. Today's indictment is mostly about how much Eric Adams allegedly loves Turkey.
The feds, following a three-year investigation, allege that Adams has been accepting bribes and illegal straw campaign donations from Turkish officials and businesspeople for years, dating back to his time as Brooklyn borough president and continuing through Adams's election as mayor in 2021. Those donations allegedly allowed the Adams campaign to receive more than $10 million in matching funds from city coffers. In return for political favors—the most glaring of which, according to the indictment, was Adams pressuring the New York Fire Department to give a passing grade to the new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan, even though it likely would have failed an inspection—Adams is accused of accepting so many free tips to Istanbul, getting flight upgrades and staying at five-star hotels.
Adams allegedly got so comfortable accepting free flights on Turkish Airlines that he took inconvenient layovers in Istanbul, no matter how out of the way it was.
For the record, there are no direct flights from Istanbul to Easter Island.
On another occasion, for a nine-hour layover in Istanbul, a Turkish official is alleged to have offered Adams a pickup in a luxury car, a fancy dinner, drinks, and a boat cruise of the Bosporus Strait. Adams allegedly accepted all of the perks except the cruise, saying he'd already "done the boat tour a few times."
The indictment alleges that Adams was well aware that accepting straw campaign donations was illegal. In one instance, a Turkish businessperson allegedly offered to secretly raise money for Adams's mayoral campaign, and suggested to an Adams staffer that Adams simply not report it. The staffer allegedly balked, saying Adams would likely not agree to the scheme. But they asked Adams anyway, who allegedly said to go ahead and do the crimes.
When Adams was elected mayor in 2021, the indictment claims, favors started geting called in. A Turkish official told the mayor, according to the indictment, "it was his tum to repay the Turkish Official, by pressuring the New York City Fire Department ("FDNY") to facilitate the opening of a new Turkish consular building—a 36-story skyscraper—without a fire inspection, in time for a high-profile visit by Turkey's president."
Adams allegedly pressured the head of the FDNY's bureau of fire prevention to certify the building, even though the chief said there were "numerous fire safety defects." The FDNY chief of department allegedly made it clear to the fire prevention chief that they would both lose their jobs if they did not comply.
Later that same day, they agreed to do so. Adams and the Turkish official were elated:
In an attempt to show that Adams was aware that his actions were criminal, prosecutors highlight alleged attempts by Adams to cover his tracks. One instance involves Adams allegedly trying to fake a paper trail to claim he reimbursed an aide for Turkish Airline tickets—even though there had never even been an initial payment to reimburse.
Prosecutors also presented text messages in which Adams allegedly promised to delete potentially incriminating text messages.
In late 2023 the FBI got a search warrant and seized Adams's phones. The indictment says Adams only produced his personal phone the next day, and it was locked. His excuse, according to the feds, was that he did it because he was afraid someone else might destroy evidence. Oh, and also, he allegedly claimed, he'd forgotten his password.
On Thursday, after the indictment was unsealed, Adams held a sad and defiant press conference where he swore he would continue to do his job despite the increasingly empty suite of offices surrounding him in city hall. Despite the increasing calls for him to step down from local politicians, Adams said he has no intention of resigning.
The full indictment is below.
