The Adams case is about possible political donations gained in exchange for relaxing the NYC Fire Code for the construction of a Turkish consulate building in Midtown Manhattan….
There are call’s for him to step down…
The case from the US Attorney for the Southeren District of New York has caused numerous resignations of Adams staff under investigation…
Adam’s is a former New York City Police Captain and Democrat (he was a Republican for a short while , but….switched back)
This not his first go around with the law as a NY State Senator and Brooklyn Boro President….
By the Way?
Former NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerick went to jail back in 2009 , and did 3 years for Federal tax fraud before President Trump pardoned him…
Mayor Eric L. Adams has been indicted on federal criminal charges, according to people with knowledge of the matter, and will be the first mayor in New York City history to be charged while in office.
The indictment is sealed, and it was unclear what charge or charges Mr. Adams will face or when he will surrender to the authorities. Federal prosecutors are expected to announce the details of the indictment on Thursday.
“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Mr. Adams, 64, said in a statement Wednesday night. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
The unprecedented indictment comes a little less than a year after federal agents searched the home of Mr. Adams’s chief fund-raiserand seized the mayor’s electronic devices as he left a public event in Manhattan.
The mayor and his aides have said he was cooperating with the authorities, and Mr. Adams has continued to insist that he has done nothing wrong.
Mr. Adams, a retired police captain, was elected in 2021 as New York’s 110th mayor and the second Black person to lead the nation’s largest city after a campaign built on a pledge to reduce crime, bring professionalism to City Hall and tap his personal brand of “swagger.”
But he staffed top positions with friends and loyalists, and his inner circle has been engulfed by federal investigations that have targeted the highest ranks of city government. Earlier this month, federal agents seized phones from numerous top city officials, including a top aide to Mr. Adams, the schools chancellor and the police commissioner. The commissioner, Edward A. Caban, and the schools chancellor, David C. Banks, later resigned.
Here’s what else to know:
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The indictment raised immediate questions about Mr. Adams’s ability to serve as mayor, adding to the growing pressure for him to step down. Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove him from office.
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Several federal corruption investigations have reached top people around Mr. Adams, with some of the highest-ranking officials in his administration coming under scrutiny. Read more about the investigations here.
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The swarm of federal inquiries in the lead-up to the indictment of Mr. Adams plunged his administration into a free fall, further diminishing his political stature. It raised doubts about his re-election chances next year and his ability to engage with other political leaders. Read more about the challenges in City Hall here….
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The investigation that led to the indictment has focused in part on whether the mayor conspired with the Turkish government to funnel illegal foreign donations into his coffers in exchange for pressing the Fire Department to approve a new, high-rise Turkish consulate in Midtown despite safety concerns. It first spilled into public view in November. That’s when F.B.I. agents searched the homes of Adams’s chief fundraiser, his liaison to the Turkish community and a former Turkish Airlines executive who had served on his transition committee. But the investigation began years earlier, during his 2021 mayoral campaign….
image…The indictment came after a swirl of investigations into Mayor Eric Adams and key members of his inner circle came to light.Credit…Karsten Moran for The New York Times
Update…..
A muted but defiant Mayor Eric Adams, in back-to-back appearances inside a federal courthouse in Manhattan and outside its granite facade on Friday, professed his innocence of criminal charges including bribery and fraud and stood by as his lawyer railed against the evidence in a case that threatens to topple his embattled administration.
“I am not guilty, your honor,” Mr. Adams said at his midday arraignment before Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker in a 26th-floor courtroom in Lower Manhattan, as reporters looked on from the gallery and via livestreams in several overflow courtrooms.
The indictment against Mr. Adams, a 57-page description by prosecutors of free, or heavily discounted, overseas trips and illegal campaign contributions from Turkey in return for political favors, has upended New York City’s political landscape. The will-he-or-won’t-he questions about whether Mr. Adams would resign seemed to overshadow even the upcoming presidential election as a tumultuous week in the city drew to a close…
More…