A federal grand jury in Manhattan has indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams on bribery and conspiracy charges.
The allegations were detailed in a sweeping 57-page indictment unsealed Thursday, accusing Adams of soliciting bribes from foreign businesspeople, including a Turkish government official, to fuel his political campaigns.
The indictment accuses Adams of accepting a wide array of bribes over about a decade, accepting free or heavily discounted Turkish Airlines flights around the world, stays in luxury hotels, and yacht trips.
Adams and a staffer took steps to conceal their conduct, deleting messages and faking documents to hide the foreign contributions, prosecutors allege.
In exchange, Adams stiff-armed government officials into approving paperwork for the Turkish House, a Manhattan skyscraper that houses Turkey’s consulate, and not making statements about the Armenian genocide, prosecutors allege.
“Adams solicited and accepted over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits for years from wealthy Turkish business people and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him,” Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which brought the charges, said in a press conference Thursday.
The five-count indictment says foreign nationals sought to “cash in on their corrupt relationships” with the mayor — which prosecutors allege Adams welcomed.
The mayor broke “laws that are designed to ensure that officials like him serve the people, not the highest bidder, not a foreign bidder, and certainly not a foreign power,” Williams said at the press conference.”
“These are bright red lines and we allege the mayor crossed them again and again for years,” Williams said. “That is the only reason we are here today.”
Adams faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
The Democrat and retired NYPD police captain, is the first sitting New York City mayor to be charged in a criminal indictment.
Rudy Giuliani, who served as mayor from 1994 to 2001, is under indictment in Arizona and Georgia in connection with his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election on behalf of Donald Trump.
Adams, 64, has vowed to fight the “entirely false” charges and remain in office, though his indictment is the latest development in a year-long series of subpoenas, searches, and resignations that have already upended City Hall.
The city’s schools chancellor, health commissioner, and police commissioner recently have resigned or announced their resignations.
Adams was a former state senator and the current Brooklyn borough president when he was elected in 2021 to succeed former Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had served two terms. Adams is running for a second term, in the 2025 mayoral election.
He took charge of the city during challenging times, as it struggled to rebuild its economy from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit,” Adams said in a videotaped statement when news of the indictment broke Wednesday night.
“I will request an immediate trial, so that New Yorkers can hear the truth,” he said.
Earlier Thursday, Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Adams, criticized federal officials for searching the mayor’s residence.
“Federal agents appeared this morning at Gracie Mansion in an effort to create a spectacle, (again) and take Mayor Adams’ phone (again)” Spiro said in a written statement.
“They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in,” Spiro said.
Despite his vows to remain in City Hall, calls rose Thursday for Adams to step down, including from his own party.
“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, wrote in an X post.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office, had not commented on the indictment news Thursday morning.
New York City’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would serve as acting mayor if Adams resigns or is removed.
Read the indictment against Eric Adams:
This story has been updated.
