NEW YORK — Eric Adams, a retired police captain who was elected New York City's a hundred and tenth mayor nearly three years ago on a promise to scale back crime, has been charged with corruption following a federal investigation, people accustomed to the matter said Wednesday.
The indictment remained sealed Wednesday evening and it was unclear what charges could be brought against Adams. But the federal investigation has focused not less than partially on whether Adams and his campaign team colluded with the Turkish government to acquire illegal donations from abroad.
If the costs are made public, Adams will probably be the primary New York City mayor to face an indictment in federal court while in office.
The charges are prone to reverberate across the nation's largest city and beyond, plunging Adams's ailing administration into deeper chaos just months before he faces challengers in a hotly contested primary for mayor.
In a press release, Adams said he had done nothing flawed.
“I always knew that if I stood up for New Yorkers, I would be a target – and I was,” he said. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight it with all my strength and determination.”
Brendan R. McGuire and Boyd M. Johnson III, partners at WilmerHale who represent the mayor, didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
Representatives of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, the FBI and the town's Bureau of Investigation declined to comment.
The indictment marked a rare turnaround for Adams, 64, a former state senator and Brooklyn borough president who took office as the town was recovering from the pandemic and facing an enormous influx of migrants from the southern border.
It was the results of an investigation by the FBI and federal prosecutors in Manhattan that began greater than two years ago and focused not less than partially on the possible foreign donations, in addition to whether Adams pressured fire officials to approve the opening of a brand new high-rise consulate for the Turkish government despite security concerns. Investigators also looked into whether Adams accepted expensive flights and upgrades on Turkish Airlines, which is partly owned by the Turkish government.
The investigation remained secret until late last 12 months, when the FBI raided the house of its top fundraiser after which made it public. After raiding fundraiser Brianna Suggs' home last November, federal investigators seized two laptops, three iPhones and a file folder labeled “Eric Adams.” Suggs has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Just a few days later, in a dramatic scene on a Greenwich Village street, FBI agents ordered the mayor's security guards to step aside, climbed into his SUV with him and confiscated his electronic devices.
Until federal investigations caught up with him, Adams' life appeared to be the classic New York success story.
Raised by a working-class mother in Brooklyn and Queens, he overcame dyslexia and run-ins with police to hitch the force himself. He began as a transit officer, attempting to create change from inside. During his two-decade profession there, he rose to the rank of captain and have become a vocal and sometimes controversial advocate for black cops.
After retiring from office to pursue a profession in politics, Adams dreamed for years of becoming mayor of New York City. He achieved that dream by winning over diverse constituencies across the town, and described it as an accomplishment he said was ordained by God.
As mayor, Adams vowed to return “swag” to a city still recovering from the pandemic, and he surrounded himself at City Hall with friends and colleagues whose loyalty to him sometimes exceeded their political competence, a few of whom had troubled pasts.
But his 33-month tenure as mayor was marred by scandals. In July 2023, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg indicted six people, including a retired police inspector who had worked and related to Adams, on charges of conspiracy to funnel illegal donations to the mayoral campaign.
Two months later, Bragg filed charges against Eric Ulrich, the mayor's former senior adviser and construction commissioner, for conspiracy and bribery. Bragg accused Ulrich of using his city-funded position to “line his pockets.”
Recently, federal agents seized the phones of a number of the city's highest-ranking officials, including the police chief, the colleges chancellor, the primary deputy mayor, the deputy mayor for public safety and a senior aide who has been sued 4 times this 12 months for sexual harassment. None of those officials have been charged with a criminal offense.
Although he will probably be the primary sitting mayor to face criminal charges, Adams will not be the primary to be criminally investigated. Jimmy Walker, a flamboyant, nightlife-loving mayor often known as Beau James, held court in jazz-era New York but resigned amid a corruption scandal and fled to Europe.
Mayor William O'Dwyer, the one modern mayor aside from Adams to have served as a police officer, resigned just months into his second term amid what he described in his obituary as “the biggest police scandal in the city's history.”
Federal prosecutors recently investigated but didn’t file charges against Bill de Blasio, Adams' predecessor, over his dealings with donors. And Rudy Giuliani was indicted this 12 months, greater than 20 years after his tenure as mayor, in a Georgia case involving efforts to overturn the end result of the 2020 presidential election.
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