His lawyer told federal judge Katharine Parker that he would ask the court next week to dismiss the case, which shook the American capital after months of investigations, inquiries and subpoenas. The elected Democrat, who is in his first term, insists he has done nothing wrong and has vowed to stay in office, rejecting growing calls for his resignation.
Eric Adams, a former New York police captain, pleaded not guilty in a packed Manhattan courtroom, just steps from City Hall.
Prosecutors revealed Thursday that he was accused of taking $100,000 in flights and hotel chain stays from people with ties to Turkey, and financing his mayoral campaign. with illegal donations that helped qualify him for more than $10 million in public campaign funds.
Mayor Adams was released Friday on the condition that he not contact witnesses or individuals described in the indictment.
Eric Adams, 64, is expected to appear Wednesday before District Judge Dale E. Ho, who will now preside over the case.
The mayor faces five counts: wire fraud, bribery, conspiracy, as well as two counts of receiving campaign contributions from foreign nationals. If convicted of the most serious charge, wire fraud, he faces up to 20 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.
The former New York police officer, who came to power as a middle-class champion of “law and order,” is accused of exploiting a years-long relationship for personal and political gain with a former Turkish official his as president of the borough of Brooklyn. He is also accused of failing to disclose these links in the disclosure forms.
Travel and campaign grants
He is specifically accused of allowing the official and others to offer him luxury accommodation in countries including France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary, Ghana and Turkey, including an upgrade to business class, premium cuisine. In total, prosecutors say these benefits were worth more than US$100,000.
Mr. Adams is also accused of conspiring with Turkish businessmen and others to bury illegal foreign contributions to his political campaigns, in part by channeling them through magical donors who did not really put.
In return, Mr. Adams allegedly did favors to his supporters, including in September 2021, when prosecutors say, on the verge of being elected mayor, without he helped ensure that the newly built Turkish diplomatic tower in Manhattan was not subject to fire control, which was doomed to failure.
Alex Spiro, a high-profile defense attorney whose past and present client list includes Elon Musk, Alec Baldwin and Jay-Z, said it’s not unusual or inappropriate for an elected official to accept travel privileges. The mayor denied accepting an illegal campaign contribution and said any help he gave to people navigating the city’s bureaucracy was just part of his job.
Adams has so far resisted calls to resign, including from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, a potential Democratic challenger in next June’s mayoral primary. and some Republicans. Democratic leaders such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have stopped short of calling for his resignation, saying the legal process should take its course.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has the power to remove the mayor from office, has also not asked Mr. Adams to resign. But she appeared to warn a mayor she has often described as a close friend, saying in a statement that she was reviewing her “options and responsibilities.”
Separately, it is reported that federal prosecutors are conducting several different investigations involving Mr. Adams, his top agents and relatives of these deputies. In early September, federal investigators seized devices from the police commissioner, the commissioner of public schools, two vice mayors and other confidants of Mr. Adams.
In just the past two weeks, the police commissioner resigned and the schools commissioner announced his resignation. Neither has been charged with a crime or publicly accused of a crime.
2024-09-27 21:56:21
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