New York’s Democratic mayor indicted for corruption and illegal campaign financing – 09/26/2024 at 6:26 p.m.

New York’s Democratic mayor Eric Adams was “watered down” in secrecy for years by bribes, a Manhattan prosecutor charged Thursday, citing the elected official’s conviction, which has now been severely weakened at the head of the largest city in the United States.

Released Thursday morning, the indictment from the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office specifically refers to acts of wire fraud, illegal solicitation of election campaign contributions from a foreign person and accepting bribes from a Turkish official.

In exchange, Eric Adams would have used his influence on a file for the construction of a skyscraper in which the mission of Turkey to the United Nations and its consulate general, we can read in the court document of more than 50 pages.

“He hid from the public that gifts had been secretly presented to him” and “kept the public in the dark year after year,” Manhattan federal prosecutor Damian Williams charged at a press conference.

“What is said in the indictment – the foreign money, the corporate money, the years of cover-up – shows that he (Eric Adams) has broken the bond of trust with the public to bad,” he told the prosecutor. Calls for the mayor’s resignation have multiplied among New York’s elected Democrats.

The mayor responded that he was “impatient” to defend himself, after declaring his innocence, at a press conference in front of his residence, which was searched early Thursday morning.

He promised to continue his work with New Yorkers, surprisingly refusing to resign.

But this conviction is like a bolt from the blue and undermines the mayor of the largest city in the United States (8.5 million inhabitants), who was an African-American police captain in New York who was elected in 2021 on security commitments, which saw its popularity. rate drop during his mandate, while matters focused on the town hall were multiplying.

– Four studies –

“I voted for him because he was a former police officer, I thought the town needed one. And I found that a black mayor was very positive after the +Black Lives Matter+ movement. But it’s disappointing, he has to resign,” New York voter Bartholomew Bland told AFP as he crossed the crowded Grand Central station in Manhattan.

His conviction also risks embarrassing the Democratic camp, forty days before the presidential election between Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, neck and neck in the polls.

“I always knew that if I defended the interests of New Yorkers, I would be a target – and I became one,” defended Eric Adams. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight with all my strength and spirit,” said the 64-year-old mayor.

At least four federal investigations are underway, including three led by Manhattan prosecutors, targeting the mayor and those close to him, several of whom have fired him. quit a few days ago.

In November 2023, the federal police (FBI) seized the mayor’s cell phones and electronic devices and searched the home of a fundraising manager for his campaign.

News of the accusation comes after several of the mayor’s friends resigned a few days ago, including his health commissioner, and the Chancellor of Education, one of his close friends. The police chief, Edward Caban, was also targeted by the investigation, having resigned earlier in September, just a year after arriving at the head of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the 36,000- his center.

On Wednesday, even before the mayor’s lawsuit was announced, New York MP and leftist figure Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on Eric Adams to resign, “for the good of the city”.

Those calls intensified in the evening from several other elected Democrats.

Eric Adams won the 2021 Democratic primary on a promise to reduce crime, which had skyrocketed in New York during the Covid pandemic. He was able to credit a drop in violent crime, but New Yorkers also have to deal with rising living costs and a housing crisis that has pushed rents to unprecedented levels.

At the end of 2023, the mayor’s popularity had fallen to the lowest level, to 28% in a poll. In this context, several competitors have announced themselves as candidates for the party’s primary in 2025.