New York City Mayor Eric Adams Indicted on Bribery and Other Charges: What to Know

New York Mayor Eric L. Adams pleaded not guilty Friday after he was charged Thursday with bribery; conspiracy to commit wire fraud, receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals, and accept bribes; wire fraud; and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national partly in connection with his 2021 campaign for mayor. The news made Adams the first sitting mayor in the city’s modern history to face federal charges.

The federal indictment, unsealed Thursday morning following a years-long federal corruption investigation, alleges that Adams’ crimes date back to 2014, when he was the Brooklyn borough president. It accuses him of seeking and accepting “improper” benefits, including luxury international travel from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official. During his 2021 mayoral campaign, Adams allegedly sought and accepted illegal campaign contributions and “other things of value” from foreign nationals. The indictment also accuses him of “providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”

Also on Thursday morning, FBI agents entered Adam’s residence in Manhattan’s Upper East Side and seized his cell phone.

“Federal agents appeared this morning at Gracie Mansion in an effort to create a spectacle (again) and take Mayor Adams’ phone (again),” Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement to the New York Times. “They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in.”

At a heated press conference outside the mayor’s Gracie Mansion home on Thursday, Adams denied the allegations in the indictment, while journalists fired questions.

“It’s an unfortunate day. And it’s a painful day,” Adams said. “But inside all of that is a day when we will finally reveal why, for 10 months, I’ve gone through this. And I look forward to defending myself.”

Community members at the press conference repeatedly shouted “resign” at the city’s mayor.

“I follow the rules, I follow the law,” he said. “We know what those rules are, and we comply with those rules.”

Adams also wrote in a post on X Thursday afternoon that he has “done nothing wrong.”

At a press conference after the indictment was unsealed, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said that federal investigators had uncovered that Adams allegedly accepted more than $100,000 in luxury travel benefits, including several free business class flights and “opulent” accommodations in various countries for himself and a companion—none of which he publicly disclosed. Authorities allege Adams created, and told others to create, fake paper trails that indicated he had paid or planned to pay for the free travel benefits, according to the indictment.

“As we allege, year after year after year, he kept the public in the dark,” Williams said. “He told the public he received no gifts, even though he was secretly being showered with them.”

The indictment says Adams allegedly intervened in the New York City Fire Department’s inspection process for the Turkish official who had gifted him with free travel benefits. The building that would house a new Turkish consulate would have failed a fire department inspection, but Adams facilitated the building’s opening after the Turkish official told Adams in September 2021 that “it was his turn to repay” the official, the indictment alleges.

The indictment also alleges that Adams disguised illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors through “straw donors,” which hide the money’s true source. Adams also allegedly accepted campaign donations from corporations, violating New York City’s ban on corporate contributions, according to the indictment.

“Federal law clearly prohibits foreign donations—that’s how we protect our elections from foreign influence,” Williams said. “Yet Adams directed his staff to pursue this illegal money to support his campaign for mayor.”

The mayor shared a video late Wednesday, saying that any crimes the federal government intends to charge him with “would be entirely false, based on lies. But they would not be surprising.” He added that “many may say I should resign because I cannot manage the city while fighting the case” but emphasized that he has no plans to step down.

Adams, who described himself as a “target,” said that when the Biden administration’s “broken immigration policies” overwhelmed the city’s shelter system, he “put the people of New York before party and politics.”

Adams’ regular criticism of the Biden administration over the influx of migrants into New York City put the mayor at odds with the President. In response to a question about Adams’ apparent suggestion that his charges were politically motivated and related to his falling out with the Biden administration, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday that the “DOJ is handling this case independently.” She also said that Biden did not see or speak to Adams when the two attended the same reception at the Met Museum on Wednesday.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also similarly claimed that Adams’ was being targeted for political reasons. “I watched about a year ago when he talked about how the illegal migrants are hurting our city, and the federal government should pay us, and we shouldn’t have to take them. And I said: You know what? He’ll be indicted within a year. And I was exactly right,” Trump said at a press conference on Thursday. 

The indictment comes less than a year ahead of the Democratic primary for next year’s mayoral race, in which Adams has said he intends to run for re-election. So far, the field of challengers already includes New York City comptroller Brad Lander, state senator from Brooklyn Zellnor Myrie, state senator from Queens Jessica Ramos, and former city comptroller Scott Stringer.

Lander issued a statement on X Wednesday night, saying that while Adams “deserves due process … the most appropriate path forward is for him to step down so that New York City can get the full focus its leadership demands.” Myrie echoed the call for Adams to resign in a statement on X, saying “a mayor under the weight of a serious indictment” would no longer be able to be “fully focused” on the city’s issues.

Hours before the indictment was reported, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) urged Adams to step down, posting on X that she does “not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City” given the “flood of resignations” and “nonstop investigations.” Other Democratic members of Congress from New York, including Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez  and Rep. John C. Liu, have since also called for his resignation.

While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) did not explicitly call for Adams to resign, he said in a statement that “no one is above the law, including the mayor of New York City.” Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office but is reportedly unlikely to exercise it, said in a statement that she expects Adams to “take the next few days to review the situation and find an appropriate path forward to ensure the people of New York City are being well-served by their leaders.” 

“I have been facing these lies for months,” Adams said in his video statement, “yet the city has continued to improve. Make no mistake: you elected me to lead this city—and lead it I will.”

Before Adams’ indictment, several high-ranking New York City officials resigned earlier this month, including City Hall’s top lawyer, the health commissioner, and the police commissioner. On Tuesday, the city’s school chancellor also announced his retirement by the end of the year, after federal agents in early September raided his home and seized his and other officials’ phones as part of ongoing investigations into Adams’ administration.

Should Adams leave his post before his term ends in 2026, New York City public advocate Jumaane Williams would become acting mayor, and a special election would be scheduled.

“The conduct alleged in the indictment—the foreign money, the corporate money, the bribery, the years of concealment—is a grave breach of the public’s trust. Public office is a privilege. We allege that Mayor Adams abused that privilege and broke the law—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,” Damian Williams said during his press conference. “These are bright red lines, and we allege that the mayor crossed them again and again for years.”