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NYC Mayor Adams May Face More Counts in Corruption Case, US Says
(Bloomberg) -- New York Mayor Eric Adams may be charged with further counts in his corruption case, prosecutors said, adding it was “quite likely” other defendants will be named.
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The US told a federal judge of those prospects Wednesday morning as Adams appeared in a Manhattan courtroom for the second time in a week. The government said further counts for the mayor were “possible” and that its case would include “multiple witnesses.”
Adams was indicted last week, the first sitting New York mayor to face federal felony charges, amid a widespread criminal probe in which top City Hall aides have had their homes searched and phones seized by investigators. The next day, he pleaded not guilty and was freed without bail.
Since then the mayor has rolled out an aggressive defense to corruption charges that threaten to bring down the administration of the largest US city. He has denied the charges, resisted calls to step down and shown he intends to fight back. His lawyer has blasted federal prosecutors for allegedly leaking details of the case to the press and has taken the unusual step of asking the judge to dismiss part of the case right away.
“The prosecution is desperately now saying they ‘could’ bring a new case because they are suddenly facing dismissal of their actual, flawed case and sanctions for misconduct,” attorney Alex Spiro said in a statement. “This is the sort of nonsense that prosecutors say when they don’t have a real case. If they had a real case, they would have brought it.”
Prosecutors claim Adams began accepting improper benefits, including luxury travel from wealthy Turkish businesspeople, when he was Brooklyn borough president before running for mayor. He is also accused of secretly accepting illegal foreign contributions and defrauding taxpayers out of matching funds for his 2021 mayoral campaign.
The mayor has come under pressure to resign. Governor Kathy Hochul, who can remove him from office, has declined to say whether she will, urging Adams to reflect on whether he can be effective under indictment. If he doesn’t step down, he could also be removed if at least four of five members of an “inability committee” — including City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running to replace Adams — vote against him.
If Adams is removed, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would become acting mayor and, depending on the timing, would then call a special election or stay in office until the mayoral balloting in November 2025.
The government’s statements about possible new counts and new defendants came at a pretrial conference before US District Judge Dale Ho. Such proceedings are an opportunity for the parties and judge to discuss scheduling, possible legal motions and the exchange of evidence, all with an eye to moving the case toward trial. A tentative trial date is sometimes set, but Ho didn’t set one on Wednesday.
At the hearing, Spiro asked Ho, a Biden appointee who took the bench in August 2023, for a speedy trial.
“We do not want this case dragging,” Spiro said.
At one point Spiro objected to the government’s answers to questions about the pretrial exchange of information.
“They have a weak case, I get this,” he said, but the US was making “a long opening statement about what the witnesses are going to say,” which is mostly “misleading and false.”
Prosecutors said the evidence against Adams includes business records that are typical for white collar cases as well as items specific to the case, such as records from a Turkish airline showing he didn’t pay for $50,000 of flights he took in 2017. It will also include government papers and electronic records such as GPS data, photographs and voice memos.
On Monday Spiro filed a motion to dismiss a criminal count of federal program bribery, arguing that a series of Supreme Court rulings in recent years makes the charge untenable. He held a press conference minimizing the allegations and vowing to seek dismissal of the four other charges as well, which he says appear to be based on the word of a staffer with an ax to grind.
Convincing a judge to dismiss charges at this early stage requires showing that even if the government’s allegations are true, they don’t add up to a crime.
Alleged Leaks
Then, on Tuesday, Spiro filed his motion for a court hearing and sanctions against the government for alleged leaks.
“For nearly a year, the government has leaked grand jury material and other sensitive information to the media to aggrandize itself, further its investigation and unfairly prejudice the defendant, Mayor Eric Adams,” he said in the court filing.
Meanwhile, Erlene King, who served as campaign treasurer for an unsuccessful Brooklyn borough president candidate in 2021, was charged with trying to cheat the city’s Campaign Finance Board out of $400,000 in matching funds through fraudulent contributions. The board determined the campaign had submitted false records and didn’t pay the funds out, according to a filing by the US attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
Some of the contributions were from straw donors, or those used as deceptive conduits for others’ money, the government claims. The use of straw donors is also alleged in the indictment against Adams. In recent years there have been several notable cases alleging attempts to defraud the city’s generous campaign matching program.
King pleaded not guilty at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday. Her lawyer John Wallenstein didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment on the charges.
The case is US v. Adams, 24-cr-566, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
--With assistance from Patricia Hurtado, Laura Nahmias and Myles Miller.
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