New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he is prepared to fight the federal indictment charges against him just days after the home of the NYPD police commissioner was raided in a seemingly heightened corruption investigation, USA Today reports.
Shortly after the indictment was announced against the mayor on Sept. 25, Adams released a video defending himself and his administration. “My fellow New Yorkers, it is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes. If so, these charges will be entirely false, based on lies,” he said.
“But they would not be surprising. I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, I would be a target, and a target I became. For months, leaks and rumors have been aimed at me in an attempt to undermine my credibility.”
The unsealed charges include “corrupting his office and defrauding the public by accepting foreign campaign contributions in exchange for favorable treatment,” according to Law360.com. Adams’ administration has faced federal scrutiny over the past 12 months regarding a separate probe into potential illegal foreign donations from officials in Turkey during Adams’ 2021
ass="amp-ad-wrapper amp_ad_1 ampforwp-incontent-custom-banner ampforwp-incontent-ad2">The city’s charter states that the “mayor may be removed from office by the governor upon charges.” If he is forced out of office, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would become mayor of the Big Apple, the largest city in the country with close to eight million people.
Before the charges, the 64-year-old started his day out with a jam-packed schedule. According to ABC News, Adams called into a morning radio show to highlight his administration, discuss the current news cycle, and answer a few questions. While speaking about Marcellus Williams, the Black man who was executed in Missouri in late September 2024, radio host Tarsha Jones switched gears, asking him, “What’s going on over there? I see you cleaning house every time I turn around,” about City Hall’s chief counsel Lisa Zornberg, resigning on Sept. 14.
He also supported the Planning Commission’s approval of his “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity” proposal and dubbed Melissa Aviles-Ramos as the next chancellor of the New York City Public Schools System. In the evening, Adams appeared at a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden were in attendance.
Under the indictment, Adams would be the first NYC mayor criminally charged while still sitting in office. On social media, critics compare Adams to four-time-indicted former President Donald Trump and disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. “Puff & Eric Adams gotta recreate this picture with the key to their jail cell,” @its_kachi said.
Government officials, such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), used social media to call for Adams’s resignation. “I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration. For the good of the city, he should resign.”
State Senator Zellnor Myrie called the indictment a “sad day” for the city and is “especially painful for so many Black New Yorkers who put our hope and faith in this Mayor.”
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