Legal Analysis of the Eric Adams Indictment

Damian Williams: I'm the United States Attorney here in the Southern District of New York. Today we are announcing campaign finance bribery and conspiracy charges against Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City. As the indictment alleges, Mayor Adams engaged in a long-running conspiracy in which he solicited and knowingly accepted illegal campaign contributions from foreign donors and corporations. As we allege, Mayor Adams took these contributions even though he knew they were illegal, and even though he knew these contributions were attempts by a Turkish government official and Turkish businessmen to buy influence with him. We also alleged that the mayor sought and accepted well over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits from some of the same foreign actors who arranged many of the illegal campaign contributions.

These benefits included free international business class flights and opulent hotel rooms in foreign cities. The mayor had a duty to disclose these gifts on his annual public disclosure forms so that the public could see who was giving him what but as we allege, year after year after year, he kept the public in the dark. He told the public he received no gifts, even though he was secretly being showered with them.

We allege that Adams accepted these benefits knowing that they were given to him because of his position and in exchange for some of those improper benefits, he intervened in the New York City Fire Department's inspection process for a building owned and operated by the Turkish government, allowing it to open even though it had not passed the fire inspection. The corruption alleged in the indictment is, as I said, long-running.

As we allege in the indictment, Adams' solicitation of illegal campaign contributions began in 2018. After he started raising funds for his 2021 mayoral campaign, he agreed to take contributions offered by multiple Turkish businessmen, several of whom he met in Turkey. Adams knew that these wealthy individuals could not legally donate in a US election. Federal law clearly prohibits foreign donations. That's how we protect our elections from foreign influence.

Yet Adams directed his staff to pursue this illegal money to support his campaign for mayor. And as we allege, Adams continued to pursue foreign money in secret well into 2021. And it didn't stop with his first campaign for mayor. As we allege, in 2023, the mayor rekindled these corrupt relationships seeking more illegal campaign contributions from some of the same foreign sources to support his reelection campaign.

Adams also took contributions that broke other laws. As we allege, he sought contributions from businessmen far in excess of what the law allowed. He also allegedly sought contributions from corporations, which are not allowed to contribute at all in New York City elections. Many of those illegal corporate contributions were organized by the same people who organized the illegal foreign contributions and Adams allegedly disguised them all in the same way, by accepting the money through so-called straw donors.

A straw donor contributes someone else's money, hiding the money's illegal source, such as a foreign businessman, a corporation, or a wealthy New Yorker who has already contributed the maximum amount allowed. And as we allege, Adams circumvented all of these laws, taking contributions from exactly the sources the law prohibits all to benefit his mayoral campaigns.

Adams also personally benefited from the illegal conduct alleged in the indictment. Adams solicited and accepted over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits for years from wealthy Turkish businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him. Adams started accepting undisclosed luxury travel benefits at least as early as 2016. He took these benefits nearly every year to through 2021.

Here are some of the benefits that we uncovered during our investigation. In 2016, Adams flew to India through Turkey and received two free round-trip upgrades for business class seats. That's the highest class on Turkey's national airline. Those upgrades were worth more than $12,000 and none of it was publicly disclosed. In 2017, Adams accepted free business class tickets for himself and his travel companions to France, Turkey, and China, and he was put up in the Bentley suite in the St. Regis Hotel in Istanbul.

All of that was worth more than $41,000, and none of it was publicly disclosed. Also in 2017, he flew to China, again, through Turkey and accepted two free business-class tickets for himself and a companion. Those were worth more than $16,000 and none of it was publicly disclosed. In 2018, he flew to Hungary through Turkey and accepted free upgrades for business class seats. Those were worth more than $12,000 and none of it was publicly disclosed.

In 2019, he flew to Turkey and accepted a free upgrade to business class for his companion and a free stay in a lavish suite at the St. Regis hotel in Istanbul. That was worth more than $9,000 and again, none of it was publicly disclosed. In 2021, Adam solicited business class tickets to Istanbul, stays at luxury hotels and resorts, yacht tours, and meals. As we allege. He asked to pay a nominal fee for all of this in order to disguise what we allege were, in fact, bribes.

He canceled that trip at the very last minute, but the benefits that he solicited were worth more than $21,000 and later in 2021, Adams flew to Ghana again through Turkey and accepted free business class ticket upgrades and other gifts while he was on a layover in Istanbul. Those benefits were worth more than $12,000 and just like all the other benefits I've just run through, none of it was publicly disclosed.

Now, I want to be clear. These upgrades and freebies were not part of some frequent flyer or loyalty program available to the general public. As we allege, this was a multi-year scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise, Eric Adams. Now this is a chart with all of the undisclosed travel benefits that we uncovered during the investigation.

We just list it all out. Here you see the year 2016, 2017, 2017, 2018, 2019, and two in 2021. The destination, India, all the way to Ghana. The benefits, the free upgrades or free tickets altogether, the hotel stays, and the value. If you just sum up all the dollar amounts here, you get to more than $100,000. And of course, as I said before, every single trip that we list here was undisclosed.

As we allege in the indictment, in addition to not disclosing these benefits, Adams sometimes created fake paper trails to try to cover up the travel benefits he solicited and received. Let me give you one example. Adams wrote emails to his staff suggesting he paid for his 2017 business class flights on the Turkish airline when, as we allege, he did not. Those flights were worth a lot of money.

Just one ticket alone cost more than $10,000 but months after taking the flights, Adams wrote an email to a staff member and told the staff member that he had left cash in her desk drawer and that she should send the money to the Turkish Airline to pay for a trip he had already taken. As the indictment makes clear, that's just a clumsy cover-up. Now, just because Adams received benefits for free, that doesn't mean that there weren't strings attached.

As we allege, a particular Turkish government official behind many of the benefits Adams sought and accepted gave Adams all these things to gain influence over him. We alleged that Adams knew that and took the benefits anyway. We alleged that when the Turkish government official needed him, Adams also took corrupt official action in exchange for some of the luxury travel benefits.

In 2021, the Turkish government official was trying to open a brand new high rise building in Manhattan that would house Turkey's consulate. There was significant time pressure because the Turkish official desperately needed the building to be open in time for a visit from Turkey's President. This building was important to the Turkish official, and it was important to Turkey but the FDNY's fire safety professionals wouldn't let the building open because the building hadn't passed an inspection.

And not just that, some of the people at FDNY thought the building had so many issues and defects that the building was not safe to occupy. So the Turkish official sent word to Adams that it was, "his turn" to support Turkey. As we allege, Adams delivered and pressured the fire department to let the building open. The FDNY professionals were convinced that they would lose their jobs if they didn't back down and so they did. They got out of the way and let the building open.

The Turkish official got what he wanted and as we explained in the indictment, just four days after Adams held up his end of the bargain, he went right back to soliciting more travel benefits from the Turkish airline. Now, I want to make three things crystal clear. First, the conduct alleging 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. These are bright red lines and we allege that the mayor crossed them again and again for years. That is the only reason we are here today.

Second, this investigation continues. We continue to dig and we will hold more people accountable. I encourage anyone with information to come forward and to do so before it is too late. Third, the Southern District of New York remains committed to rooting out corruption without fear or favor and without regard to partisan politics. We are not focused on the right or the left. We are focused only on right and wrong.

That is our duty, and we will fulfill it. Today's charges are the product of a tremendous partnership. I want to thank our partners at FBI and the New York City Department of Investigation who have been with us every step of the way. Finally, I want to commend the outstanding career prosecutors from SDNY who are handling this case. Celia Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach, Hagen Scotten, and Derek Wickstrom and the Chiefs of the Public Corruption Unit, Laura Pomeranz, and Robert Sobelman. It's now my pleasure to turn the podium over to FBI assistant director in charge James Dennehy.

James Dennehy: Good morning and thank you for being here today. The indictment of a sitting mayor is not just another headline. It is a stinging reminder that no one is above the law or beyond reproach and it serves as a sobering moment for all of us who place our trust in elected officials. Today's indictment sends a powerful message to every elected official in this country. Public service is a profound responsibility and should be a noble calling.

When that's perverted by greed and dishonesty, it robs us of our trust. It's a pact between leaders and their communities, built on the pillars of trust, accountability, and transparency. When that pact is broken, the consequences ripple far beyond one office or one election cycle. We know not all leaders are corrupt. We know there are countless public servants who wake up every day with the intention of doing right by their constituents but we cannot ignore the shadow cast by moments like this.

When trust is eroded, it takes years, sometimes decades, to rebuild. The weight of today's actions falls not just on the indicted official, but on every other public official who must now work harder to earn the public's confidence in them. It's important to remember accountability isn't just about punishing those with alleged wrongdoings. It's about lifting the communities they've let down.

It's about rebuilding, restoring, and reimagining what public servants can and should do. It's up to us to demand more from our leaders, to hold them to the highest standards, and to remind them that the power of public office should never be abused. While some may be disappointed today, let me encourage you not to be defeated. The strength of our communities, our faith in one another, and our collective resilience are far greater than the alleged failings of any one individual.

In closing, I'd like to thank the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damien Williams, and his office Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber and the New York City Department investigation and her team, as well as my team, the public corruption squad here at FBI New York. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: We have been listening to US Attorney Damian Williams and one of his aides announcing the charges against Mayor Eric Adams of bribery, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, and fraud. The mayor took campaign donations, the allegation goes travel benefits like free trips and opulent lodging from foreign government officials and foreign businesspeople.

They say he concealed those from the public, even though transparency is required under the law and he allegedly allowed the Turkish consulate to open in New York without a required fire inspection as one of the favors in return. Damian Williams said foreign national donations are illegal to begin with. He said there were $12,000 worth of business class airline tickets to India one time through Turkey.

There were other such trips with similar value to other countries, Hungary, China, and more, always through Turkey, and never publicly disclosed. He alleged that the mayor asked on at least one occasion to pay a nominal fee for another trip, allegedly to cover up the benefit that he was getting for nearly free. Williams called all this and more a grave breach of the public trust, and he said the investigation continues.

With us now, Andrew Weissmann, NYU law professor and MSNBC legal analyst and author of books including Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation. Andrew was a top prosecutor under Mueller in that Russia investigation and the book The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary. Well, now we have a whole other historic charging document, and Andrew Weissmann is here with commentary. Andrew, thank you so much for a few minutes as this news is breaking.

Andrew Weissmann: Nice to be here, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Well, it sounded like a strong case when the US attorney laid it out, but we know that's one side of the argument. Does it seem like a strong indictment to you on first blush?

Andrew Weissmann: Let me point out a couple of things for our listeners. One, there are two types of charges here and one is a little simpler to prove than the other. One is simply receipt of money from a foreign source. That's not allowed at the state or federal level if it's done knowingly and intentionally. The other charge that's a little more complicated is that you took the money in exchange for taking an action. It's that connection, the quid pro quo that can be difficult for prosecutors to prove depending on cooperating witnesses and texts and emails that they may have.

That quid pro quo, which has been successfully prosecuted, is a harder charge than a very simple charge, which is just taking the foreign money. In both cases, you do have to show that Mayor Adams knew what was going on. It's not enough if underlings took money that came from a foreign source if the mayor didn't know it. And very frequently in campaign cases, some people are giving to a campaign and hiding that they're giving more than they're allowed to or a source of money that's not allowed and the candidate who's running for office has no idea that that's what's going on at a lower level.

It remains to be seen. Finally, I think it is really interesting that this morning there was a search of Gracie Mansion. Why is that interesting? It means that the evidence that the government hopes to obtain isn't really necessary to these charges because they already brought these charges. It does suggest something that Damian Williams in the press conference he just had, it does suggest that this, as he said, this investigation is ongoing and that they believe that there is additional evidence with respect to that ongoing investigation that could be found at Gracie Mansion.

If that is a court ordered search, it means that a judge agreed that there was at least probable cause that there was evidence of that additional criminality at Gracie Mansion.

Brian Lehrer: Is the only favor alleged here, as far as you could tell, allowing that building with the Turkish consulate to open without a fire inspection? If that is the only alleged favor, is that not small potatoes for a federal indictment?

Andrew Weissmann: My quick read is that that is exactly what the favor is. I think that-- I'm not sure I would say it's small potatoes. Somebody who, as Mayor Adams did, used to serve in the police department and is now the mayor of the City of New York, that is not conduct that he should be engaging in, which is taking money from anyone, let alone a foreign source, in exchange for an approval.

Just remember, the allegation here is not that just he sped up the approval, that it would've gotten it anyway, but it was a building that should not have been approved at that time, and it needed further inspection. There's a reason for those inspections. Now, is it murder? Is it murder and mayhem? Does it suggest the kind of criminality that was shown in the Senator Menendez case, which also was about foreign money in exchange for favors?

No, it is definitely a lesser crime, but I generally have the view that if you are a senior political officer, such as the mayor of the City of New York, you should be like Caesar's wife. I don't think that-- small potatoes is not something that should be the bar for whether you actually end up being prosecuted.

Brian Lehrer: Right, and of course, if you let a building open without a fire inspection, it puts people at risk of a fire, which, of course, is a very serious thing to put people at risk for. You were in the Federal Department of Justice. That's your background as well. Do you know US Attorney Damian Williams?

Andrew Weissmann: I do not well, but I have met him from time to time in connection with my day job at NYU Law School.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have an impression of him? Does he have a history of bringing corruption charges? Not much that I've seen but give us Damian Williams take in brief, if you can.

Andrew Weissmann: Sure. Damian Williams is a career prosecutor. He is a serious fellow. He is not what's commonly known as a cowboy shoot first, investigate later type of person. It doesn't mean that he is going to be right all the time, it doesn't mean that everyone has to agree with him, but he is a serious public servant who I think we all should be proud of.

He does have a history of-- and his office has a very extensive history of bringing public corruption cases. As I noted, the Senator Menendez case is a very similar case that their office has recently indicted and-- sorry, they indicted and they recently had a conviction in that case. He does have a real history as well as having many people in that office with a real history of how to prosecute these types of cases.

Brian Lehrer: Well, I'm sure we will hear from Mayor Adams' attorneys soon enough and we will hear how they begin to mount a defense. Andrew Weissmann, MSNBC legal analyst, NYU law professor, author of The Trump Indictments: The Historic Documents with Commentary. Thank you for jumping on with us.

Andrew Weissmann: You're welcome.

Brian Lehrer: That concludes the Brian Lehrer show for Today and our special coverage of the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams. The Brian Lehrer Show is produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Cerner, Carl Boisrand, and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Megan Ryan is the head of live radio. Juliano Fonda and Jason Isaac at the audio controls. Stay tuned for All of It.

 

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