Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday said that he had spoken with Republican President-elect Donald Trump following the election but that they did not discuss the federal indictment brought by President Biden’s Justice Department.
Adams, a Democrat, made the remarks in response to a reporter’s question during an unrelated Thursday news conference on a new city lawsuit over youth vaping, a little over a day after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in his bid to return to the White House. The reporter asked Adams whether he had spoken to Trump and congratulated the former president on his victory—and whether he would help with the mayor’s federal corruption charges. The mayor was also asked if the pair had spoken about youth vaping.
“I communicated with the president yesterday to state that there are many issues here in the city that we want to work together with the administration to address,” Adams said. “A lot of our infrastructure issues, a lot of the issues that we shared yesterday with the team here. The city must move forward, and that’s what our goal is to do.”
But during the news conference Adams notably did not answer whether he congratulated the president-elect or if they had discussed his criminal charges — brought by Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams on Sept. 26. The mayor cited not wanting to go into private conversations in declining to address those topics.
“We did not talk about the incoming administration to look at this vaping issue,” he said, answering the vaping portion of the question, but not the part about his legal case. “But it’s one of the many topics that I think there should be a federal approach to address the problem of vaping in the city.”
However, during an ABC7 interview later Thursday, Adams said he did not discuss his legal issues with Trump.
Asked by another reporter whether he had discussed the topic of immigration with Trump, Adams repeated that he does not go into private conversations. On Wednesday, Adams notably refused to answer whether his administration would cooperate with Trump’s pledge to round up and deport millions of undocumented migrants.
The questions came following weeks of speculation that Adams has avoided criticizing Trump, unlike most other leading Democratic pols, in hopes the former president would help dismiss the charges against or pardon him. The New York Post reported last month that Adams’ legal team hoped for a Trump victory, given that he would likely install his own attorney general who could then dismiss the case against Adams.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is challenging Adams in next year’s Democratic mayoral primary, mused last week that the mayor was going easy on Trump following his inflammatory rally at Madison Square Garden to “get a pardon” from him. Following the rally, where Trump and some of his closest supporters voiced misogynistic and racist remarks, Adams would not directly condemn the then former-president’s conduct.
Trump in turn has publicly sympathized with Adams, casting them both as victim’s of political retribution from Biden’s Justice Department — claims he has made without evidence. He has also derided the mayor’s case, falsely suggesting the charges against him were solely based on Adams recieving a free flight upgrade.
The mayor also noticeably avoided saying Vice President Harris’ name in the weeks leading up to the election, only quickly uttering it on Election Day before casting his vote at his Brooklyn poll site.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges including bribery, accepting foreign campaign donations and wire fraud. He is accused of soliciting and accepting roughly $100,000 in luxury travel benefits and illegal campaign donations from Turkish nationals for nearly a decade in exchange for political favors.
His trial in the case was set for April 21 of next year by federal Judge Dale Ho last week.
