Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty in Manhattan Federal Court on Friday to charges that he allegedly engaged in a decade of public corruption that included bribery and campaign finance fraud.
Hizzoner, the first sitting New York City mayor ever to be criminally indicted, appeared before Magistrate Judge Katherine Parker at his noon arraignment hearing on Sept. 27, a day after being indicted in a case brought before the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.
Throughout the proceedings, in the wood-walled and red-carpeted courtroom, Adams looked forward as the judge slowly read him his rights and listed the five counts making up the indictment.
“I am not guilty, Your Honor,” Adams told Judge Parker when asked to enter his plea to the indictment. Judge Parker later ordered Adams released on the condition that he does not communicate with anyone who is named in the indictment about it, including family and staff members with whom he works. However, he was not required to surrender his passport.
During the arraignment, Adams’ defense attorney, Alex Spiro, said he would file a motion to dismiss the case at a conference hearing scheduled for Oct. 2.
The attorney, during a brief news conference following the arraignment, again intimated Friday his belief that the prosecution’s case is frivolous and challenged prosecutors to bring exculpatory information he believes they have and discovery to court Wednesday.
Sprio claimed that flight upgrages and other unreported gifts Adams allegedly recieved from Turkish nationals that are at the center of the case were above board.
“But this isn’t even a real case,” Spiro said. “This is the airline upgrade corruption case.”
Spiro charged that a key staffer who worked with Adams and is often cited in the 57-page indictment against the mayor lied about his involvement soliciting and accepting foreign donations, which are also at the center of the case. He further alleged that the staffer told fedeeral investigators in their first interview that the mayor “knew nothing about this” — adding that they have that information and have refused to give it to make it public.
“We expect these charges to be dismissed,” he said. “There are no emails, text messages, or any corroboration whatsoever that the mayor knew about anything having to do with these campaign donations. The entire body of evidence is one staffer, one staffer that says there’s was a conversation. What you have not heard is that that staffer has lied, and the government is in possession of that lie.”
He compared it to the federal indictment of former state Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin in 2022 on bribery and other related offenses; the case was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge, but revived this past March on appeal with a higher court.
Both fans and detractors of the mayor appeared outside the courthouse Friday and made their voices heard during Spiro’s powwow with reporters.
“I love you, Eric,” one person shouted. “Lock him up,” shouted another.
Mayor Adams — who has decried the charges as “lies” and rebuffed mounting calls for his resignation — surrendered to federal agents at Manhattan Federal Court on Friday morning for processing ahead of the arraignment hearing. The 64-year-old mayor and former Brooklyn borough president stands accused of allegedly soliciting and accepting illegal foreign campaign donations and gifts from the government of Turkey in exchange for assisting in speeding up the process for approvals for a Midtown Manhattan Turkish consulate building.
The indictment also alleges that he hid the illegal foreign contributions via straw donations and used those funds to get $10,000,000 in public matching funds for his mayoral campaign. Additionally, it charges that he accepted $100,000 in unreported gifts from Turkish nationals over the past decade.
If convicted on all five counts, Adams could face up to 45 years in prison.
This is a developing story; check with amNY.com for further updates.
