Mayor Eric Adams‘ legal team wasted no time in filing a motion Monday requesting a judge dismiss federal bribery charges against him — one of five the US Justice Department brought in a historic indictment of the city’s chief executive last week.
In the motion, Adams’ lawyers — led by celebrity attorney Alex Spiro — argue the charge of bribery against the mayor should be tossed because Adams’ alleged behavior in the indictment does not meet the federal legal standard for the crime. To justify their argument, Adams lawyers cited a recent US Supreme Court ruling in which the body’s conservative majority overturned the corruption conviction James Snyder, an ex-GOP mayor of Portage, IN.
“With respect to bribery, the deficiencies in the government’s case are clear on the face of the indictment,” the filing reads. “In this circumstance, the federal rules entitle Adams to a swift dismissal of the charge.”
The mayor is accused of running a nearly decade-long scheme in which he received unreported travel benefits and illegal campaign donations from foreign nationals in exchange for doing favors on their behalf. Adams pleaded not guilty to all five criminal counts in federal court on Friday after surrendering to federal authorities.
Specifically, in the motion, the mayor’s attorneys argue that Adams’ alleged intervention in 2021 on behalf of a Turkish official to speed up approvals for the country’s Manhattan consulate high-rise that had failed FDNY inspections — a deed for which prosecutors alleged that Adams exchanged for travel benefits — does not amount to bribery.
That’s because, the attorneys say, the indictment does not include any alleged direct communications between the mayor — who was then the Brooklyn borough president — and the unnamed Turkish official explicitly stating that he would take that action in exchange for free Turkish Airline upgrades.
Additionally, the only messages the indictment does cite between Adams and then-FDNY Commissioner Dan Nigro, the attorneys say, do not indicate that there was a quid pro quo.
“Although the indictment alleges at one point that then-Borough President Adams sent three messages to the FDNY Commissioner about a building permit that the consulate needed in time for a visit by the president of Turkey, it conspicuously does not allege that he agreed ex-ante to take that specific action in exchange for the travel benefits that he received,” the motion reads.
Adams’ lawyers further argue that the messages he sent Nigro about expediting inspections for the tower, so it could open ahead of a planned visit from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, did not rise to the level of “official acts” that fall under bribery. They say that is because the messages were “innocuous,” and Adams, as Brooklyn borough president, did not have any actual authority over the FDNY.
The other charges in the indictment — of conspiracy, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, and wire fraud — are equally “meritless,” the mayor’s attorneys argue.
The indictment also alleges that Adams received the foreign contributions through straw donors — those who give money in their name on behalf of another and are then reimbursed for them to avoid donation limits — in order to hide their illegality. That is because they are based on accounts provided by an unnamed Adams staffer — widely believed to be his liaison to the Turkish community Rana Abasova — who, the mayor’s attorneys allege, has an “an axe to grind.”
Spiro said last week that he will argue for dismissing all charges during a court conference scheduled for Oct. 2.
