Fox News’ Jonathan Turley Argues There’s ‘Less Than Meets the Eye’ in Eric Adams Case: ‘That’s What Mayors Do!’

Fox News’ Jonathan Turley argued that there was “less than meets the eye” in the federal government’s case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Friday, even suggesting that the pressure he applied on Fire Department officials to appease the Turkish government is “what mayors do” during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

On Thursday, prosecutors unsealed a five-count indictment against Adams for accepting campaign contributions and other gifts from the Turks in exchange for his ear. In one particularly striking instance, Adams allegedly pressured FDNY officials to allow a new Turkish consulate building to open without a fire inspection, with one official even having it passed on to them that failing to do so would result in the loss of his job.

But Turley argued on Fox that Adams might have a defense for his behavior.

“There’s certainly less than meets the eye once you begin to look at these, look at these charged” began Turley after being prompted to talk about the case by host Steve Doocy. “You know, they, for example, say that there was a quid pro quo where the mayor intervened to speed along a fire inspection approval process for a Turkish consulate. But the mayor can say, ‘Look, that’s what mayors do. You know, this is a city with a lot of diplomats and we want to avoid diplomatic problems, including the arrival of the president of that country.’ So he has defenses to say there wasn’t any quid pro quo here.”

“The most damaging is probably the allegations of solicitation of foreign contributions. But we have to see how much knowledge he had. That $100,000 are largely upgrades and hotels which certainly don’t make him look good,” he continued. “But, you know, I think, Steve, the biggest problem he’s going to have is that the U.S. Attorney’s office was very aggressive yesterday and basically warned people around him, ‘We will be indicting others. So you better cooperate.’ And they’re trying to build a case with his associates because they know that those witnesses are very damaging in front of a jury.”

Watch above via Fox News.

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