Eric Adams’ defense attorney goes on offense

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is not going down without a fight.

The mayor’s private attorney — representing him in a federal criminal case that includes accusations of bribery, favor trading with Turkish officials and illegal campaign contributions — convened a press conference Monday to assail federal prosecutors and detail his effort to get a portion of the case immediately dismissed.

The public show of force, which occurred in the office of Alex Spiro’s white-shoe Manhattan law firm, Quinn Emanuel, served as a sign of just how firmly Adams is dug in — and portends a protracted and public brawl between City Hall and the U.S. attorney for the Southern District in New York that could have national political repercussions.

“[I’ve] never responded to these little press conferences. But this is different,” Spiro said, referring to a briefing last week, when Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams unveiled a 57-count indictment against the mayor. “They have forgotten to tell the people of New York the truth about what is going on here. That’s what I’m here to do.”

Earlier in the day, Spiro filed a motion to dismiss bribery charges against Adams.

Those charges, according to the five-count indictment, are predicated on the mayor allegedly accepting more than $100,000 worth of free travel perks facilitated by officials in the Turkish consul general’s office, a Turkish Airlines manager and others. In exchange, prosecutors allege, Adams pressured officials in the city’s fire department to fast-track the opening of the Turkish Embassy in Manhattan in the fall of 2021 — when he was the Democratic nominee for mayor — despite fire safety concerns.

Spiro argued Monday those actions do not constitute a quid-pro-quo bribery scheme.

“This is not sufficient for federal criminal liability,” he said. “There is no contemporary exchange of this for that.”

For starters, Spiro argued, legal precedent set in a U.S. Supreme Court case requires criminal prosecutors to establish a gift was exchanged for an official promising a specific government action.

In this case, Spiro said, Adams accepted what he termed “gratuities” from Turkish officials years before the Turkish Consulate was even constructed. Therefore, he argued, there is no way the freebies could have been provided for the specific fire safety situation.

Instead, he portrayed the wining and dining of Adams as run-of-the-mill — and legal — offerings meant to more generally curry favor with elected officials.

“Courtesies to politicians are not federal crimes. … Congressmen get upgrades,” he said. “They get corner suites. They get better tables at restaurants. They get free appetizers. They have their ice tea filled up.”

Turkish officials also offered perks after the interactions with the fire commissioner.

However, Spiro argued that Adams did not pressure the FDNY leader in the fall of 2021. His call to then-Commissioner Dan Nigro constituted normal outreach on behalf of a constituent to check on the status of an important project, Spiro said.

As for the other charges in the indictment — which relate to Adams’ 2021 campaign accepting illegal straw donors and illegal foreign contributions — Spiro said the mayor did not know about any illicit cash. Instead, he argued, any verboten donations were collected by the mayor’s former liaison to the Turkish community, Rana Abbasova, who Spiro said will be the government’s key, and in his view flawed, witness.

The litigator, who stood at a lectern and breezed through a slide show, laced into the Department of Justice for what he deemed over-the-top searches for evidence and predicted that once the bribery charge was thrown out, the rest of the case would crumble.

“After [the bribery count] falls away, the matching donations issue falls away, and without a crime, so does a conspiracy,” Spiro said. “And that’s where this will end.”

Federal prosecutors — who declined to comment on Spiro's comments — see it differently.

“This was a multiyear scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise: Eric Adams,” William said at a press conference of his own Thursday.

The indictment outlines trips around the globe where Adams and those close to him were offered travel perks.

Williams’ office is conducting several other probes into potential City Hall corruption.

FBI agents have raided the homes or seized the cell phones of at least six top administration officials and members of the police department this month. Since then, the schools chancellor resigned, the police commissioner was forced out and the mayor’s lead city attorney abruptly quit.