New York City Mayor Eric Adams held a chaotic, short-lived press conference Thursday morning to address his damning public corruption indictment—only for the charges to be made public while he was speaking to the press.
Adams was indicted Wednesday in a federal case, though the specific charges against him were not immediately released.
“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target—and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement that night. He said that charges against him were “entirely false, based on lies,” though it was not yet clear what those charges were.
“Despite our pleas when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics,” said Adams, suggesting this might be the reason he’d been “targeted.”
The next morning, the mayor held an official press conference on a public street outside of Gracie Mansion in Manhattan. Flanked by supporters, who were there to voice their confidence in the embattled mayor, Adams was also greeted by protesters.
“This is not a Black thing! This is not a Black thing! This is a you thing! This is a you thing, Eric Adams!” shouted one protester as Adams chuckled awkwardly.
“Your policies are anti-Black. You are a disgrace to all Black people in this city!” the protester continued. “This is not a Black thing, this is a justice thing!”
As Adams began speaking, he insisted he was “not surprised” by the indictment. “This is not surprising to us at all. The actions that have unfolded over the last 10 months. The leaks. The commentary. The demonizing,” he said.
Adams confirmed that he would not be stepping down as New York City’s mayor but instead “continue to do the job for 8.3 million New Yorkers that I was elected to do.” (The indictment alleges that Adams swindled more than $10 million in public funds for his 2021 mayoral campaign.)
Adams enlisted several speakers, including the Reverend Herbert Daughtry; Hazel Dukes, head of the NAACP New York State Conference; and activist Jackie Rowe Adams, who had to scream to be heard above the hecklers and protesters.
When a reporter notified Adams that the indictment had been unsealed, his face fell. The reporter also asked him to clarify his suggestion that he’d been targeted by the federal government.
“I think we should ask the federal investigators and prosecutors who directed them to the actions that we are witnessing right now,” Adams responded.
“You know I have ran many campaigns. I have been part of many campaigns. And um, the scrutiny of those campaigns always revealed the same thing. I follow the rules, I follow the law. I do not do anything that’s going to participate in illegal campaign activity. And I will not do that.
“And I’ve instructed not only in writing, but in verbal conversations with the team, we do not participate in straw donors, we do not participate in foreign donors,” Adams said. “We know what those rules are, we comply with those rules. And I think that my attorneys are going to reveal that as we move forward.”
The 57-page indictment alleged precisely the opposite, claiming that Adams had sought out and received luxurious trips and straw-man payments facilitated by a senior Turkish official. Those perks were then allegedly covered up by Adams and members of his staff. In return for all the favors, Adams allegedly pressured the New York Fire Department to sign off on a new Turkish consulate skyscraper without a fire inspection. The full indictment includes other charges as well, alleging hefty straw-man payments from a construction company owner and the owner of a Turkish university.
One reporter asked Adams to respond to the charges, which went back to before his 2021 mayoral campaign, despite Adams implying the indictment was payback for complaining that the federal government had helped to create an immigration surge in New York City. The mayor was also asked, point-blank, whether he had taken kickbacks from foreign countries or intervened on behalf of the Turkish government—and that seemed to be all he could take.
“My legal team will peruse the entire indictment. We got it today when it was released,” said a pained-looking Adams. “The news media received information before we did.”
“It appears as though the goal is to try to try this case publicly, and not in the criminal justice system that’s in place,” he said.
“If it’s campaign violations, I know I don’t violate the campaign. If it’s foreign donors, I know I don’t take money from foreign donors,” Adams said.
Adams then abruptly ended the news conference and shuffled away with his herd of supporters, as some in the crowd cheered, “RESIGN! RESIGN! RESIGN!”
Local News
Comments / 0