Mayor Eric Adams was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury following a corruption investigation, according to multiple sources.
The indictment is expected to be unsealed Thursday by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams and will make Adams, the city’s 110th mayor, the first to be criminally charged while in office. A spokesperson for Williams’ office didn’t return a request for comment immediately.
Sources who are familiar with the matter told THE CITY that Adams is being charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent for taking actions in his official capacity after receiving donations from foreign sources.
Details on the charges are still unclear, but sources told The New York Times it is part of a larger probe that looked partly into his 2021 campaign for mayor.
Adams addressed the charges against him in a video statement shared by the office of powerhouse private attorney Alex Spiro, who is also repping the mayor against a civil lawsuit that claims Adams sexually assaulted a female cop decades ago.
Adams also tied the launch of the federal probe to his criticism of how the administration of President Joe Biden has handled the migrant crisis.
“My fellow New Yorkers, it is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes. If so these charges will be entirely false based on lies. But they would not be surprising. I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” he said in the pre-recorded message. “If I am charged, I am innocent and will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
In the two-minute and 20 second recording, Adams also tied the launch of the federal probe to his criticism of how the administration of President Joe Biden has handled the migrant crisis.
“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,” Adams said.
He added that the public shouldn’t worry about his ability to manage the city post-indictment because “I have been facing these lies for months, since I began to speak out for all of you and their investigation started — yet the city has continued to improve.”
Evan Thies, a spokesperson for Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign, and Vito Pitta, the campaign’s attorney, didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Moments after news broke Wednesday evening, potential opponents in the upcoming Democratic primary for mayor immediately began calling for Adams’ resignation — as did members of the City Council and state Senate.
Adams can continue to serve as mayor after being indicted if he does not choose to resign, but he could forced out by Governor Kathy Hochul or an “inability committee” made up of the city comptroller, the City Council speaker, a deputy mayor and the longest-serving borough president, according to rules laid out in the city charter.
Adams can continue to serve as mayor after being indicted if he does not choose to resign.
If Adams were to leave office under any terms, he would be succeeded by the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, and a special election would be held to elect a new mayor.
“The mayor needs to resign for the good of the city. His legal fight is not our fight,” said Scott Stringer, who is among a growing field of candidates seeking to challenge Adams in the Democratic primary next year.
“While the mayor focuses on proving his innocence, the rest of us need to focus on the business of the city — building affordable housing, educating our kids, and keeping this city safe.”
Comptroller Brad Lander, who is also running against Adams and would serve on the inability committee if it were tapped to oust the mayor, also called for him to step down.
“At this urgent moment, the City’s leaders must focus on how we can best enable steady governance so that New York City can move forward and thrive. As the comptroller of the city, I will do everything I can to help ensure this happens,” Lander wrote on X.
First Mayor Indicted
Adams is the first mayor in New York City’s history to be indicted while in office. He was sworn in as the city’s 110th mayor in Times Square in the first moments of 2022, flanked by supporters — including some who have since been swept up in federal probes.
The investigation by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York into the Adams administration and campaign first became public nearly a year ago on Nov. 2, 2023, when the Brooklyn home of Adams’ top political fundraiser, Brianna Suggs, was raided by the FBI.
The mayor had just arrived in Washington, D.C., for a meeting about asylum-seekers, then abruptly returned to New York City to address what his staff called “a matter.”
The federal probe reportedly centered on whether the Adams campaign coordinated with Turkish-linked groups, companies and people to inject foreign money into his campaign in exchange for favors.
Adams has visited Turkey on at least six occasions, including trips while he was Brooklyn borough president.
That same day, nearly 100 FBI agents fanned out across the region to execute search warrants at a dozen locations, including the homes of Rana Abbasova, Adams’ liaison to the Turkish community, and former Turkish Airlines executive Cenk Öcal, who served on Adams’ transition team.
Days later, the mayor’s own phones and personal devices were temporarily seized by the FBI as part of their investigation.
THE CITY later reported on many of the donations tied to Turkish nationals, including $10,000 from employees of Bay Atlantic University, a small Turkish-owned institution based in Washington, D.C., and a cluster of contributions tied to KSK Construction Company, both targets of federal investigators.
Internal documents obtained by THE CITY show that city campaign finance regulators had repeatedly asked Eric Adams’ mayoral campaign about the KSK donations.
The New York Times reported this week that federal authorities had expanded the probe to look at Adams’s connections to five other countries: Israel, China, Uzbekistan, Qatar and South Korea.
Adams has visited Turkey on at least six occasions, including trips while he was Brooklyn borough president. On two of those trips, THE CITY reported, Adams met with officials at a university affiliated with Bay Atlantic.
Federal investigators also looked into the existence of an internal list that expedited fire department inspections at certain development sites, which allegedly included the Turkish government, THE CITY reported last fall.
Feds Circle
The scope of federal investigations into Adams’ inner circle has since grown expansively, ensnaring two deputy mayors, a police commissioner, the mayor’s Asian affairs advisor and a top aide and longtime friend.
On Feb. 29, federal authorities raided two Bronx homes owned by Winnie Greco, a longtime volunteer and liaison to the city’s Asian American community. The raids followed investigations by THE CITY into her fundraising for Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign, including allegedly selling admittance to Gracie Mansion events in exchange for donations of upwards of $10,000 to her non-profit.
That same month, Adams became the target of a sexual harassment notice-of-claim, that became a full lawsuit on March 18.
On Sept. 5, THE CITY was the first to report that First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright and her fiance, Schools Chancellor David Banks, had their Harlem home raided and their electronic devices seized by authorities. At the same time, Philip Banks, the deputy mayor for public safety and David’s brother, also had his phones seized at his Queens home as part of a probe.
A third Banks brother, Terence, also had his phones seized by authorities along with former Police Commissioner Edward Caban and his twin brother, James, himself a former police officer. Weeks later, Caban resigned from his post and was replaced by interim Police Commissioner Thomas Donlon — who on Sept. 21 had the feds raid his home, too, but for documents he had from decades earlier.
On Feb. 29, federal authorities raided two Bronx homes owned by Winnie Greco, a longtime volunteer and liaison to the city’s Asian American community.
Tim Pearson, a longtime friend of Adams and senior advisor working on the migrant response, also had devices seized at his Long Island home earlier this month.
Since those raids, a flood of Adams administration appointees have either left or announced they will leave soon. Among them was chief counsel Lisa Zornberg, whose sudden exit was reportedly the result of the mayor ignoring her suggestion to cut ties with Pearson, whose home was raided in September by the FBI.
David Banks, whose phones were also seized as part of the investigations, announced just weeks after the start of school that he will retire at the end of the year. Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan also announced that he will leave his position in early January.
Last November, the mayor defended his administration after news reports on the campaign investigation — and reiterated his team has always followed the law.
Although every mayoral administration over the last 45 years has been the target of some sort of corruption investigation, a New York City mayor has never been charged with crimes.
Adams Rises
Born in Brooklyn and raised in southeast Queens, Adams first gained prominence as a police officer who looked to reform the NYPD from the inside. He has often said he joined the department after being assaulted by officers inside the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica, Queens, when he was arrested as a teen. The arrest, however, has never been confirmed and Adams sometimes offers different versions of the story when speaking in public.
Once he joined the force, he co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care and was also a former chair of the Grand Council of Guardians, fraternal organizations that frequently criticized the NYPD.
His outspokenness about police brutality and other issues made him a target of harassment from other officers and. As he ran for mayor, he told THE CITY that he was shot at in 1996, he suspects by a fellow officer.
Adams spent 22 years with the police department before running for state Senate in 2006. He was elected as Brooklyn borough president in 2013.
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