(AFP) – US federal agents raided the official residence of New York Mayor Eric Adams early Thursday ahead of the expected announcement of criminal charges against the former city cop once touted as a rising Democratic Party star. The search at the residence known as Gracie Mansion began before dawn and is the latest shock twist in a graft investigation against the Adams administration. There was no immediate detail on what charge or charges — the first ever against a sitting New York mayor — would be lodged.
Already reeling from multiple inquiries targeting his close aides, Adams has been investigated over whether his 2021 mayoral campaign conspired with Turkey’s government to receive illegal foreign donations. Adams confirmed that he was bracing for the indictment, saying in a defiant statement that “it is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with federal crimes.” “These charges will be entirely false, based on lies,” he said in a statement late Wednesday, declaring himself “innocent.” “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became.” Details of the indictment were expected to be revealed by federal prosecutors on Thursday, according to US media reports. Contacted by AFP, the prosecutor’s office made no comment.
Adams, who is up for reelection in 2025, has put up a front of business as usual throughout the mushrooming investigations into his entourage. But on Wednesday, influential congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from New York, called on the 64-year-old mayor to resign “for the good of the city.” “The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening government function,” she said. “Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration.” The indictment risks embarrassing Democrats just 40 days before the US presidential election between Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, who are neck and neck in the polls. New York political analyst Doug Muzzio told AFP that it was impossible for Adams to “walk away from all the activity” surrounding him in recent weeks. Meanwhile, he added, on a national level Republicans can now say the largest US city “is run by Democrats, and there are reasons to believe that there is widespread corruption.”
– Potential conflicts – The indictment comes after a dark week for Adams, whose team has been shaken by the resignations of Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan and Education Chancellor David Banks, a close friend of the mayor whose department manages the city’s public education system that serves one million students. Those departures, effective at the end of 2024, follow the immediate resignations of police chief Edward Caban — who quit just one year after he took charge of the city’s police force and its 36,000 uniformed officers — and Adams’s chief legal adviser, Lisa Zornberg. Caban, whose electronics were seized by federal investigators, stepped down as federal agents appeared to be zeroing in on his twin brother’s nightclub-security business.
Revelations of the probes have laid bare personal and business ties among the inner circle of the mayor, raising potential conflicts of interest. One investigation involves the activities of a consulting firm run by Terence Banks, whose brother David was the schools chancellor, and whose other brother Philip was appointed in 2022 by Adams as deputy mayor for public safety. Adams, the second Black mayor in the city’s history, won the 2021 Democratic primary vowing to reduce crime. Under his leadership, violent crime in the city has fallen, after rising during the pandemic. But the city of 8.5 million people faces a housing crisis that has seen rents skyrocket to unprecedented levels. Adams already faces a smattering of primary contenders in the run-up to next year’s vote.
– Andréa BAMBINO
© 2024 AFP
