(AFP) – New York Mayor Eric Adams was indicted on federal criminal charges, US media reported Wednesday, following multiple probes into alleged corruption within his administration and the resignations of top officials. While the exact charges in the sealed indictment were not yet clear, according to the New York Times and other outlets, Adams has now become the first sitting New York mayor to face indictment.
At least four federal probes are underway against the Democratic ex-cop, including three led by the US district court in Manhattan, investigating people in the mayor’s orbit and high-ranking officials in his administration. Declaring himself “innocent,” Adams said in a statement Wednesday: “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became.” He added: “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
Details of the indictment are expected to be revealed by federal prosecutors on Thursday, according to US media, which attributed information on the indictment to sources familiar with the matter. 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 investigations.
Earlier in the day, US House Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the 64-year-old mayor to resign “for the good of the city” — the first time a national figure has publicly urged him to step down from running the United States’ largest 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 additionally risks embarrassing Democrats just forty days before the US presidential election between Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, who are neck and neck in the polls. Before the announcement of the indictment, 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 have emerged as 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 himself appears to be the target of one probe into whether his 2021 mayoral campaign conspired with Turkey’s government to receive illegal foreign donations. The mayor is accused of urging the approval of a new high-rise Turkish consulate, ignoring potential safety issues. 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
