As his impending indictment loomed late Wednesday night, Mayor Eric Adams moved to undercut the charges he would face just hours later.
Adams accused federal law enforcement officials of conducting a prolonged and politically motivated investigation, “based on lies,” in a video statement released through his attorney shortly after news broke of his indictment.
It’s a strategy that’s often employed by embattled executives. Speaking to Gothamist, several of Adams’ fellow Democrats compared the mayor’s rhetoric to that of former President Donald Trump, a Republican who was also indicted — and ultimately convicted — in New York.
“The federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief,” Adams said in the video.
He suggested the monthslong investigation was political retaliation for his willingness to speak out against President Joe Biden’s border policy.
Adams, who is facing five criminal charges alleging he accepted unpaid, opulent overseas travel, illegal foreign campaign contributions, and official favor trading, is casting himself as the victim of retribution for putting “the people of New York before party and politics.”
Legal experts, political observers and everyday New Yorkers say they aren’t willing to make the leap with him. But as Democrats head into a crucial election year, the aggrieved messaging from a Black mayor considered a moderate may pose problems for a party that needs to project unity and clarity.
“I’m not sure if his base is going to abandon him just because of the framing for this particular series of allegations,” said Christina Greer, a political scientist at Fordham University. “He’s very clear that these are allegations and not convictions. He’s been very clear that he will fight them.”
As more of Adams’ opponents call for his resignation, Greer noted those calls are predominantly coming from the mayor’s left, and his support is concentrated among more moderate Black and working-class voters. Progressive Democrats have often struggled to appeal to these voters, increasing the potential impact of Adams’ rhetoric.
But some moderate Democrats took issue with Adams’ line of defense on Thursday. Former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who chairs the executive committee of New York state’s Democratic Party, said the notion that the federal government would try to get back at Adams for his critiques was absurd.
“Do we really think while they were running for re-election, and deciding to step down, they were sitting around talking about Eric Adams and whether they were annoyed at him?” said Quinn, referring to the Biden team. “It’s just ridiculous.”
The troubled legal history of Adams’ 2021 campaign fundraising also belies the notion that the mayor is being targeted by the Biden Department of Justice. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who won the conviction against Trump, indicted six individuals for illegal donations to Adams’ 2021 campaign more than a year ago; well before the feds filed their indictment.
“They’re not eating the dogs in Springfield and they’re not going after Adams because of his objections on migrant policy,” said Zephyr Teachout, a professor at Fordham University Law School and progressive former Democratic political candidate.
She said the mayor was trying to get out in front of prosecutors with an alternate story that made him the victim, as opposed to the perpetrator of a crime. The goal was to give the public a new lens through which to see whatever came out in the indictment, even if that story was not true.
“It was a very Trumpian reach,” Teachout added.
But she voiced doubt that it would resonate. Teachout said Adams’ strategy risks alienating voters who may not feel sympathetic once they learn Adams is accused of pilfering luxury goods.
“If you are worried about your public library not being open or trash on the streets, the idea that your mayor is looking for angles to go on a fancy vacation as soon as he’s given the Turkish government a favor, it’s enraging,” said Teachout.
Greer agreed that the city faces a leadership vacuum after a slew of high-profile departures from the Adams administration — including the NYPD commissioner, the mayor’s counsel, health commissioner and schools chancellor.
“The business of the city must be done and the only people who lose out when we’re in this particular precarious situation are the citizens of New York,” she said.
The prosecution’s case was laid out by U.S. Attorney Damian Williams — a Biden appointee who is the first Black attorney to lead New York’s vaunted Southern District. Williams has led numerous high-profile prosecutions, recently indicting hip hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, and securing guilty verdicts in cases against billionaire Democratic donor and cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried along with U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey.
In the case against Adams, Williams alleges a lucrative scheme to funnel illegal foreign campaign contributions to the mayor’s 2021 campaign while accepting airfare upgrades, gourmet meals and high-end hotel stays, in exchange for using his elected position to benefit his Turkish allies.
“Public office is a privilege. We alleged that Mayor Adams abused that privilege and broke the law,” said Williams. “That is the only reason we are here today.”
In a show of support, Adams gathered with Black clergy and civil rights leaders outside Gracie Mansion on Thursday where he continued to insist he had done nothing wrong. Some onlookers shouted their vocal skepticism of the mayor’s claims. “You sound like Donald Trump,” one man shouted over Adams. He later led a small chorus of people in chanting, “resign.”
The comparison may prove appealing for some figures on the right.
“Eric loudly spoke the truth on the migrant problem in NYC and what the consequences would be for New Yorkers and the country,” hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman wrote on X. He said that because he had witnessed the “weaponization” of the prosecutorial system, “I am that much more skeptical when indictments are announced against someone whose views are not welcomed by the party in charge.”
Support for Adams from the right is not a new phenomenon. But it hit a new crescendo on Thursday, when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump echoed the mayor’s claim that the investigation was retaliation for Adams’ criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the border.
Trump, who was indicted on 34 felony charges in a different Manhattan courthouse, has made a sport of attacking the Justice Department and the FBI. Speaking to reporters on Thursday (the same day there was a hearing in his own – separate – civil case), he styled himself not as a model, but as a predictor.
“I said, ‘You know what? He’ll be indicted within a year,’” Trump told reporters, “and I was exactly right.”