New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with bribery and illegally soliciting a campaign contribution from a foreign national, according to a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday (September 26), following a long-running investigation that has sent the largest U.S. city's government into turmoil, Reuters reports.
Adams faces five criminal charges total, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors said he sought and accepted benefits including luxury travel from wealthy foreign businesspeople and a Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.
Earlier on Thursday, federal agents searched the mayor's Gracie Mansion home on Manhattan's Upper East Side. A black sport utility vehicle with a placard reading "Federal Law Enforcement" on its dashboard was parked outside the residence, according to a Reuters witness.
Around a dozen people in business attire were seen walking on to the mansion's grounds with briefcases and duffel bags, said the witness.
Adams' lawyer Alex Spiro accused authorities of trying "to create a spectacle" and said they had taken the mayor's phone. Spiro said Adams "looks forward to his day in court."
Adams, a Democrat who became the first of the city's 110 mayors to be criminally charged while in office, said in a video statement on Wednesday night that he expected to be charged - and that the accusations would be "entirely false, based on lies."
In his video message, Adams vowed to remain in office while fighting any charges, defying calls from other Democratic politicians to resign.
"If I'm charged, I know I'm innocent. I will request an immediate trial so New Yorkers can hear the truth," Adams said.
New York state Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat, has the power to remove Adams from office, but the process is complicated, said Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace University Law School in Manhattan.
