By Deutsche Welle (World News) | Created at 2024-09-26 15:59:47 | Updated at 2024-09-30 07:29:40
3 days ago
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with wire fraud, bribery and receiving illegal donations from foreigners by federal prosecutors.
According to the indictment, Adams received illegal campaign donations from foreign businessmen and a Turkish official.
Adams is also alleged to have accepted perks such as luxury travel in exchange for official favours and manipulated a municipal funding programme to "compound his gains."
Prosecutors in New York said they would give further details at a news conference later on Thursday.
Media outlets said Adams, a Democrat, could appear in court on the same day.
In a speech recorded at his official residence, Adams said he would remain in office, describing any charges he may face as "entirely false [and] based on lies."
Adams is the first mayor in New York City history to be indicted while in office.
FBI seizes Adams' phone
FBI agents entered the mayor's official residence, Gracie Mansion, early Thursday morning and confiscated his phone, according to his lawyer Alex Spiro.
Spiro criticized the federal agents' actions, accusing them of trying to "to create a spectacle."
"They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in," he said.
What does the indictment reveal?
The indictment is the result of an extensive investigation into the mayor and his associates to determine whether he conspired with Turkish government officials during his 2021 campaign to receive illegal contributions.
Four of the five charges are related to the alleged receipt of funds for that campaign, which is prohibited by law, while the other charge is linked to bribery.
The court document also states that Adams "continued his corrupt relationships after becoming mayor."
What did Eric Adams say?
The mayor vowed to contest the charges.
"I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target and a target I became," Adams said. "I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit."
"If I'm charged, I know I'm innocent. I will request an immediate trial so New Yorkers can hear the truth," he added.
The Adams administration was already reeling from a series of high-level resignations amid at least four federal probes.
Before news of the indictment broke, US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also a Democrat, called on Adams to resign.
"I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City," Ocasio-Cortez, who represents a New York district in Congress, said in on social media.
The charges against Adams come after the FBI searched the Brooklyn home of his chief fundraiser last November, and also in the wake of a slew of resignations by top city officials in recent weeks.
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