New York City Mayor Eric Adams faces five criminal charges, including accepting bribes and wire fraud, according to a federal indictment that was unsealed Thursday morning.
The 57-page indictment alleges Adams “compounded his gains” by abusing the New York City matching funds program. The campaign allegedly received over $10 million in matching funds because of false certifications of small-dollar or “straw” donations.
Adams is also alleged to have “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits” from “wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official ” for nearly a decade, including luxury travel benefits in return for help. He is accused of getting a Turkish consulate approved by the city’s fire department in a building that “would have failed an FDNY inspection.”
The indictment follows a well-publicized year-long investigation into alleged financial kickbacks with the Turkish government.
Earlier in the morning, Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City Mayor Eric Adams was raided by federal agents, and his phone was seized.
“Federal agents appeared this morning at Gracie Mansion in an effort to create a spectacle [again] and take Mayor Adams’s phone [again],” Alex Spiros, the mayor’s attorney, said in a statement to media outlets. “He has not been arrested and looks forward to his day in court … They sent a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in.”
In a press conference Wednesday night, Adams was defiant, telling his city, “I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target—and a target I became.”
“I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit,” he added.
Federal investigators seized devices from his police commissioner, schools chancellor, two deputy mayors, and other trusted confidantes both inside and outside City Hall in early September.
The police commissioner and schools chancellor have already both resigned in light of the investigation.
New York City Councilman Robert Holden called for the Democrat mayor to step aside.
“It’s a sad day for New York City when a sitting mayor is indicted on federal charges. While he is presumed innocent until proven guilty, there is no way he can effectively lead with this cloud hanging over him. With the challenges our city faces, he must step down for the good of New Yorkers.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) also called for the mayor to resign.“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City… For the good of the city, he should resign,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement posted on X on Wednesday.
Adams was first elected in 2021 after he won a crowded Democratic Party primary and then beat Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa. A former NYPD Captain, Adams ran to the center of his progressive challengers before he defeated Sliwa.
Adams inherited a city and police force that was reeling after COVID-19 and was seen as a fresh face for the Democrats.
NTD reached out to the mayor’s office and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.