New York Mayor Eric Adams pleads not guilty to taking bribes

By Jake Offenhartz and Michael R. Sisak

Sept. 27, 2024 Updated 1:49 PM PT

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty Friday to federal bribery charges, rejecting allegations that he accepted overseas travel, campaign cash and other perks from foreign interests seeking to harness his influence.

Adams’ lawyer told a judge that they would move next week to dismiss the case, which has roiled the biggest U.S. city after months of investigations, searches and subpoenas. The first-term Democrat maintains he did nothing wrong and has vowed to stay in office, rebuffing growing calls for him to quit.

Adams, a former police captain, entered the plea in a packed Manhattan courtroom that’s just a short walk from City Hall and has sweeping views of the city.

His appearance, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker, came a day after prosecutors revealed an indictment accusing him of taking $100,000 in flights and stays in opulent hotel suites from people tied to Turkey, and fueling his run for mayor with illegal donations that helped him qualify for more than $10 million in public campaign funds.

“I am not guilty, your honor,” Adams said, looking solemnly at the judge.

Adams was released on the condition that he not contact any witnesses or people described in the indictment. Prosecutors said they would provide his lawyer with a list of names. The mayor is allowed to speak with members of his family and staff — but not about anything pertaining to the allegations.

Adams left the courtroom without commenting, then stood silently outside the courthouse while his lawyer, Alex Spiro, railed against the charges to a crowd of cameras and onlookers who exchanged shouts of “Free Eric!” and “Lock him up!”

“This isn’t even a real case. This is the airline upgrade corruption case,” Spiro said.

Yet even as the mayor appeared in court, the investigation into his administration continued.

One of Adams’ closest City Hall advisors, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was met at the airport Friday by investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office and Manhattan district attorney’s office after she got off a flight from Japan. The federal investigators served her with a subpoena. The local prosecutors took her phones and searched her house, according to her lawyer, Arthur Aidala.

“She will cooperate fully with any and all investigations and Ms. Lewis is not the target of any case of which we are aware,” Aidala said.

Adams, 64, is due back in court Wednesday for a conference before U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho, who will preside over the case going forward.

Adams is charged with five counts: wire fraud, bribery, conspiracy and two counts of receiving campaign contributions from a foreign national. If convicted of the most serious charge, wire fraud, he faces up to 20 years in prison, federal prosecutors said.

The indictment unsealed Thursday accused Adams of taking a variety of improper gifts from Turkish officials and businesspeople, including free hotel stays and deeply discounted airline tickets to destinations that included France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary, Ghana and Turkey.

In return, prosecutors said, Adams did favors for his patrons, including helping Turkey get fire department approvals to open a new diplomatic tower in Manhattan, despite concerns about its fire safety system, prosecutors said.

Adams says he is innocent. Spiro has said it was neither unusual nor improper for a government official to accept some travel perks. The mayor has denied ever knowingly accepting an illegal campaign contribution and said any help he gave people navigating city bureaucracy was part of doing his job.

Adams has so far weathered calls to resign from his critics, some Republicans and the field of potential Democratic primary challengers he is expected to face in next June’s mayoral primary. The New York Times editorial board, which did not endorse Adams when he was running for mayor in 2021, has also called on him to step down, arguing that he cannot continue to effectively govern the city while he fends off his criminal charges.

Notably, top New York Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries have not asked Adams to resign, saying the legal process should be allowed to play out.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who has the power to remove Adams from office, also did not call on Adams to resign, but she appeared to issue a warning to a mayor she has often sought to portray as a close ally, saying in a statement that she was reviewing her “options and obligations” and expects “the mayor to take the next few days to review the situation and find an appropriate path forward to ensure the people of New York City are being well-served by their leaders.”

It is unclear whether Adams’ indictment is the last word on federal investigations involving the administration.

Federal prosecutors are believed to be leading multiple inquiries involving Adams and his senior aides and relatives of those aides. In early September, federal investigators seized devices from the police commissioner, schools chancellor, two deputy mayors and other trusted Adams confidants.

In the last two weeks alone, the police commissioner resigned and the schools chancellor announced he would retire. Neither has been charged with a crime or been publicly accused of wrongdoing.

The lower Manhattan courthouse is less than two blocks from the one where former President Trump was tried and convicted of falsifying business records, and the same court where a jury found Trump civilly liable for sexually assaulting the writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996. Other prominent cases there now include the sex trafficking case against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Offenhartz and Sisak write for the Associated Press. AP writer Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.