With new criminal charges looming, Adams points to vague conspiracy
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A new court filing seemed to indicate that Mayor Eric Adams will soon be getting hit with more federal charges. Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office
By Ryan Schwach
In the face of news that federal prosecutors may soon bring additional criminal charges against him, Mayor Eric Adams on Tuesday waved off the threat as nothing more than a conspiracy that he refused to elaborate on.
In a filing late Monday, federal prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York said that they have identified “additional criminal conduct” allegedly committed by the mayor in the weeks since they first brought bribery and corruption charges against Adams.
When asked about the filing and the potential for superseding indictment on Tuesday, Adams was vague, and alluded to a conspiracy of some kind related to his prosecution. In the past, Adams has suggested the federal prosecution was retribution for his criticisms of the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis. However, Adams declined to elaborate when asked about his theory on Tuesday.
“Even Ray Charles can see what's going on,” Adams said, alluding to the iconic and blind pianist. “I've said over and over again – I've done nothing wrong.”
“I think this is clear what's happening right now, and I just need to stay focused,” he added later, again declining to explain.
The new court filing was made in response to the mayor’s request to a judge to see more of federal prosecutors’ evidence against him, including “the identity of every person the government believes him to have conspired with.”
However, prosecutors argued against that, in part because they claimed to have continued to find more co-conspirators, as well as crimes over the course of their investigations and wouldn’t want to open up the potential for witness tampering.
“Law enforcement has continued to identify additional individuals involved in Adams's conduct, and to uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams,” the document reads.
“The indictment provides ample cause to believe that as potential witnesses became known to Adams and his allies, measures were taken to influence their testimony,” the document continued. “Even without a likelihood of physical violence, the threat of witness tampering further supports denial of a bill of particulars in a white-collar case.”
The filing came as rumors of superseding criminal indictments against the mayor have been circling over City Hall since October.
Adams’ high-profile defense attorney Alex Spiro, who is also currently defending rapper Jay-Z in a sexual assault case, has argued that the Southern District of New York’s case lacks any solid evidence.
“The incriminating evidence the government hoped to obtain does not exist,” Spiro wrote in a December filing. “The government’s ‘evidence’ thus reveals what defense counsel knew all along: this case is an egregious overreach by prosecutors with no interest in a search for the truth.”
In recent weeks, Adams has sought to get an earlier trial date in order for it not conflict with the upcoming mayoral primary, which has an ever-growing field of challengers vying to replace him.
The mayor has also continued to field questions about several other investigations into a handful of his former deputies.
Meanwhile, Adams may benefit from a change in the White House.
President-elect Donald Trump, who will soon become the first president with a felony on his record to take the Oval Office, has previously echoed Adams’ suggestion that the Justice Department was pursuing cases because of political motivations. Multiple outlets reported that Adams was seeking a pardon from the incoming president, who, like Adams, was raised in Queens.
In September, Adams pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that claimed that he solicited and received over $100,000 in illegal gifts from Turkish officials.
The gifts, which included upgraded plane tickets, came in exchange for political favors, including pressuring the fire department to expedite approval for a new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan, prosecutors alleged.
Adams is expected to stand trial in April.
