Mayor Eric Adams of New York City has been indicted on federal charges of bribery conspiracy, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
The indictment, which was unsealed Thursday morning, follows a roughly three-year investigation that focused at least in part on whether he conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign campaign contributions and whether he took official actions on its behalf.
The indictment accuses Mr. Adams of crimes going back a decade, since he took office as Brooklyn borough president in 2014, by improperly accepting benefits that included luxury international travel from wealthy business people and at least one Turkish government official.
As he ran for mayor in 2021, prosecutors say, Mr. Adams sought illegal foreign contributions to his campaign and other things of value, and his benefactors sought to cash in on their investments.
Early Thursday morning, F.B.I. agents searched Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence on the Upper East Side. The warrant sought the mayor’s electronic devices and authorized the agents to search the house for them, but not for anything else.
The charges, brought by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, immediately called into question the ongoing viability of Mr. Adams’s mayoralty.
They also represented a remarkable reversal for Mr. Adams, 64, a retired police captain, state senator and Brooklyn borough president who won office while vowing to combat crime.
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams formally accused Mr. Adams of engaging in criminal acts for nearly a decade. He is the first New York City mayor to face criminal indictment while in office in modern history.
Mr. Williams is expected to announce the charges at a news conference in Lower Manhattan with the head of the New York F.B.I. office and the city’s Department of Investigation commissioner.
One person with knowledge of the matter said a date for him to surrender has not been set, but he will probably do so next week.
Late Wednesday night, in a pre-recorded video, Mr. Adams said any charges filed against him would be “based on lies.”
“Make no mistake: You elected me to lead this city — and lead it I will,” Mr. Adams said.
Mr. Adams is accused of illegally soliciting foreign donations from the government of Turkey to his 2021 mayoral campaign, and the indictment charges him with accepting bribes by doling out favors in return.
Federal prosecutors say that shortly before his election as mayor, he pressured city Fire Department officials to sign off on a new high-rise Turkish consulate in time for a visit by the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during the United Nations General Assembly.
Federal law prohibits U.S. candidates from soliciting or receiving foreign donations. According to prosecutors, Turkish money was funneled into Mr. Adams’s campaign with his knowledge.
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