Lawyers for Mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge on Monday to throw out the bribery charge against Mr. Adams, providing an early glimpse at how the defense plans to attack the first federal indictment of a sitting mayor in modern New York City history.
In a 25-page filing, Mr. Adams’s lawyers argued that the accusations against the mayor did not meet the federal definition of bribery, pointing to a recent Supreme Court ruling that raised the bar for prosecutors to bring corruption cases.
The filing comes four days after federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced a five-count indictment against the mayor, including charges of bribery and fraud.
Prosecutors said Mr. Adams accepted luxury travel benefits worth more than $100,000, as well as illegal campaign contributions from Turkey — and granted political favors to Turkish officials in exchange for these gifts.
Mr. Adams has said he has done nothing wrong, and he pleaded not guilty to the charges last week. He has shown no signs that he plans to resign.
The early-morning filing represented the opening salvo in what is sure to be a bruising legal fight in the coming months. Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mr. Adams, is expected to speak at a news conference on Monday afternoon to give a preview of the mayor’s defense against the charges.
The bribery charge against Mr. Adams focused on the approval of a new Turkish consulate building in Midtown Manhattan in 2021. At the time, Mr. Adams was Brooklyn borough president but had also won the Democratic mayoral primary, virtually guaranteeing that he would become the next mayor.
Prosecutors say Mr. Adams, at the behest of a Turkish official, pressured the Fire Department to allow the building to open, even though it would have failed a fire inspection. The skyscraper opened in time for a visit by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Mr. Adams received thousands of dollars worth of travel benefits from Turkish officials — including a free upgrade to business class for a flight to Ghana in November 2021.
Lawyers for Mr. Adams wrote that Mr. Adams sent “three brief messages” to the Fire Department that did not “remotely convey pressure or threats.”
They argued that the prosecutors were criminalizing activity that was routine for elected officials, like helping donors with permits and other regulatory issues.
Mr. Adams’s defense team also said prosecutors failed to show that the mayor had specifically agreed to take the travel benefits in exchange for helping with the consulate building. In other words, they said, there was no “quid pro quo,” a key element in bribery cases.
In a series of rulings since 2010, the Supreme Court has repeatedly narrowed the definition of corruption, overturning the convictions of prominent politicians and making it more difficult to bring bribery prosecutions against public officials.
Although Monday’s filing sought to dismiss only the bribery charge, Mr. Adams’s lawyers said they would challenge the four other counts as the case progressed, arguing that they were “equally meritless because they rest on a host of false claims.”
In a sign of how aggressively the mayor intends to fight the charges, Mr. Adams has assembled a high-powered legal team, including Mr. Spiro and William A. Burck from the law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
Mr. Spiro has represented celebrity clients like the Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and the New England Patriots owner Robert K. Kraft. Mr. Burck was a senior official providing legal advice in the White House under former President George W. Bush, and his recent clients have included Trump administration officials.
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