Eric Adams, the indicted mayor of New York City, on Tuesday presented what might be deemed his closing arguments in the court of public opinion.
Ever since federal prosecutors indicted Mr. Adams in September on corruption charges, the mayor has protested his innocence and suggested, without evidence, that the case is payback for his outspoken resistance to President Biden’s border policies.
On Tuesday, Mr. Adams offered what he seemed to suggest was a piece of evidence. Bending down to pull a copy of the day’s New York Times from behind his lectern, he read from a front-page article related to Mr. Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter.
“President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump now agree on one thing,” he read, eliding the president-elect’s middle initial. “The Biden Justice Department has been politicized.”
“Does that sound familiar?” a smiling Mr. Adams asked the reporters gathered for his weekly “off-topic” question-and-answer session at City Hall.
“I rest my case.”
Mr. Adams was charged with bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy and two counts of soliciting foreign contributions for his mayoral campaign.
Last week, the mayor made the same argument in particularly explicit form in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. The reporter asked if he considered his indictment retribution for his criticism of Mr. Biden’s immigration policies.
“Yes, I do,” Mr. Adams responded. “People were not happy with me. It doesn’t have to be the president, because there are a lot of other people unhappy that I fought for this city.”
Mr. Adams has made this assertion even though the investigation by the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York that culminated in his indictment began in 2021 — before he was mayor, and before the influx of more than 200,000 migrants into New York City began.
A spokesman for the Southern District declined to comment on Mr. Adams’s remarks.
The mayor’s willingness to question the motives of the Justice Department that is prosecuting him echoed Mr. Trump’s messaging on his own indictments — two on federal charges and two accusing him of state crimes.
Mr. Biden’s decision to also suggest the Justice Department’s prosecution of his son was influenced by politics caused significant hand-wringing among some Democratic leaders. They worried it would both damage Mr. Biden’s legacy and make it harder to defend the Justice Department from Mr. Trump’s plans to wield it for political purposes.
The Times’s article cited by Mr. Adams included a critique from one such Democrat, Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado, who said that “this is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation.”
Mr. Adams on Tuesday evinced no such concerns.
When a reporter asked him why he thought he was a victim of political payback, given that the Southern District investigation began before he took office, the mayor did not answer the question directly.
But he did denounce the investigation itself and his own inability to properly defend himself, lest he run afoul of his lawyers’ advice not to speak about the specifics of his case.
“There was this photo of Muhammad Ali, when he was, like, he had the arrows in him,” Mr. Adams said, putting his hands behind his back and lifting his eyes toward the ceiling. He was referring to the April 1968 Esquire magazine cover for a story titled, “The Passion of Muhammad Ali,” his spokeswoman later confirmed.
“Do you know how much I want to respond to this stuff?” the mayor continued. “And every day, before I do off-topics, my lawyers said, ‘Don’t you do it.’ Cause you know, I’m just a fighter. I believe in fighting for my rights. And this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life.”
Mr. Adams’s pugilistic stance seems to contrast with the conciliatory approach he has embraced toward the incoming president. On Tuesday, he said he had reached out to the president-elect’s “border czar,” Thomas Homan, to learn more about the incoming administration’s plans for immigrants in New York City, particularly those who have been accused of crimes.
He also suggested that immigrants charged with crimes did not necessarily deserve the due process that he himself is receiving, as a defendant in a criminal indictment.
“Americans have certain rights. The Constitution is for Americans, and I’m not a person that snuck into this country,” Mr. Adams said.
The New York Immigration Coalition, in a statement issued after Mr. Adams’s remarks, said, “Everyone residing in the United States regardless of their immigration status has specific inalienable rights under the Constitution, including the right to due process.”
Mr. Adams said that Mr. Homan was receptive to meeting with him and that they had communicated as recently as Tuesday morning.
“I’m not going to be warring with this administration,” Mr. Adams said. “I’m going to be working with this administration.”
Reporters have repeatedly asked the mayor if he is being so friendly to the incoming administration partly because he would like a presidential pardon from Mr. Trump after he takes office.
Mr. Adams has denied any personal motivation, and did so again on Tuesday, pointing out that not only does he support Mr. Trump’s decision to name Elon Musk to co-lead a panel to improve “government efficiency,” but that he has himself talked about the need to tackle government inefficiency for years.
“I’m not agreeing with them because of any other reason than I agree with them,” Mr. Adams said. “How about that?”
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