Federal prosecutors appear to be zeroing in on New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) in their corruption investigation into whether his campaign conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign donations in exchange for actions that he took as mayor.
The New York Times reported that the prosecutors recently served a new round of grand jury subpoenas in their criminal investigation, including to Adams himself, who they are now investigating.
Prior to this development, most information that was publicly available pointed to prosecutors focusing only on his campaign and not the mayor directly, even though they seized his electronic devices last year.
The investigation, which is being run out of the Southern District of New York, centers around allegations that Adams’ election campaign received illegal campaign contributions from the Turkish government, possibly in exchange for actions taken by Adams, who has close ties to the country.
The criminal probe has focused on free upgrades the mayor received on Turkish Airlines flights and on Adams pressuring then-Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro in 2021 to allow the Turkish government to at least have permission to occupy on a temporary basis a new high-rise consulate in Manhattan that the Turkish government built, which fire officials would not sign off on because of safety issues.
Adams’ alleged intervention “paved the way” for Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to preside over the grand opening of their 35-story tower in September 2021. Fire officials said that there were serious safety concerns with the building’s fire safety system. The building, which cost $300 million, is the country’s most expensive foreign mission project.
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“To be clear, we have not identified any evidence of illegal conduct by the mayor,” said two lawyers who are representing Adams and his campaign. “To the contrary, we have identified extensive evidence undermining the reported theories of federal prosecution as to the mayor, which we have voluntarily shared with the U.S. attorney.”
Adams responded to the latest development in a radio interview on Friday morning where he maintained his innocence and said he “did nothing wrong.”
“We’ve been extremely transparent about making sure if there are documents that’s looked at, they want to see text messages or any other items, we’re going to turn it over and walk away, I believe, showing that I did nothing wrong,” Adams said. “I am a former law enforcement person, I believe in following the rules, and I’ve stated over and over again and our team knows that we’re going to turn over any information that is needed.”
