A federal grand jury has indicted NYC Mayor Eric Adams on criminal charges as investigators look into illegal donations, including from Turkey.
The charges are still sealed, the New York Times reports, but they are expected to be released on Thursday.
The mayor surrendered his phones last November, as part of a separate federal investigation into whether his 2021 campaign received illegal donations from citizens and government officials in Turkey.
The New York Times reports that the investigation includes not only Adams’ ties to Turkey, but to Israel, Qatar, China, South Korea, and the former Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan-the only one of the six Adams has not visited.
Investigators are trying to answer whether his 2021 mayoral campaign had conspired with Turkey’s government to receive illegal foreign donations, and if there was pressure on the fire department to approve a new high-rise Turkish consulate despite safety concerns.
Investigators have also examined free flights and flight upgrades the mayor received from Turkish Airlines, the paper adds.
Earlier in September, federal agents conducted searches and seized the phones of the police commissioner, the first deputy mayor, the schools’ chancellor, the deputy mayor for public safety and a senior adviser who is one of the mayor’s closest confidants.
Those actions led to four federal corruption inquiries swirling around Adams’s administration and prompted the resignations of the police commissioner, Edward A. Caban, and the mayor’s chief counsel, Lisa Zornberg, who left the administration after Adams resisted her advice to clean house.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan submitted his resignation Monday and will leave office by the end of the year. He says he’s leaving the post due to personal reasons and not due to the ongoing federal investigations involving the Adams administration.
NYC Mayor Adams and his reported links to Turkey
“I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said in a statement.
“If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”
The New York Times reports that investigators sought information related to a number of people, including the former Turkish consul general in New York, Reyhan Özgür, whom Adams, during a flag-raising ceremony for Turkey in 2022, described as a “good friend” he has known for years.
Another person named in the subpoenas was Arda Sayiner, a self-described brand adviser, influencer and journalist who does business in Turkey and whose website touts an interview he once conducted with Adams. Sayiner was involved in arranging Adams’s itinerary for a December 2015 trip he made to Turkey while he was borough president, his second official visit to the country in four months.
The indictment marks a stunning fall for Adams, a Democrat and former police captain who won election nearly three years ago to become the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city on a platform that promised a law-and-order approach to reducing crime, the Associated Press notes.
For much of the last year, Adams has faced growing legal peril, with multiple federal investigations into top advisers producing a drumbeat of subpoenas, searches and high-level departures that has thrust City Hall into crisis.
Related: New York Is the Athens of America, Says Eric Adams in Greece Visit
