Stanford’s Robert Weisberg on the indictment of New York Mayor Eric Adams – Legal Aggregate

What are the main charges against Mayor Adams?

First, as Brooklyn Borough President and then candidate for mayor (and even as mayor), Adams is alleged to have taken campaign contributions from a foreign government (Turkey) and foreign businessmen (all from Turkey), and concealed them through so-called “straw men” – the USA identities. This violates 52 USC 30121, which covers state, local, and federal campaigns. Secondly, he is said to have received large financial benefits from these parties in exchange for promises to carry out various government actions. There, the charge falls under 18 USC 666, which makes it illegal to accept bribes by local officials with authority over local governments or agencies that receive major federal funds. There is also a bank fraud charge under 18 USC 1343 related to a NYC-specific law whereby a candidate, if he raises a certain amount in small donations, is entitled to an 8-1 match from public funds. So in effect, he cheated New York taxpayers by declaring as small local donations what were in fact large foreign donations. And of course we see the almost inevitable accusations of conspiracy, added to encompass the wide cast of characters here.

How strong is the case of Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan?

Pretty strong. The details are encyclopedic. Here’s an example: There is endless documentation of government-owned Turkish Airlines bookings where someone working for Adams buys him a cheap economy seat that magically upgrades to business class. Adams used this airline even when going to places nowhere near Turkey, and with difficult transfers, just to get the free good seats. The indictment also includes an aesthetic innovation in the form of photographs of the grandly luxurious hotel rooms in which Adams stayed, including one of a Roman Emperor-scale bathroom.

One alleged political favor that could particularly bother a jury: The Turkish government rushed to set up a new consulate in a Manhattan building where occupation was postponed because of problems with the fire alarm system. Adams is said to have personally leaned hard on the fire department to expedite the occupancy certificate despite the shortcomings.

Several members of the Adams administration have recently resigned, including former police commissioner Edward Caban, whose devices have been collected by federal authorities for investigation, and Adams’ campaign aide Brianna Suggs, whose home was searched. What do you think about that?

Several Adams employees who left their jobs are believed to be working with the government. In particular, the US Attorney’s Office used subpoenas and search warrants to obtain text messages between the various parties, some of which are incredibly naive in what they risked saying in digitizable form. An example is an Adams assistant who tries to arrange a hotel room for him in Istanbul. Basically it goes like this: the Turkish travel agent suggests the Four Seasons; the employee says, “wow, that’s too expensive,” and the agent responds, “Why would Adams worry about that, he’s not paying for it.”

Are these serious allegations? If guilty, what punishment could the mayor face?

With all these accusations you can theoretically come up with very long sentences. But to make a rough estimate of how they will all be synthesized, I can imagine at least five years in prison.

The mayor has claimed to be innocent. What do you expect will happen next? Legal saga in Manhattan?

Adams claims total innocence. He will likely argue that whatever was done on his behalf was beyond his actual knowledge or awareness, and also that some of the favors he allegedly performed were not official acts that violated his official responsibilities, but rather were merely minor networking benefits of the kind that all politicians participate in.

Meanwhile, pressure for him to resign is mounting, along with pressure on the governor to use her legal power to oust him.

Robert Weisberg, JD ’79, is Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. professor of law at Stanford Law School. He works primarily in the field of criminal law, writing and teaching in the areas of criminal law, criminal procedure, white-collar crime and criminal policy. He also founded and serves as faculty director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center (SCJC), which promotes and coordinates research and public policy programs in criminal justice and the criminal justice system, including institutional research of police and correctional systems.