New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday he expects to be charged with federal crimes and has pleaded not guilty, despite The New York Times reporting he has already been charged following a long-running federal corruption investigation.
Adams, a Democrat who is the first of the city’s 110 mayors to be criminally charged while in office, said in a video statement that if charges were filed they would be “completely false, based on lies.” He vowed to stay in office while fighting the allegations.
“If I am charged, I know I am innocent. I will demand a prompt trial so New Yorkers can hear the truth,” Adams said.
Rejecting calls from Democratic leaders that he resign, he said, “You elected me to lead this city, and I will lead it.”
An indictment is expected to be issued when Adams appears in court on Thursday, the Times reports. The exact charges remain uncertain. It is also unclear whether Adams will be arrested or surrender voluntarily.
Other media later reported, citing unnamed sources, that a federal grand jury had indicted Adams.
The charges come after the FBI searched Adams’ electronic devices last November and after several top city officials resigned in recent weeks as multiple federal corruption investigations engulf his administration.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which brought the charges, declined to comment. Adams’ lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment, other than to send a copy of his video deposition.
One of his lawyers said the mayor was cooperating with the investigation but did not say what the investigation was about.
Adams said the allegations, based on “leaks and rumors,” “would not be surprising” because he says they are aimed at undermining his credibility.
If he were removed from office, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams would become mayor of the largest city in the United States, with a population of about 8.3 million.
The case could complicate Adams’ chances of running for reelection in 2025. Other Democratic politicians, including New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, are planning to challenge Adams — once a key ally of Democratic President Joe Biden — for the party’s nomination.
“The best course of action is for him to step down so that New York City can receive the full attention its leadership requires,” Lander said on X, joining a growing list of politicians calling for his resignation.
Before the news broke, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, herself a Democrat, was the first member of Congress to urge him to step down, saying it would be “for the good of the city.”
Shortly before the announcement, Adams attended a reception at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art also attended by President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, both of whom delivered speeches. Adams did not address the gathering.
The Times, citing a search warrant, reported in early November 2023 that federal authorities were investigating the possible acceptance of illegal donations by Adams’s 2021 campaign, including from the Turkish government.
The investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan was focused on whether Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign conspired with a Brooklyn construction company to funnel foreign money into the campaign through a straw-donor scheme, the Times said.
According to the Times, authorities also sought information about Adams’ ties to Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan.
Adams, 64, a former police officer who rose to the rank of captain, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and said he is cooperating with the investigation. His lawyers said in a statement on Aug. 15 that they had conducted their own investigation into the matters prosecutors were looking into and found no evidence of illegal conduct by Adams.
The lawyers, Brendan McGuire and Boyd Johnson, said, “To the contrary, we have identified extensive evidence undermining the federal prosecution’s stated theories regarding Meyer, which we have voluntarily shared with the U.S. Attorney.”
New York has been in political turmoil for the past month. Police Commissioner Edward Cabán resigned on September 12, a week after FBI agents seized his phone. A few days later, Adams’ chief legal counsel resigned, saying she could no longer “function effectively” in the position.
On Wednesday, David Banks, the city’s public schools chancellor, said he would retire at the end of the year, just weeks after the Times reported that federal agents had seized his phones.