Mayor Eric Adams says 'I am not guilty' in federal court on indictment charging bribery, fraud, conspiracy

New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty Friday to a campaign finance scheme in which he secretly took illegal donations from Turkish nationals, and got luxury travel in exchange for granting access and favorable treatment. 

"I am not guilty, your honor," Adams told the presiding federal magistrate judge, who had asked whether he wanted to enter a plea to the five-count indictment she had just summarized that included charges of wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy to receive campaign funds from foreign nationals.

She released Adams on his own recognizance, and the case is due back in court Wednesday.

The prosecution of a sitting mayor — for the first time in modern New York City history — has thrown governance of America's biggest city into disarray and threatens to capsize his administration. Adams, who later delivered an impromptu address to whichever staffers were around City Hall, is defiant: He will not resign, even as the governor and city leaders consider whether to remove him.

Also Friday, investigators intercepted Adams' top adviser and seized her cellphone as she returned from vacation in Japan. Agents also searched her house in Brooklyn. 

Adams, a 64-year-old Democrat who is the 110th mayor, spent about four hours inside the courthouse, U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Manhattan, beginning when he turned himself in at about 8:45 a.m., flashing a thumbs-up outside.

He emerged with his lawyer Alex Spiro, who stood before a crush of reporters and ridiculed the prosecution.

"This case isn't even a real case," Spiro said. "This is the airline upgrade corruption case."

The indictment against Adams says Turkish Airlines officials regularly upgraded Adams, his girlfriend and family members on trips to France, China, Sri Lanka, Hungary, Turkey and other foreign locales. Regularly, Adams paid for coach seats or nothing but was upgraded to business class, the indictment said. In total, federal authorities said that he received more than $120,000 in free airfare.

Adams’ Turkish benefactors also contributed generously to his 2021 campaign for mayor, hiding the donations through straw donors, prosecutors said. As a candidate, Adams received millions of dollars in public money through the city’s matching funds program that granted him $8 to every $1 in private contributions. The program and federal law explicitly prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to election campaigns.

Adams returned the largesse of his Turkish benefactors by putting pressure on public officials to circumvent city rules and regulations, prosecutors allege.

After his arraignment Friday, Adams, who was heckled a day before at his own news conference outside the mayoral residence Gracie Mansion, stood silently Friday beside Spiro.

The hearing had lasted less than 20 minutes, before the magistrate, Katharine H. Parker, who referred to the defendant throughout as "Mayor Adams." 

Parker did not require, as is typical in some federal cases, that the defendant surrender his passport, but she did order him not to speak about the case with family members, staffers or witnesses involved in the case. He does not have to avoid them completely, she said.

She warned him: if he fails to appear in court, a warrant could be issued for his arrest. He was then escorted by U.S. marshals to the magistrate's clerk office to sign a personal recognizance bond in which he pledges to return to court.

At the start of the hearing, Parker had explained the charges against the mayor and asked Adams whether he understood his rights. "Yes, I do, your honor," Adams replied.

Spiro said he would be filing a motion by Wednesday to dismiss the charges.

"We're going to want a speedy trial," he said. 

Spiro had accompanied the mayor as he entered the courtroom, which is on the 26th floor. Adams was dressed in a dark blue suit and a red patterned tie. He looked tense and avoided eye contact with reporters and sketch artists seated in the jury box as he waited for the arraignment to begin. He fidgeted with a bracelet of prayer beads he wears on his right wrist.

Four of his NYPD bodyguards sat behind him and accompanied him later to the clerk's office.

Spiro said the case rested on the word of one employee.

"The entire body of evidence rests on one staffer, one staffer that says there was a conversation," the lawyer said. "What you have not learned is that that staffer has lied, and the government is in possession of that lie. When that staffer was first interviewed, that staffer said that Mayor Adams knew nothing about this, he was not involved in this, and that he is innocent."

Under the Speedy Trial Act, the trial must begin within 70 days of the arraignment. The time is often extended with the agreement of the defendant.

The indictment of Adams came amid several ongoing federal investigations into his circle.

The mayor vowed to stay in office as he fights the charges. But he faces calls to resign from many quarters and the possibility of being forced out. 

One senior lawmaker, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, (D-NY), wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that while Adams is entitled to due process for the criminal charges, "My belief is that the mayor has lost the ability to effectively lead the City of New York, and therefore, he must resign."

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the power to remove the mayor, said on Thursday evening that she would review her "options and obligations" and find an "appropriate path forward to ensure the people of New York City are being well-served by their leaders."

The city charter also establishes an Inability Committee — five officials: three elected, two mayoral appointees — that can kick a mayor out. And already, several elected officials have called for his resignation.

Arthur Aidala, the attorney representing Adams's chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, said that his client has been served two subpoenas on Friday for her phones and other electronic equipment, for two separate investigations — one from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and another from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, which is prosecuting Adams.

"They took her phones from her person and then went to her home and took other electronic equipment," he said. 

He said he did not think his client was the target of either investigation. 

"I think she's a witness in an investigation," he said, though he acknowledged that he didn't know what the investigators were looking into.

Lewis-Martin is one of Adams' closest friends and his top adviser. The two have known each other for four decades — her husband was in the police academy with Adams — and she is typically by his side at Adams' weekly news conference. She was a top aide to Adams dating back to the start of his political career. 

"I don't know anything, I've done nothing, and I don't think that there's anything to know" she said Friday evening on her lawyer's radio show, "The Arthur Aidala Power Hour," on AM 970.

"They were perfectly gentlemanly with me today when I handed over my devices," she said. She said she was also served with a subpoena from the U.S. attorney's office, as she summarized it, "to appear before the grand jury."

Long Island defense attorney Michael Scotto, who once headed the rackets bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, described Spiro's push for a quick trial as more defense attorney theatrics than legal strategy.

"I guess it looks good for the TV news, but there's no way this case is going to be tried immediately," he said. "I think the indictment tells a powerful story, and the defense, obviously, is disputing that."

Scotto said the most serious aspect of the case is the wire fraud, in which, prosecutors said, Adams concealed the true source of the campaign money.

"Obviously, the government has an interest in making sure that foreign nationals, agents of foreign countries, don't get involved in our elections," he said.