By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Mayor Eric Adams lost a bid to narrow his five-count federal corruption indictment as a judge declined on Tuesday to dismiss a bribery charge related to luxury travel benefits provided by a Turkish official, with the trial set for April.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho denied a motion by lawyers for the Democratic mayor to dismiss the bribery charge. The defense had cited a June U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of the former mayor of an Indiana city also charged by federal prosecutors with corruption in seeking the dismissal.
Adams, who took office in January 2022, has declined to resign despite calls to do so from several senior Democrats in the most populous U.S. city. He has pushed ahead with plans to seek re-election next year and faces several challengers for the Democratic mayoral nomination in June’s party primary.
Federal prosecutors in September charged Adams, 64, with accepting more than $90,000 in discounted luxury hotel stays and flight upgrades from Turkish officials in exchange for pressuring city fire officials to let Turkey open its new consulate despite safety concerns. Adams pleaded not guilty.
Defense lawyer Alex Spiro on Oct. 8 asked Ho to dismiss the bribery count but not the other four – two counts of solicitation of a campaign contribution from a foreign national, one count of wire fraud and one count of wire fraud conspiracy.
During a Nov. 1 hearing over the motion to dismiss the bribery charge, Spiro downplayed the severity of those other four counts, arguing that they dealt with routine campaign finance activity that is rarely prosecuted.
“Every single serious election in this country has had straw donors since the beginning of time,” Spiro said.
Prosecutors said Adams disguised campaign contributions from Turkish sources by funneling them through U.S.-based “straw” donors, allowing him to illegally qualify for an additional $10 million in public financing.
In seeking the bribery dismissal, Spiro cited the Supreme Court’s conclusion that it is not a crime for state and local officials to accept gratuities such as gift cards or framed photographs as a token of appreciation. Spiro said Adams never agreed to take any specific official act in exchange for a benefit.
“The zealous prosecutors who secured the indictment would have alleged that kind of specific agreement if they had any evidence to support it. But they do not,” Spiro wrote in a court filing.
In response, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan said the indictment properly alleged an “explicit exchange of benefits.” The trial is set to open on April 21.
A former police officer who rose to the rank of captain, Adams is the first of the city’s 110 mayors to be charged with a federal crime while in office. At least seven senior officials in his administration have resigned in recent months as multiple federal corruption probes engulf City Hall.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)
Comments