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« I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you », Eric Adams told New York City residents in a video released last night, « that I would be a target — and a target I became. » That much, at least, came to pass last night. The Department of Justice issued a sealed indictment for Adams late yesterday, making him the first sitting mayor of the Big Apple to face federal prosecution.
The indictment came after months of probes into corruption in Adams’ administration, but the exact nature of the charges remain unclear. Adams will appear in federal court today, when the court will unseal the indictment. At the moment, rumors claim that the DoJ will allege that Adams took money from Turkey in a scheme to approve their consulate plans. Turkey may not be the only source of funds, either, in developments from earlier in the week:
Federal prosecutors investigating whether Mayor Eric Adams conspired with the Turkish government to funnel illegal foreign donations into his campaign have recently sought information about interactions with five other countries, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The demand for information related to the other countries — Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan — was made in expansive grand jury subpoenas issued in July to City Hall, the mayor and his campaign, the people said. The prosecutors’ focus on the other five countries has not been previously reported.
The full scope of the inquiry into the mayor is not publicly known, and it remains unclear why investigators were seeking information about the additional countries or whether Mr. Adams has had dealings with them. But the investigation has focused at least in part on whether, in exchange for illegal donations, Mr. Adams pressured the Fire Department to approve a new, high-rise Turkish Consulate in Midtown Manhattan despite safety concerns. Investigators have also examined free flights and flight upgrades the mayor received from Turkish Airlines.
What next? Calls from fellow Democrats in New York have already started for Adams to resign, although mainly from hard-Left progressives that felt slighted by Adams’ law-and-order approach. The most notable of these is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, never a fan of Adams in the first place:
I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City.
