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Federal prosecutors oppose Mayor Adams’ motion to dismiss bribery
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Mayor Eric Adams takes questions from the media in the rotunda of City Hall Monday, Oct. 1, 2024 in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams for New York Daily News)
By Molly Crane-Newman | New York Daily News
UPDATED: October 20, 2024 at 12:33 p.m.
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Mayor Adams might think it’s “common ” to accept tens of thousands of dollars in benefits to
pressure a city agency, but it is “nonetheless illegal, ” federal prosecutors argued Friday in
opposing the mayor’s motion to toss a bribery count in his sweeping corruption case.
On the heels of his indictment, Adams last month asked the judge overseeing his case to
dismiss the bribery charge against him describing the underlying allegations he illegally did
,
behind-the-scenes bidding for Turkish officials as “extraordinarily vague ” and tantamount to
“normal and perfectly lawful acts that many city officials would undertake for the consulate of
an important foreign nation. ”
“Count Five describes a quid pro quo in which Adams sought and took luxury travel from a
foreign official in exchange for influencing New York City’s regulation of a Manhattan
skyscraper — including by pressuring the FDNY to allow the [Turkish consulate] to open
without an inspection, ” the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office wrote Friday.
“Adams claims that accepting tens of thousand of dollars’ worth of benefits in exchange for
pressuring a City agency is ‘routine and ‘common, ’” prosecutor Celia Cohen wrote. “But
’
however routine that may have been for Adams, the law permits a jury to conclude that it was
nonetheless illegal.”
The embattled mayor has pleaded not guilty to bribery, wire fraud, and secretly soliciting
illegal campaign contributions from overseas donors in a five-count indictment that alleges
he put a price on his political influence dating back to his days as Brooklyn borough
president.
Among other allegations, he’s accused of raking in over $100,000 worth of lavish trips around
the world, cruises, and hotel stays paid for by a Turkish government official and wealthy
Turkish businessmen who believed the former NYPD cop would one day make it to the White
House.
In his Sept. 30 motion to dismiss the bribery charge, Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, said the
government had failed to sufficiently allege a “quid pro quo” showing Adams took bribes to
force the FDNY to bypass a safety inspection so that the 36-story Turkish consulate could be
opened in time for a 2021 visit from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — rather than accepted
benefits after the fact in the form of legal “gratuities,” as defined by the U.S. Supreme Court.
best an allegation that the official intended to ‘curry favor’ with Adams — a classic
“It is at
gratuity (and the kind of gratuity that even federal gratuity prohibitions do not criminalize),”
Spiro wrote.
Prosecutors on Friday said that argument carried no weight and that the Supreme Court
ruling “made clear that the essential distinction between bribes and gratuities is that bribes
are accepted (or solicited) in exchange for the bribe-taker agreeing ‘to be influenced,’ whereas
gratuities are given as ’a token of appreciation,’ without any agreement on the part of the
recipient.”
“The indictment plainly alleges that Adams sought and took travel benefits’ in exchange for
intending to be influenced,’” Cohen wrote.
The New York City mayor in the modern era to face criminal charges Adams has refused
first ,
calls to step down. The feds have not ruled out bringing more charges in a series of ongoing
investigations that have ensnared him and several of his top aides and advisers.
Spiro did not respond to requests for comment.
Originally Published: October 18, 2024 at 4:17 p.m.
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