Mayor Eric Adams may face more charges in his historic federal corruption case for allegedly selling his political influence to Turkish powerbrokers in a years-long conspiracy — along with several others in his orbit “likely” to be indicted, prosecutors divulged in court Wednesday.
Hagan Scotten, a prosecutor for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams’ office, made the stunning revelation during the mayor’s first appearance before Manhattan Federal Judge Dale Ho, who is overseeing the case.
Scotten said it was “possible” that Adams — the first sitting mayor in modern New York history to be criminally indicted — would face additional charges.
“We think that is quite likely,” Scotten said when asked by Ho if a superseding indictment was forthcoming, noting the feds were moving “quickly” and conducting several related investigations. “And likely additional defendants will be charged in this scheme.”
Scotten didn’t elaborate on who the additional defendants may be or what charges they could face. Adams’ indictment alleges the mayor had multiple “co-conspirators” in his bribery scheme, many of whom Scotten said would testify at the trial.
Contemporaneous reports as well as sources who know the unnamed co-conspirators listed in Adams’ indictment have made clear they include Brianna Suggs, his longtime political fundraiser; Rana Abbasova, his local Turkish community liaison; and a high-ranking diplomat in the Turkish Consulate in Manhattan.
None of those individuals have to date been publicly accused of wrongdoing by the feds.
Hagan revealed the likelihood of additional charges shortly after Adams took his seat in Ho’s courtroom for the first time. Later in the hearing, he accused the mayor of meddling in the feds’ criminal probe by telling a witness not to talk to the FBI.
Adams’ legal team pushed the judge to put the case on trial by March and before ballots are certified in the Democratic mayoral primary, which is set to take place in June.
Spiro said Adams’ reelection campaign will play out differently depending on whether he’s headed into it “an acquitted innocent man rather than a man under the weight of this case.”
“They indicted the sitting mayor of New York. There is a primary election,” the mayor’s lead attorney, Alex Spiro, said. “We’re asking the court to set it today; there’s no reason not to.”
Ho declined to set a trial date immediately, though he told Spiro he’d take his request under advisement. He gave the feds two weeks to respond to a set of motions Spiro filed this week asking Ho to dismiss a bribery count in the indictment and sanction prosecutors for allegedly leaking confidential grand jury information to the press.
Ho acknowledged that the public “and Mayor Adams have an interest in a speedy trial here, and I agree that interest is heightened.”
Earlier in the hearing, Hagan revealed that the investigation into Adams’ campaign was launched in the summer of 2021 — “before the defendant had even become mayor” — and said that the evidence prosecutors had gotten their hands on was “extensive.”
The mayor, who has defiantly rebuffed calls to resign, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud and two counts of soliciting campaign donations from foreign nationals. Together, those charges carry a maximum penalty of 45 years in prison. His bond package bars him from communicating with witnesses in the case, whose names prosecutors have provided his defense.
The charges stem from allegations that Adams, starting in 2014, solicited and accepted from Turkish nationals more than $100,000 in business-class airplane tickets, hotel stays, meals and other perks during lavish trips to Turkey, Ghana, France, China, India and other countries.
The feds allege that in addition to the lavish gifts, Adams solicited and accepted tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Turkish nationals that were illegally funneled via U.S. donors and maximized by the city’s public matching funds program. They say the inclusion of the illegal donations in the $10 million Adams reported in campaign contributions in 2021 tainted the whole pot.
Important categories of evidence they’ll furnish the defense with during the discovery process include written communications, texts, voice memos, Signal messages, airline records, emails and calendar entries — some of which “will be from the defendant himself” — regarding campaign contributions and travel, Hagan said.
According to the feds, other records will show coordination between Adams’ co-conspirators. Hagan said the feds were still awaiting information from Adams and his campaign requested via a subpoena in July.
One source of evidence the feds still haven’t gained access to is the mayor’s personal cellphone, according to Hagan. The mayor handed the phone over to the feds last November after FBI agents stopped him in the street. But the indictment says he claimed he couldn’t remember the password to open the device because he had recently changed it. Spiro said the defense would provide prosecutors with its contents.
Prosecutors say Adams took significant steps to cover up his misdeeds, like trying to make it look like he paid for luxury trips out of pocket. At Wednesday’s hearing, Scotten accused the mayor of trying to interfere with a witness during the investigation who illegally donated money to his campaign, who received a “clear message” from Adams that “they should not tell the truth to the FBI.”
In exchange for the alleged bribes and illicit campaign cash, Adams is accused of having expedited the opening of the Turkish consulate in Manhattan in time for a 2021 visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by leaning on FDNY officials to resolve safety violations at the building. He’s also accused of doing other political favors for the Turkish government, like avoiding issuing a mayoral statement in 2022 commemorating the Armenian Genocide.
Adams and his attorney have maintained that what the feds call bribes were just “gratuities” and that the mayor had no knowledge about illegal campaign donations.
Adams, who wore a navy suit and a light blue tie to court, kept his head down in court and jotted a few notes down on a legal pad. He left without taking questions from reporters.
Later, in a statement to the Daily News, Spiro said, “The prosecution is desperately now saying they ‘could’ bring a new case because they are suddenly facing dismissal of their actual, flawed case and sanctions for misconduct. This is the sort of nonsense that prosecutors say when they don’t have a real case. If they had a real case, they would have brought it.”
A group of protesters chanting “resign now” were gathered outside the courthouse as Adams ducked into an awaiting SUV. Donald Curtis, executive director of the Unified Black Caucus who participated in the demonstration, said Gov. Kathy Hochul should use her power to remove Adams from office if he doesn’t leave voluntarily.
“We, the taxpayers, demand that he be forcefully removed by the governor today, not tomorrow,” Curtis said. “He can’t run City Hall and appear in court every day to defend these charges.”
In his bid to toss the bribery count, Adams’ lawyer cited a recent Supreme Court decision that loosened up public corruption laws by finding it illegal for officials to accept bribes before taking action but OK to accept “gratuities” after the fact.
Spiro said the luxury travel benefits the mayor received were equivalent to innocuous business perks politicians receive regularly and described his involvement in the consulate’s opening as “normal and perfectly lawful.”
He has repeatedly thrown former top aide-turned-cooperator Abbasova, who worked for Adams for over a decade, under the bus in filings and public statements, claiming the case against the mayor is based on her lies.
Abbasova is among at least a dozen senior Adams staffers, past and current, ensnared in swirling corruption investigations into his administration and campaign by state and federal prosecutors, leading to a steady drumbeat of high-profile resignations in recent weeks.
Besides the Turkey probe, federal investigators are looking into whether the mayor’s inner circle of advisers were engaged in schemes involving kickbacks on city contracts and influence peddling.
On Monday, Adams’ embattled senior public safety adviser, Tim Pearson, became the latest to hand in his resignation letter after getting his home raided and phones seized as part of the probes.
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