NYC NOW - September 26, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Damien Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, is laying out more details on the federal charges leveled against Mayor Eric Adams. They include fraud, bribery and solicitation of contributions by a foreign national. Meanwhile, Mayor Adams continues to strike a defiant tone in the face of the allegations. In other news, Broadway theaters will dim their lights Thursday night to honor the late actor James Earl Jones. Plus, WNYC’s Janae Pierre speaks with reporter Samantha Max who breaks down the Adams indictment.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, September 26th. Here's the midday news from Tiffany Hanson. The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damien Williams, has laid out more details on the charges against Mayor Eric Adams. They include fraud, bribery, and solicitation of contributions by a foreign national. As we allege, Mayor Adams took these contributions even though he knew they were illegal. And even though he knew these contributions were attempts by a Turkish government official and Turkish businessmen to buy influence with him. Williams says prosecutors will continue to investigate to, quote, hold others accountable. Williams encouraged anyone in the Adams administration with information to come forward sooner rather than later.

And Mayor Eric Adams continues to sound defiant. as New Yorkers learned more about the charges against him. The mayor is being accused of fraud, solicitation, and contributions by a foreign national, as we've said. Adams appeared at Gracie Mansion, surrounded by his staunchest allies in the wake of the indictment, but was heavily heckled by opponents. In the crowd, still, he asked New Yorkers to hear out his side before passing judgment on the charges against him. This did not surprise us that we reached this day. And I asked New Yorkers to wait.

hear our defense before making any judgments. The indictment comes after weeks of chaos, high-profile law enforcement searches and resignations in the Adams administration. Weatherwise, showers on and off today, otherwise cloudy with a high near 76 degrees. Tonight, a 50-50 chance of showers lingers. Those clouds as well with a low around 67, 66 now. Stay close. There's more after the break. For WNYC, I'm Junae Pierre. As you've been hearing, Mayor Eric Adams was accused of federal fraud and bribery charges in a 57-page federal indictment unsealed Thursday morning. Adams is the first sitting mayor to be charged with a crime in modern New York City history. WNYC's Samantha Max has been reading through the indictment and is here to tell us more about it.

So let's start with the basics. What are the charges? So it's a few different federal charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, and bribery. In this indictment, there's mention of Adams accepting valuable benefits from foreign business people and a Turkish government official. Can you share more on that? Yeah, so this indictment is essentially painting a years-long picture of this relationship that prosecutors are describing between Adams and various foreign nationals from Turkey. including business people, influencers, and basically it's accusing Adams of accepting bribes in exchange for favors.

So the indictment says that Adams was doing things like accepting really expensive plane tickets on a Turkish airline that he either didn't pay for at all or only paid a nominal fee, staying in these really luxurious. hotel stays, having expensive meals, and then in return, you know, offering favors to these Turkish nationals. Like, you know, when someone reached out and said, we need to get the new consulate open before the Turkish president comes to visit. You know, Adams was accused of pressuring the fire department to kind of make that approval happen, even though the building would not have passed a fire inspection at the time. And Sam, as you've been sifting through the indictment, what are some of the key details that jump out to you? I mean, I think something that really jumps out is this allegation that Adams

basically was creating these paper trails to try to hide what he was doing. So, you know, elected officials have to fill out these finance disclosures where they're supposed to say if they're accepting gifts from people and that he wasn't including these. flights and hotel stays and things like that. It also has text messages. I mean, they sees the mayor's phone and other people's phone. So you see these exchanges between Adams and different staffers and, you know, talking about basically there's one exchange between Adams and his domestic partner where his partner is confused because according to prosecutors, Adams was in Turkey at a time when she thought that he was flying from New York to somewhere else.

And there's this text message where he says, oh, you know, I always start in Istanbul. So just really interesting to be able to kind of see inside these innermost intimate communications. So some officials have been calling on Mayor Adams to resign following this indictment. But, you know, he so far rejected those calls. Is there anything in the indictment, Sam, that suggests that Adams will be forced out. And I want to note that that's only a move that can be made by Governor Kathy Hogle.

So it's really hard to say if in this indictment there is any one particular detail that would cause the governor to say, okay, mayor, you've got to step aside. So, you know, we'll just have to keep an eye and see how the governor reacts to all the allegations in here. But, you know, in our criminal justice system, you are. presumed innocent, prosecutors have to prove that you are guilty for you to be convicted, and you're allowed to hold office while you are charged with a crime. And so far, the mayor is steadfast in his decision that he wants to stay in office. He's denying that he has done anything wrong. But, you know, this is also a person who is running for mayor for next year, 2025.

So I think something else to keep an eye on is whether all these allegations you know, how they'll affect his current campaign. Yeah. So what's next? So the next thing would be, you know, Adams facing these charges in court, being arraigned, entering a plea, unclear at this point when that will happen. But we can expect that he will be pleading not guilty and fighting these charges as he said that he will. That's WMYC's Samantha Max. Thanks so much, Sam.

Thanks, Janay. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this evening.