NYC NOW - Special episode: Making sense of the last 48 hours in New York City politics

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

A federal indictment. Calls to resign. A defiant mayor. WNYC’s David Brand and Maia Hibbett break down the unprecedented week in news and what it means for the Adams Administration.

You're listening to a special weekend episode of NYC Now. I'm Jenae Pierre. There's really no other way to describe it. The last 72 hours have brought a political earthquake to New York City. In a historic moment Friday, Mayor Eric Adams stood before a federal judge in Manhattan and entered a plea of not guilty to a raft of corruption charges. He is now the first modern New York City mayor charged with criminal offenses. For his part, Adams insists he's done nothing wrong and has brushed aside calls for his

resignation. To walk us through all the twists and turns, we're joined by WMYC reporter David Brand and politics editor Maya Hibbitt. David, it's been a week. Let's start with Wednesday night. Take us back to that moment as the news of the federal indictment started trickling out. It really has been a week. And really, it's been a big three days, as you mentioned. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, It's kind of out of control. This news came out around 9 o'clock on Wednesday night via the New York Times that prosecutors from the Southern District of New York in Lower Manhattan had issued an indictment for Mayor Adams. Historic indictment, the first sitting mayor to be charged with crimes while in office in modern New York City history. So as it happened, we were on a Zoom meeting, a lot of our colleagues, editors and reporters in the newsroom planning how we are going to cover this.

because there had been rumblings throughout the day that this would be coming. And maybe those rumblings reached several elected officials because, for example, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, congresswoman, talked to New York Times, calling on Adams to resign. You were seeing a lot of that chatter emerging that day, rumors flying among people working in City Hall and the City Council, political observers, and I guess for good reason, because New York Times popped that story the next morning, federal government unsealed the indictment with five criminal charges against Mayor Adams, dating back to his time as Brooklyn Borough president.

A lot going on. Yeah, yeah. David, I want to take a moment now and zone in on Thursday when news of the indictment really broke. Adams held on that day a hastily arranged press conference under a tent in the rain at Gracie Mansion. Can you talk about that moment and his response? Well, maybe it was fitting because it was chaos.

You mentioned at a hastily arranged press conference under a tent. This was like a party tent that you might see at like a Sweet 16 party or graduation party in someone's backyard. And it was Adams surrounded by his longtime supporters all huddled together under that tent while reporters were watching the press conference, getting a chance to ask questions. Meanwhile, and maybe overshadowing some of that, hecklers were nearby. This was right outside Gracie Mansion. so this was in a public area on the sidewalk. This is a youth bank, Eric Adams. Calling on him to resign.

The mayor remained defiant throughout, saying he had no plans to resign. His argument is that these rumors have been circulating and leaks from prosecutors and stories that reporters have written about his ties to officials connected to the Turkish government for 10 months now. And yet, he says the city is stronger than ever under his leadership, and it's only continuing to get stronger. And that's his message during that otherwise chaotic press conference. All right. So later on Thursday, lead prosecutor Damian Williams presented the 57-page federal indictment, which, you know, in some ways unfolds like a story. Walk us through those charges. So Adams is facing five counts of bribery, fraud, and campaign finance violations. And you're

right. They lay them out like a story. Prosecutors say basically Turkish government officials and business people with ties to the Turkish government were grooming Adams early on in his tenure as Brooklyn Borough president, kind of banking on him rising in prominence and rising through the political ranks. And, you know, they had a way they were right. He became the mayor. There's some information in the indictment where one business person who started donating to the Adams campaign actually predicted he'd become president. And we look back at 2021 after he won the Democratic primary. That was a lot of people kind of shared that view. So they were plying in with free or heavily discounted luxury airfare, hotel stays, travel perks on trips to Istanbul and other parts of the world. Wow. So what were Turkish officials going to get out of all of this?

Well, the indictment says he did favors for the Turkish officials, most notably by leaning on fire department officials to ignore safety concerns at a Turkish consulate building in Manhattan so that it could open ahead of a visit by Turkish President Erdogan. And the indictment includes text messages and other communications showing Adams talking with the then fire commissioner, Daniel Nigro asking him to speed up the review. Nigro reporting back to him. Adams reporting to a staff member saying that he was taking care of this, telling a Turkish official, I'm on top of it. And then it ended up opening on time for Erdogan to visit and christen its opening despite these safety concerns from fire department officials. Prosecutors say it didn't stop when he was running for mayor, though, or, you know, leading up to that general election in 2021. They said he continued soliciting illegal campaign funds while in office, including leading up to the 2025 election next year. He's busy raising money for that for the past few years.

Yeah. Perhaps most egregious of all this, prosecutors say, is that a significant amount of those illegal contributions were eligible for matching funds through the city's public matching funds program, where the campaign finance board will match a service. an amount of money up to eight times. So prosecutors say it was more than $20,000. That could have been multiplied up to $160,000 under those rules. Wow. And allegedly he tried to cover all of this up, right, David? That's right. So the indictment says he was deleting text messages, talking with aides about erasing messages on their phones and changing the passcode on his own phone before federal agents seized his electronic devices last year. He told those. FBI agents, he didn't remember the passcode and so couldn't unlock his phone, according to the

indictment. Got to point out that these are all allegations and Adams has not been found guilty of anything. All right, Maya, let's turn to you. All of this is clearly upended city politics, right? Talk about some of the early fallout. How are leaders across the city and the state reacting to all of this? It's obviously a really big deal. Some leaders in the city are calling on the mayor to resign, especially people on the left who were pretty critical of him already. But there are also some more moderate and conservative Democrats in New York City politics who have also said that he should step down. But some key leaders who have said they're concerned about the situation

have not gone so far as to say that Adams should resign. Public advocate Jumani Williams says Adam needs to answer a few vital questions as he decides what to do. Do you have the ability to govern and can you restore trust? And if you can do that, you need to put forward a plan really quickly to show us how you can do that. And that hasn't happened. And Williams has something writing on this, whether he wants it or not. He would be next in line if Adams were to step down.

City Council Speaker Adrian Adams says whether the mayor chooses to resign is his choice. I really would like for the mayor to fully consider honestly and say, seriously, the needs of New Yorkers, now that this crisis has befallen the city of New York. And Maya, what are we hearing from everyday New Yorkers? Margo Ayende is from Canarsie. She says she had many hopes for Adams, and she's disappointed by the news. I'm at a loss for words. It's just happening one bam, bam, bam.

And so we're all disappointed. My household is disappointed. And we're worried. We're concerned. Where is our city going? with all the immigrants that have just coming as well. Where is everyone? Mary Carey lives in Brooklyn.

She says she's not surprised. And for a while, she's been concerned about cronyism in the Adams administration. A lot of his administration are very close to him. So I think he has put a lot of his friends in high offices and positions. And they're kind of all in this together, I think. Wow. Now, the mayor is up for re-election in 2025. what does this indictment do to that race?

It's somewhat hard to say because we're not sure if he'll still be the mayor at that time. For now, we have to assume that he is running in the June 2025 primary. But if he either resigns or is removed from office, the race will look very different. Right now, he has several challengers in the primary anyway, but it will be a really open field if there's no incumbent. plus there would be a special election before the scheduled one. All right. So in the meantime, how does Adams effectively govern the city? That's a really good question. And it's one that a lot of people in the city have been wondering. Before all of this blew up, Adams was already facing a lot of pressure amid multiple investigations

into his administration and a few pretty high profile resignations. His police commissioner resigned after having his phone seized in an investigation. And then shortly thereafter, Adams' top lawyer also resigned pretty abruptly. Then he had a couple more officials say that they were going to step down, including schools chancellor David Banks and the health commissioner. All of that was before Adams was even indicted. And since then, there's been a lot more skepticism about whether he can lead the city effectively. And then on Friday afternoon, we found out that another one of Adams' aides

was also caught up in at least one, but probably more than one, investigation. She had her phones taken, and she also got served a federal subpoena. That's Ingrid Lewis Martin, who's considered one of Adams' closest confidants and a really good friend of his. So amid all of this, a lot of leaders and just regular people in the city are wondering how Adams can actually govern effectively. So, David, what happens next? Well, Adams is set to return to court on Wednesday for court conference. His attorney, Alex Spiro, is going to file a motion to dismiss the case. It's unlikely that the judge will grant that motion. So this is going to proceed. That's what's happening, you know, legally and in court. But what's also happening is the political consequences of this and

the political impact. You know, Adams, as we talked about, says he's sticking it out. He's, going to stay mayor despite growing calls for him to resign. Again, his argument is that these allegations and these leaks and rumors have been swirling for months and yet the city's strong under his leadership. And so he sees no reason why he should resign because of this criminal case. A lot of this is going to depend on what Governor Kathy Hockel wants, though, because she alone has the power to actually remove the mayor. It hasn't been done before, but she could do it and she could

face a lot of pressure to do it, especially if this becomes somewhat of a political albatross for the Democratic Party leading up to the presidential election. Interestingly, Adam's fate could also be bound up in that 2024 presidential election coming up in just a month and a half or so. Because really, if Donald Trump wins, he would likely replace the U.S. attorney in the Southern District, Damien Williams, with a pick of his own. And that person might want to drive. this case against Adams? And I say that because Trump's already starting to make hay over the indictment and kind of echoing what Adams is saying that it's a political witch hunt. And it's because Adams spoke out against the migrant crisis and alienated the Biden administration. So there's

some national politics going on here too. That's WNYC's David Brand and Maya Hibbid. Thanks for listening to this special episode of NYC Now. I'm Jinnay Pierre. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. See you on Monday.