New York Mayor Eric Adams charged with federal crimes

Federal prosecutors charged New York Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday. The New York Times and other media reported thiscasting doubt on the moderate Democrat’s future as CEO of the nation’s largest city.

The indictment remains sealed, so the nature of the charges is not yet known, according to the Times.

Adams responded to the allegations in a pre-recorded video that anticipated his possible indictment.

“My fellow New Yorkers, I now believe that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes.” Adams said. “If so, these accusations will be completely false, based on lies, but they would not be surprising.”

“I will fight these injustices with all my strength and my spirit,” he added.

The indictment marks a remarkable turn for Adams, a former New York Police Department captain whose victorious campaign focused on public safety earned him national recognition in a sign of a changing trend within his party. Adams, the city’s second black mayor, went so far as to describe himself as the “future of the Democratic Party.”

He can now claim a different kind of distinction: the First New York mayor is indicted.

As a candidate and elected official, Adams is perhaps best known as a larger-than-life cheerleader for the Big Apple — a nightlife enthusiast who used Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” as his intro music at public appearances.

But Adams’ roots in Brooklyn’s patronage system and his facility with transactional interest-group politics — the kind that often have a seedy underside — played as much of a role in his election as his signature “swagger.”

He took his old machine ways to City Hall, testing the limits of ethics laws, hiring friends with shady pasts and allegedly presiding over a culture of roguish behavior.

The U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating whether Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign conspired with the Turkish government to provide him with illegal foreign donations. The research came into the public eye in Novemberwhen federal agents first seized the electronic devices of an Adams campaign worker in charge of fundraising, and then Adams’ own phones.

A series of additional scandals have occurred since consumed Adams’ mayoralty. Federal prosecutors have been investigating top Adams administration officials on charges including alleged bribery and shakedown schemes. The steady trickle of federal raids and rumors of indictments has led to the resignation of many top officials. In the past alone for two weeksThe schools chancellor, health commissioner, police chief and Adams City Hall attorney have all left.

A former female colleague of Adams when he was in the New York Police Department is also suing him for sexual assault, she says he committed in 1993.

As Adams’ problems have mounted, he has insisted he is fully focused on running the city, which faces ongoing affordability issues for residents and the integration of more than 210,000 asylum seekers who have arrived since 2022.

But there is already a growing field of Democrats challenging Adams in the June 2025 mayoral primary, including Secretaries of State Zellnor Myrie and Jessica Ramos, City Comptroller Brad Lander and former Comptroller Scott Stringer.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, perhaps the most influential progressive in New York City, called on Adams to resign on Wednesday.

“I don’t see how Mayor Adams can continue to govern New York City,” she said posted on Xciting the “flood” of investigations and dismissals.

Myrie, Lander And Stringer all called on Adams to resign on Wednesday evening, while Ramos a critical statement who stopped before demanding his departure.

Perhaps more remarkably, New York City Councilman Bob Holden, a conservative Democrat who aligned himself with Adams on a number of issues, also called on Adams to resign.

“While [the mayor] is presumed innocent until proven guilty, there is no way he can lead effectively with this cloud hanging over him,” he says tweeted at X.