Arrested. Rejected. Elected. Indicted.
How Eric Adams became the first New York City mayor to be federal charged
There have been 110 mayors of New York City since it was incorporated. In that time, those men have run for president and quickly skipped town amid corruption scandals. They have had marital bumps and weathered terrorist attacks, hurricanes, riots, blizzards and pandemics.
But until last week, not one mayor of the nation’s most populous city has ever been charged with a federal crime. That changed with Eric Adams, as I explained on the most recent episode of “The Journal” podcast. (If you get podcasts on your Apple device, click here to listen. If you do Spotify, click here.)
I was part of The Wall Street Journal’s team coverage of this major story, which broke late on Wednesday night. My colleagues Jim Fanelli and Cory Ramey covered the 57-page indictment, which alleges Adams filled his campaign accounts with illegal foreign political contributions and traveled on the dime of Turkish nationals without disclosing the free perks. Jim and Cory were also there on Friday when Adams pleaded not guilty and explained in this great story how much of a distraction this will be to running New York’s government.
The indictment has left the city’s second Black mayor fighting for his political life, I wrote late Thursday. It marks a stunning fall for a son of Brooklyn who spent more than two decades with the New York Police Department before entering the favor-trading politics of the most populous borough in the city.
The allegations against him, which date to his days as Brooklyn borough president—the job he held before being elected mayor in 2021—have thrown into disarray the governing and politics of the country’s largest city.
In New York’s political scene, concerned whispers began about Adams’s ability to lead the city when federal agents seized his phones last November. This week, that talk grew into mounting public calls for Adams’s resignation, as Democrats questioned whether he can govern in the face of an exodus of top aides.
Progressives who have feuded with Adams were emboldened by the charges and looked ahead to taking him on in a Democratic primary next June. And some of City Hall’s immediate work was put on the back burner, including a rezoning plan that Adams had hoped would spur housing construction.
Adams has denied wrongdoing and pledged to stay on as mayor. “My attorney will take care of the case, so I can take care of the city,” he said Thursday.
There were no city officials behind Adams as he spoke outside the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion, which had been searched earlier by federal agents. He stood with Black faith and civil-rights leaders and asked New Yorkers to withhold judgment until he could present a defense.
Almost three years ago, voters had ushered Adams into office to get crime under control, and when the polls closed on primary night in June 2021, he declared himself “the face of the new Democratic Party.”
To see how much things have changed, look to the Democratic National Convention last month in Chicago. The closest Adams got to the spotlight was a side stage outside the main arena—and he didn’t even have it to himself.
Without a speaking slot on the convention floor, Adams was left to answer questions about housing and crime alongside the mayors of Chicago and Atlanta before an audience of several dozen. Afterward, he posed for a picture with Michael Cohen, a one-time fixer for Donald Trump who served prison time after pleading guilty to campaign-finance violations related to hush-money payments.
“Good guy,” Cohen said of Adams.
The mayor responded to questions about the investigations and insisted he hadn’t been sidelined at the convention.
“I don’t have to be on stage,” he said. “I’m the mayor of New York. My life is a stage.”
THE QUESTION: Who is next in the line of succession in New York City?
Know the answer? Drop me a line at jimmy.vielkind@gmail.com. Or just write with thoughts, feedback or to say hi.
THE LAST ANSWER: Brian Kemp is Georgia’s current governor.