The slow, oncoming crash-out of New York City Mayor Eric Adams has finally arrived. The unsealed indictment of federal corruption charges on Adams arrived in inboxes and news outlets everywhere, so let’s dig into the ridiculousness.
Of course, for so many New Yorkers and people who’ve been paying any attention whatsoever, the news comes as little surprise, given Adams’ (at best) controversial tenure and the swirling allegations that have dogged his administration from his inauguration.
The first thing of note? News of the indictment broke as Adams attended a reception for President Biden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The thing here is that well-connected people — like, say, the mayor of New York — have an idea the federal government is investigating them. They are typically made aware they will be indicted beforehand by their attorneys, and usually within a known timetable. With this known, Adams might as well have said, in his misplaced swagger, Nah, I think I need to go to this event with the President of the United States and show my face in the place to be.
Now Adams, a former police captain who campaigned on a law-and-order platform — unless it came to him, apparently — now finds himself on the wrong side of the law. The 64-year-old Democrat faces charges including wire fraud, bribery, and accepting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals. The indictment screams of someone’s brazen uncle in a velour sweatsuit who was always plotting on his Bluetooth, leveraging his position for personal gain — and also flouting campaign finance laws with impunity.
The most striking thing about the former NYPD police captain’s indictment is how predictable his fall from grace seems in retrospect. Since taking office in 2022, the initially popular Adams has been a Mount Everest-sized lightning rod for controversy, all stemming from his ‘scheming uncle’ behavior — from his questionable appointments of violently unqualified friends and loyal bootlickers to key positions to his administration’s deluxe struggles with transparency.
His penchant for undeserved self-promotion and broad recklessness often seemed at odds with the gravity of his position as mayor. In other words, he didn’t know what he was getting into, but he would make sure he got his. Typically a man doing dirt will do it quietly, not bring attention to himself unnecessarily. But no, not Adams. To be fair, the crime drop in his tenure, which he ran upon, has worked, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. How he got to this point is in significant question.
The charges against Adams read like a political corruption greatest-hits compilation — and they run from before he reached office. According to the paperwork, the enterprising mayor accepted luxury travel perks from Turkish officials seeking to curry favor, including business-class flight upgrades and stays in hotel suites with nice robes. In one particularly eyebrow-raising incident, Adams — get this — allegedly pressured the FDNY to allow a Turkish consulate building to open without proper fire inspections, all in exchange for free trips and other benefits.
Details of Adams’ alleged scheme to circumvent campaign finance laws genuinely boggle the mind. The indictment describes an elaborate web of straw donors and foreign contributions, with Adams and his henchmen allegedly going to great lengths to conceal the actual sources of campaign funds. In one instance, a Turkish businessman reportedly agreed to funnel $50,000 (or more) to Adams’ campaign, believing the mayor might one day become president and hoping to gain influence. In total, U.S. attorney Damian Williams claims Adams took over $100,000 in graft.
The extent of Adams’ alleged efforts to cover his tracks is impressive and wildly comical, as they belong in a straight-to-VHS law drama. Prosecutors claim he created fake paper trails to suggest he had paid for travel that was actually free or heavily discounted. In one surreal exchange, Adams allegedly instructed a staffer to “always” delete their messages, to which the staffer replied, “Always do,” suggesting the latter understood full well of his boss’ institutional tomfoolery.
However, the most damning allegation in Adams’ cartoonish paper chase is that he fraudulently obtained over $10 million in public matching funds for his 2021 mayoral campaign by falsely certifying compliance with campaign finance regulations. Adams’s alleged abuse of a program designed to empower small donors and reduce the influence of wealthy contributors smells of a grifter who saw each dollar the same — going into the pockets of himself and his partners.
As the legal drama unfolds, some New Yorkers are left to wonder how their city wound up with a mayor who seems to embody the very corruption he once railed against. Others, however, understood early that this wouldn’t go as well as it looked from the outset.
The charges against Adams carry potential prison time if he’s convicted. And yet there’s an undeniable element of New York City-specific schadenfreude in watching a man politicking poser who talked too loudly about his own virtue and “swagger” brought low by allegations of old-fashioned, and wildly unsophisticated grift. In any case, a smiling Adams stated his case to remain in office in a defiant message to the public, asking them to await his chance to state his defense — which frankly has to be absolutely insane. Many Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are beginning calls for his resignation.
While the outcome of Adams’ case remains to be seen, one thing is clear: Good God, New York City sure knows how to pick ’em.
Published: Sep 26, 2024 02:09 pm