The United States of America v. Eric Adams was the first criminal indictment of a sitting mayor in the modern history of New York City. But the re-election of Donald J. Trump has invited questions about whether Mr. Adams might appeal to Mr. Trump for help in his federal corruption case — and whether Mr. Trump might entertain providing it.
In the weeks before the presidential election, Mr. Trump, a Republican and the first former president to be convicted of felonies, and Mr. Adams, the beleaguered Democratic mayor of the largest city in America, appeared to become unlikely bedfellows. Mr. Trump, who has publicly empathized with Mr. Adams, said that they were both the targets of politically motivated prosecutions.
Mr. Trump has been charged in four separate indictments and was convicted in Manhattan earlier this year of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payments to a porn star. Mr. Trump has suggested without evidence that Mr. Adams is facing prosecution in his own criminal case, in which he is accused of conspiring with Turkish officials to receive illegal foreign campaign donations, because Mr. Adams had called out the Biden administration over the city’s migrant crisis.
At a charity event in Manhattan last month, Mr. Trump, standing at a lectern, turned to his right to address Mr. Adams: “We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric.”
For his part, the mayor has been careful not to criticize Mr. Trump. In a move that seemed to break with others in the Democratic Party, Mr. Adams recently rejected the idea that Mr. Trump was a fascist, going so far as to defend him.
“I don’t think it’s fitting to anyone to state that the former president is equal to being Hitler,” said Mr. Adams, who was briefing reporters about security plans ahead of Mr. Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden last month.
Mr. Adams congratulated Mr. Trump on his victory during a news briefing on Wednesday at City Hall. On Thursday evening, the mayor said in an ABC7 interview that he had spoken with the president-elect about issues facing the city, but not about his pending criminal case.
Here’s what we know about the case against Mr. Adams and how legal experts say a Trump presidency might affect it.
What is the mayor accused of and where does the case stand?
The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has accused Mr. Adams of taking part in a campaign fund-raising scheme and accepting free and heavily discounted luxury travel from Turkish officials for years. In return, prosecutors said, he pressured the Fire Department to approve the opening of the Turkish government’s new high-rise consulate building in Manhattan despite safety concerns.
Unsealed in late September, the five-count indictment against Mr. Adams includes charges of bribery and fraud. And last month, prosecutors said they planned to bring more charges against the mayor and possibly others as well.
Mr. Adams, who has pleaded not guilty and has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, was scheduled to go to trial on April 21. But one legal expert said she was surprised that the prosecutors had not sought to take Mr. Adams to trial much sooner given the quickly changing political landscape.
“Why were they willing to risk the health of their prosecution and put such a long timetable on this?” said the expert, Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who added: “This is really a vulnerability for the city of New York. Risking federal prosecutions on the Justice Department of a president who would love to prove that he can get a Democratic mayor under his thumb was not wise.”
What power will Trump have over the office prosecuting Adams?
Mr. Trump is expected to replace Damien Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who was appointed by President Biden in 2021. However, Mr. Trump’s selection for the office must first be confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a process that could take weeks or months. The new lead prosecutor would serve at the pleasure of the president for a term of four years.
During his first term, Mr. Trump sought to undermine cases against his friends and pursue his foes. He even once pushed for a criminal investigation of former Secretary of State John Kerry.
Although the Southern District of New York is widely seen as the most powerful prosecutor’s office outside of Washington, and one that has traditionally enjoyed great autonomy, Mr. Trump could pressure its leadership to drop the charges against Mr. Adams, legal experts said. The office could also move to defer the prosecution.
The mayor and his advisers have felt more optimistic about his case since the election and are hopeful that there will be less energy and resources devoted to the four separate federal investigations involving Mr. Adams and members of his inner circle, according to a person familiar with their thinking.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer defending Mr. Adams in his criminal case, did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
Can Trump pardon Adams if he is convicted at trial?
Yes. Mr. Trump could also pressure the Justice Department to seek a more lenient punishment at sentencing, legal experts said, or commute Mr. Adams’s sentence as Mr. Trump did in 2020 for Rod R. Blagojevich. A former Democratic governor of Illinois, Mr. Blagojevich was convicted of corruption and sentenced to 14 years in federal prison in 2011.
“If I am Eric Adams, I am sleeping a little more peacefully tonight knowing Donald Trump will be in charge and not Kamala Harris,” said Christina Greer, an associate professor of political science at Fordham University. “Especially because Donald Trump has been very clear that he equates his prosecution as similar — with the Democrats being the villain.”
Are there protections in place to prevent the U.S. attorney’s office from becoming politicized?
Even if Mr. Trump wanted to derail the prosecution of Mr. Adams, it would not be easily accomplished.
To withdraw the charges, prosecutors would have to file a motion explaining their reasons for doing so, which a judge would then rule on. Typically, charges are withdrawn when evidence in a case no longer holds up, a defendant dies or a witness decides not to testify.
“The idea that the investigation would go away seems hard to imagine,” said Bennett Capers, a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York and a professor at the Fordham University School of Law, who noted that Mr. Adams had already been indicted by a federal grand jury. “There’s a difference between just an investigation and an indicted case, especially one that has seen lots of publicity nationwide, the investigation and evidence seem solid and one that the public agrees merits prosecution,” he said.
Why would Trump help Adams anyway?
Some political and legal analysts have said that Mr. Trump might seek to use Mr. Adams as an inroad into New York City, a liberal stronghold that he has long felt shutout from.
“It’s not where he finds his supporters, but it is where he has a lot of financial interests,” Ms. Finkelstein said. “It is the place he used to call home, and he still has property there. I think he would love to have the mayor of the largest city in the United States in his pocket.”
Ms. Finkelstein said there could also be a scenario in which Mr. Trump teams up with Mr. Adams against the governor on issues in New York.
The idea that Mr. Trump might be interested in helping Mr. Adams emerged once he began publicly attempting to make an alliance with the mayor.
“He likes to have allies,” Ms. Greer said of the president-elect. “He likes the fact that this would be a Democrat aligning himself with him.”
But others found it hard to believe that, once in office, Mr. Trump would go out of his way to interfere in the prosecution of a New York City mayor.
“A mayor that is deeply, deeply unpopular, and I think that includes in the Black community — it is hard to imagine having Adams in his pocket helps him,” Mr. Capers said. “Now since Trump has won, sort of decisively, the popular vote and the electoral vote, what does he need Eric for?”
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