Judge refuses to toss out bribery charge against NYC mayor

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday that he won’t dismiss a bribery charge against New York Mayor Eric Adams because prosecutors described the allegations adequately in an indictment.

Judge Dale E. Ho wrote in an opinion that an indictment unsealed against the Democrat in September sufficiently details alleged bribery crimes, preventing dismissal of the charge prior to an April trial.

Adams has pleaded not guilty to corruption charges stemming largely from his relationships with several Turkish government officials and businesspeople from 2015 to 2022. The indictment alleged that he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in overseas travel benefits and illegal campaign donations from people seeking to buy his influence.

The indictment accused him of exploiting a relationship with the Turkish officials and businesspeople that he developed after he became Brooklyn Borough president in January 2014. He became mayor in January 2022.

In his opinion, Ho rejected a request by defense lawyers for Adams to toss out a bribery count that alleged that from the summer of 2021 to the summer of 2022, Adams received free and heavily discounted luxury travel benefits from a Turkish official and others in exchange for wielding his influence to their benefit.

Defense lawyers had argued that the indictment's language was too vague to adequately describe the crime of bribery and that Adams never exercised formal governmental power in the manner that the law requires.

They also claimed Adams did not have formal authority over city fire officials when he was alleged to have pressured them to issue a temporary certificate of occupancy to the Turkish Consulate for what was described as the Turkish House, a newly constructed skyscraper that serves as headquarters to multiple Turkish diplomatic missions.

Ho wrote that previous bribery cases have shown that a public official may use his role to influence those who are not within his direct line of authority and federal bribery laws seek to limit the possibility of this kind of corrupt influence.

The ruling was released a day after President-elect Donald Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida that he would consider pardoning Adams.

“I think that he was treated pretty unfairly,” Trump said, while also acknowledging he doesn’t “know the facts.”

Lawyers for Adams did not immediately comment on the ruling.