Mayor Eric Adams — soon to be ex-Mayor Adams — is the first sitting mayor of New York City to be indicted for criminal conduct.
Despite his blatant corruption, he was miraculously saved from accountability by the unsavory quid pro quo of Trump’s Justice Department: we’ll drop the charges against you if you help us round up get rid of immigrants.
And so, last April, with the reluctant consent of an unhappy judge, the federal charges against Adams for bribery, wire fraud and illegal campaign contributions disappeared. Still, the stench from this egregious deal, along with the highly publicized corruption charges against his close associates, didn’t go away, and destroyed Adams’ chances for re-election.
But the allegations in the lengthy federal indictment are still there; and they won’t go away. The federal indictment alleged that Adams accepted illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel benefits from foreign sources, including Turkish officials, and used straw donors to secure public matching funds for his campaign. But this is the point: every federal crime charged in the indictment is also a violation of New York State law. And every one of those federal crimes, in my opinion, can be proved convincingly beyond any reasonable doubt in a New York State courtroom.
For example, New York’s criminal laws against bribery (Penal Law § 200.11), receiving a reward for official misconduct (Penal Law § 200.25), grand larceny (Penal Law § 155.40), and filing a false instrument (Penal Law § 175.35) are all virtual parallels to the federal charges against Adams and resemble almost exactly the fraudulent conduct he was charged with committing.
Moreover, we know that the Adams administration was a cesspool of corruption. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has already charged several of Adams’ closest associates with charges that are closely related to the federal charges against him. Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a former chief advisor to Adams, has been charged with bribery conspiracies by helping developers get construction permits. She also got them to give her $100,000 for her son so he could buy a Porsche. Her son, Glenn Martin, is named in her bribery indictment.
Jesse Hamilton, a former state senator and City Hall official, was charged together with Lewis-Martin, with bribery for allegedly assisting a real-estate developer’s projects for personal gain. Hamilton, a deputy commissioner in charge of the city’s leases, is alleged to have pocketed large sums of money in this pay to play scheme.
Gina and Tony Argento, influential supporters of Adams, were also indicted as co-conspirators in the Lewis-Martin bribery scheme. Eric Ulrich, a former city buildings commissioner, was charged in a separate bribery case with accepting a deal on an apartment with a real estate developer. He also is alleged to have helped a troubled tow-truck company get its license back.
Bragg’s grand jury has charged several other individuals with participating in these corruption schemes, including real estate developer Yechiel Landau, businessman Tian Ji Li, and others in connection with campaign finance violations.
We know that Bragg is not gun shy when it comes to prosecuting people after federal charges have been abandoned or unsuccessful. Bragg prosecuted Donald Trump in the Stormy Daniels hush money case after federal prosecutors declined to indict him. A jury convicted Trump of 33 felonies. Steve Bannon, a key Trump insider, was found guilty in federal court for his fraudulent “Build the Wall” scheme, but he was pardoned by Trump. Bragg then brought state charges against Bannon and got a conviction by his plea of guilty.
It’s not clear whether Bragg is planning to charge Adams. It is understandable that Bragg would stand off during the recent mayoral election, when Adams was for a time a candidate for re-election. But now that the election is over, there is no reason to defer a prosecution of Adams.
I suppose a key question in charging Adams is whether Bragg can obtain the federal evidence used to charge Adams or whether he would have to start from scratch. We know that Bragg’s office shared some evidence with federal prosecutors. Bragg also has the right to obtain federal grand jury materials simply by making a motion, and he would be entitled to such information if it involved a violation of state law. Whether Trump’s Justice Department would oppose such motion is unclear.
Bragg worked with the city’s Department of Investigation in almost all the cases involving corruption by members of the Adams administration. That agency was also heavily involved in the federal investigation of Adams
Adams received an undeserved windfall from the Trump administration when it dismissed his indictment. But the bribery and corruption charges are still very chargeable, and easily provable. There is no good reason why Adams should be immune from penal sanctions when his top aides are not.
Bennett L. Gershman is a distinguished professor at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University
