The 57-page federal corruption indictment of Mayor Eric Adams begins not with hizzoner’s alleged misdeeds at City Hall, but at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
“In 2014, Eric Adams, the defendant, became Brooklyn Borough President,” the document reads. “Thereafter, for nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.”
Federal officials have accused Adams of bribery, wire fraud, and seeking out donations from foreign officials. Since news of the indictment broke on Wednesday night, dozens of elected officials have called on the mayor to resign — including his successor at Borough Hall, reigning Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
“The Mayor cannot lead this city, nor can he in good faith ask the public to put their trust in him,” the beep said in a statement released after the indictment was unsealed. “I ask the Mayor to put New Yorkers first and resign.”
The indictment came after a months-long investigation that came into the public eye last fall, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation searched the home of Adams’ campaign fundraiser and seized the mayor’s phones. Earlier this month, officials raided the homes of several of the administration’s top officials, two of whom have since resigned.
Reynoso said the news of Adams’ indictment was “unbelievable.”
“I didn’t think the investigation would lead to him,” he told Brooklyn Paper. “I thought maybe there was a circle of corruption happening around him, and didn’t think that he would necessarily be ensared into it.”
Foreign relations at Brooklyn Borough Hall
In New York City, the borough presidents hold a largely ceremonial role. They don’t have the ability to introduce legislation or vote on the city budget, and don’t have direct control over city agencies like the mayor. The beeps weigh in on land use proposals, help shape the mayor’s executive budget, and generally oversee city services in their respective boroughs.
Still, it isn’t unusual for foreign officials to meet with various borough presidents on occasion, said Reynoso and former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Working with Brooklyn’s various ethnic groups is an important part of the job, Markowitz said.
“Part of your responsibility … would be to promote those ethnic groups, reaffirm their importance in Brooklyn and New York City, give recognition to some of their leaders, highlight their holidays,” he said. “At least, that’s what I did, and I pretty much believe my predecessors did that as well. There are many valid reasons to have a relationship with the leadership of many different ethnic groups.”
According to the indictment, Adams was “building relationships with foreign nationals who were seeking influence with him” within a year of taking office as Brooklyn Borough President. He allegedly accepted multiple free or partially paid-for overseas trips, including at least two to Turkey, and became friendly with Turkish businessmen and entrepreneurs.
The gifts came with requests, according to the indictment. In 2016, one Turkish official told Adams to cut off his relationship with a Turkish community center in Brooklyn due to its affiliation with a political movement that opposed Turkey’s increasingly-authoritarian government — and Adams obliged.
In 2018, while still serving as Borough President, Adams allegedly started fundraising for his mayoral campaign and solicited straw donations from Turkish donors. Two years later, he allegedly sought out donations for his campaign from a foreign businessman in exchange for “influence.” Once Adams was mayor, the businessman went to him for help organizing city-sponsored events celebrating his ethnic heritage and resolving issues with city agencies.
After Reynoso took office as Brooklyn Borough President, he and his staff met with federal officials for a briefing on how to deal with foreign representatives, and how they might try to build influence and relationships.
“We meet with a bunch of folks that we believe are just looking out for the interests of residents that live in Brooklyn,” he said. “But no, in some of these countries, there is a concerted effort to influence, to infiltrate, and so forth.”
An ‘unusual’ presentation from a Turkish official at Brooklyn Borough Hall
About two months into Reynoso’s tenure as Borough President, he had a meeting with a representative from the Turkish consulate. The representative’s presentation was “highly unusual,” Reynoso said, though he declined to share more details about the meeting.
“It should have been unusual for anyone in my position,” he said. “If this Turkish official had any relationship with the people in Borough Hall before my administration, the message should have been sent long before he got to me that what they were doing was unusual.”
He doesn’t believe he ever met with that representative again.
Markowitz said he was never approached by a foreign official for anything inappropriate or unusual. Leaders of foreign or ethnic groups often know who in city government to approach if they need or want something, he said, and the Borough President doesn’t have much power.
“When I was in office, I never expressed any ambition in terms of running for mayor or president or anything else,” he said. “I guess I was looked at by those kind of folks as someone who’s just a local leader, and is not a candidate necessarily for a more important office.”
Adams, on the other hand, never made a secret of his desire to eventually run for mayor or “maybe beyond,” Markowitz said.
Since the indictment was announced, Adams has repeatedly denied breaking campaign finance laws or accepting straw donations, and accused federal prosecutors of unfairly targeting him.
“I’ve instructed, not only in writing, but in verbal conversations with the team, we do not participate in foreign donors, we do not participate in foreign donors, we know what the rules are and we comply with those rules, and I think my attorneys are going to reveal that as we move forward,” he said at a press conference outside Gracie Mansion on Thursday.
According to court documents, the mayor is set to be arraigned in federal court on Friday, though he had reportedly wanted to turn himself in on Thursday.
Both former Brooklyn Borough Presidents said the indictment, regardless of the outcome, had likely made it more difficult for New Yorkers to trust their politicians. Adams has a right to his day in court, Markowitz said, and “we’ll just have to see where this goes.”
“If those charges are true, it is a significant betrayal of the public trust,” Reynoso said. “DOJ is talking about it multiple times. It’s not like one thing happened, he came to his senses, disclosed it later on … it seems like it was a pattern … that is just something that is so far away from what I would expect from an elected official.”
