(Bloomberg) -- New York Mayor Eric Adams failed to get a bribery charge against him thrown out, setting up a high-profile April trial in which he is likely to confront the full five-count indictment against him even as he is gearing up for a re-election bid.
The ruling Tuesday by US District Judge Dale Ho is a blow to Adams, who had moved swiftly for the dismissal of the bribery count, arguing the claims didn’t even add up to a crime. In September he became the city’s first mayor in modern history to be indicted on federal corruption charges.
The indictment alleges that Adams accepted illegal donations, as well as bribes mainly in the form of luxury travel, in exchange for favors to Turkish officials. In addition to the bribery charge, he faces two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign citizens and one each of conspiracy and wire fraud. He has pleaded not guilty and has resisted calls to step down.
The mayor’s lawyers contended that a recent decision by the US Supreme Court knocks the bribery charge out. In June the high court ruled that while federal law criminalizes bribes to influence future acts, it doesn’t outlaw “gratuities” given in response to things done in the past. In shooting that argument down, Ho ruled that the Supreme Court decision doesn’t speak to the issue in the Adams case. Instead he applied a precedent from the federal appeals court in New York.
Responding to Ho’s ruling, Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro called the whole case “contrived.” It took a while “for the court to unwind its legal theories, questioning several of them in its ruling — and proving the point that this case was simply invented to harm Mayor Adams and not about justice at all,” Spiro said.
Ho also rejected Adams’ request to move up the April 21 trial date. Spiro has pushed for a quick trial that would let Adams clear his name in time to run for re-election. Meanwhile a widening circle of current and former city officials are facing criminal probes or charges.
The case is US v. Adams, 24-cr-556, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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