(Bloomberg) -- US prosecutors pushed back on New York Mayor Eric Adams’ claim that a bribery charge they filed against him last month doesn’t “amount to a federal crime at all.”
Adams, who is facing a five-count criminal corruption indictment, is seeking the immediate dismissal of a single charge of bribery. In their response, filed Friday in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors urged the judge supervising the case to rule against him.
“Adams claims that accepting tens of thousand of dollars’ worth of benefits in exchange for pressuring a City agency is ‘routine’ and ‘common,’” prosecutors said. “But however routine that may have been for Adams, the law permits a jury to conclude that it was nonetheless illegal.”
Alex Spiro, the mayor’s lawyer, didn’t immediately respond to email and phone messages seeking comment. In addition to the bribery charge, Adams 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 that he step down.
The filing comes after prosecutors told US District Judge Dale Ho at an Oct. 2 hearing that it was “possible” they would file new charges against Adams. The government also said it was “quite likely” that additional defendants would be named in the case.
A widening circle of current and former city officials facing criminal charges and investigations threatens to bring down the administration a year before Adams is up for re-election.
The government claims Adams violated the bribery law by accepting free and discounted luxury travel from a Turkish government official. In return, prosecutors say, Adams used his influence to pressure city officials to allow the opening of a new Turkish consulate building before getting a required fire safety review.
Adams is arguing that the government can’t show that the travel benefits were accepted in exchange for using his official authority to get the building opened.
Getting charges dismissed at this early stage requires convincing the judge that even if the government’s allegations are true, they don’t add up to a crime. Spiro has said he will also seek to have the other four counts against Adams dismissed before trial.
No Leak
In a separate filing late Friday, the government also pushed back on a claim by Adams’ lawyers that prosecutors had leaked secret grand jury testimony to the news media. Prosecutors urged the judge to reject the defense team’s request for a hearing and sanctions.
“Adams has not established either the disclosure of information that is actually subject to the secrecy protections” of criminal procedure law “or that any such disclosure came from a member of the prosecution team,” the government said.
Even if there was a leak, the pretrial publicity wouldn’t prejudice the case against the mayor, who has talked extensively to the press about the investigation and his indictment, according to prosecutors.
“Courts have rejected claims based on pretrial publicity where that publicity was partially ‘generated by the defendant himself,’” prosecutors said.
The case is US v. Adams, 24-cr-00556, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
--With assistance from Robert Burnson.
(Updates with government saying it found no evidence that grand jury testimony was leaked.)
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