New York Mayor Eric Adams must appear in court again in his criminal case

NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams will return to court Wednesday on charges of accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions.

The Democrat is scheduled to appear before a judge at 10:30 a.m. in a Manhattan federal courthouse, just a few blocks from City Hall. The proceedings are not expected to require a detailed examination of the evidence. A judge could set a tentative trial schedule.

Adams was indicted last week for receiving free or heavily discounted flights, hotel stays, meals and entertainment worth about $100,000 on international trips, most of which he took before his election as mayor while serving as Brooklyn’s borough president had accepted.

Prosecutors say the travel benefits were arranged by a senior Turkish diplomat in New York and Turkish businessmen who wanted to gain influence with Adams. The indictment says Adams also conspired to receive illegal donations for his political campaigns from foreign sources that are not permitted to give money to U.S. political candidates.

The indictment says Adams reciprocated those gifts in 2021 by helping Turkey open a new diplomatic facility in the city, even though the fire department had expressed concerns about whether the building could pass all required fire safety inspections.

Adams has denied knowingly accepting illegal campaign contributions. He also said that there was nothing improper about the trips he took abroad and the benefits he received and that any assistance he provided to Turkish officials regarding the diplomatic building was merely routine “constitutional services.” He said part of his job is to help people navigate the city’s bureaucracy.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman, Oncu Keceli, said in a statement that the country’s missions in the United States and elsewhere operate under international diplomatic rules and that “interference in the internal affairs of another country is out of the question for us.”

Judge Dale Ho, appointed to oversee Adams’ trial, may also on Monday consider a request from the mayor’s attorney to open an investigation into whether prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office improperly leaked information about the investigation to reporters.

The court filing cited no evidence that prosecutors violated grand jury rules, but it cited a number of New York Times news reports about cases in which the investigation had become public, such as FBI agents They raided the home of one of Adams’ chief fundraisers and stopped the mayor as he was leaving a public event last November and confiscated his electronic devices.

It was unclear whether the court would schedule a trial before New York’s mayoral primary in June, where Adams is likely to face multiple challengers.