Lev Radin/Pacific Press via ZUMA Press Wire
On Monday, President-elect Donald Trump said that he would consider pardoning Eric Adams if the New York City mayor is convicted on charges related to accepting bribes and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.
“I think that he was treated pretty unfairly,” Trump told reporters from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. Despite admitting to not knowing “the gravity of it all, that is, the specifics of Adams’ case, that didn’t stop Trump from downplaying the mayor’s alleged crimes to “being upgraded on an airplane.”
But anyone who has taken even the briefest glance at Adams’ long and comical indictment would know that charges levied against the embattled mayor are far more serious than Trump’s characterization. Those charges include bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy, and soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals. As my colleague, Anna Merlan, reported:
The indictment alleges Adams has been accepting “improper value benefits,” from wealthy Turkish nationals and officials connected to the Turkish government for at least a decade, going back to his time as Brooklyn Borough President.
Those benefits included luxury hotel stays, upgraded plane tickets, free meals at high-end restaurants, and “luxury entertainment” during his frequent trips to Turkey.
It also alleges that he and his mayoral campaign baldly and happily took what a reasonable person would construe as bribes from Turkish nationals, accepting large sums of illegal contributions through straw donors and giving favorable treatment in return, including pressuring the fire department to approve a luxury high-rise which houses the Turkish consulate, ceasing his association with a Turkish community center in Brooklyn that Turkey claimed was hostile to the government, and declining to make a statement on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day simply because a “Turkish official” asked him not to.
“I think he was treated, you know, it’s very interesting when he essentially went against what was happening with the migrants coming in. And he made some pretty strong statements like this is not sustainable,” Trump said, suggesting that Adams’ response to migrants arriving in New York prompted the Justice Department to retaliate. “I said he would be indicted soon.”
Trump levied similar accusations against the DOJ when Adams was initially indicted earlier this year. (Not true, by the way.)
Adams, for his part, has been openly ingratiating himself to Trump, actions that have been widely interpreted as a naked effort to secure a pardon. “President Biden and President-elect Trump now agree on one thing,” Adams said after Joe Biden pardoned his son, Hunter. “The Biden Justice Department has been politicized. Does that sound familiar? I rest my case.”
It’s unclear if the president-elect will follow through on a pardon should Adams get convicted. Either way, Adams joins the very long list of MAGA loyalists and accused insurrectionists that Trump has promised to pardon once he’s inaugurated come January.