Attorneys for New York Mayor Eric Adams have urged a federal court to dismiss one of the five criminal charges brought against him this past week. “Despite the fact that the indictment reproduces quotes from messages, emails, and conversations for numerous other points, it does not allege any specific exchanges or conversations in which Adams and the Turkish official entered into this purported quid pro quo agreement,” his legal team wrote. They further argued that at the time of the alleged incident, Adams was only the Brooklyn borough president and lacked the power to compel the FDNY to take action concerning the consular building.
Adams’s attorneys also pointed to a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that raised the bar for federal prosecutors to pursue corruption cases.
That 6–3 ruling held that a federal law prohibiting government officials from “corruptly” accepting “anything of value of any person” in exchange for an official act does not extend to “gratuities” or gifts—such as luxury trips—that are given for past actions. “Even the three dissenting Justices agreed that the statute requires an official act,” they wrote. The 25-page motion was filed four days after federal prosecutors accused Adams, as de facto mayor-elect, of pressuring the FDNY to rush to open the Turkish consular building without a fire inspection in September 2021 in return for receiving free or discounted travel perks, which his attorneys described as “gratuities” th.
