On Monday, January 6, 2025, Federal Prosecutors revealed that New York Mayor Eric Adams was involved with additional criminal activity beyond the bribery charges he faced in September 2024. Adams has been accused of accepting money from the Turkish government, which allegedly prompted him to report back to them on the status of a Turkish Midtown construction project. He pleaded not guilty.
In October, an assistant US attorney in the case hinted that the Justice Department may file a superseding indictment against Adams. This week, officials from the Department of Justice submitted a motion to the court overseeing Adams’ ongoing investigation mentioning “additional criminal activity,” though the documents did not reveal what this activity entails.
The motion from the DOJ comes after Adams’ defense attorney requested that the government provide a list of documented evidence against him. Edward Kim, US Attorney for the Southern District in New York, declined to meet the request, arguing that a detailed list would limit their arguments in the trial. Kim also noted that a list that disclosed the names of Adams’ co-conspirators would allow the mayor to engage in witness tampering.
“Although the indictment and discovery provide Adams with more than sufficient information as to his alleged co-conspirator and raiders and abettors, law enforcement has continued to identify additional individuals involved in Adams’s conduct and to uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams,” Kim said in a statement following the motion.
“The Indictment provides ample cause to believe that as potential witnesses became known to Adams and his allies, measures were taken to influence their testimony,” he continued. “And even without a likelihood of physical violence, the threat of witness tampering further supports denial of a bill of particulars in a white-collar case.”
Adams insists that he is innocent and all actions taken were within the laws of the federal government and the state of New York. “Even Ray Charles can see what is going on,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday. “I have an attorney, Alex Spiro, who is handling that. I’ve said repeatedly: I’ve done nothing wrong.”
Spiro is also confident in Adams’s case. “This is amateur hour,” he said following the DOJ motion. “They are just looking for a headline instead of doing the right thing. I assume we are at the point where New Yorkers are not falling for it.”
