h. nazan ışık—

1 October 2024—

Mayor Adams was indicted on 26 September 2024 on federal charges for bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations.

This was the first press conference that Mayor Adams held in-person at City Hall after being indicted for bribery.

Photo © h. nazan ışık

It was a full house. Members of the press were ready, even sitting on the ground.

Mayor Eric Adams: You know, you often heard me throughout my entire journey talk about the obstacles that I had to overcome throughout my life. And you sometimes you look over them and you’ll say, listen, it could not have been that hard. And now you have the first front row seat of my resiliency during one of these moments that is challenging, but you’re seeing firsthand my ability to stay focused. I have a city to run and I have an amazing team to do so. 

Question: There have been a lot of people who are leaving the administration. I wonder if you expect more people to leave in the coming weeks and months, and will the new faces help to convince the governor of the State of New York that you can govern the city and regain the trust of the people who live here? 

And we shifted our normal off topics because for the last few weeks, if not months, most of the focus has basically been on the investigation. […] And so since the questions are on the investigation, I wanted to answer those that I can answer within the legal boundaries on the advice of the counsel. But if you have questions that’s dealing with the very real issues of running the city, my deputy mayors are very much available.

Mayor Eric Adams: [….] And a great conversation with the governor in the last few days. She is clear on what we have done together, even over the last few months, that this investigation was taking place. The numbers are clear. No one can argue with the numbers,

This has been a successful administration in having the city survive not only COVID, but 217,000 migrants and asylum seekers. And we’re going to continue to move the city forward, and I am confident that we’re going to do that. 

Question: Hi. Are you hopeful that your attorney’s bid to dismiss the charges is going to succeed? And if yes, could you say why you’re hopeful? 

Mayor Adams: Again, any case, I’m hopeful because I did nothing wrong. That’s where my hopeful comes from. I’ve said it over and over again, I know how I live my life, I did nothing wrong.

There were many more different questions asked, but I wanted to focus on the ones about foreign trips, including Turkey.

Question: Yesterday, your attorney, Alex Spiro, told us that you were not required to disclose foreign trips, including a Turkey that you took while borough president and as mayor. 

Can you just walk us through what your understanding is  of when those trips should be disclosed and why it appears in some cases you didn’t disclose them? 

And then also, I know you said you don’t want to talk about this, yes or no question, do you believe the Department of Justice is targeting you because of your criticism of the Biden administration? 

 Mayor Adams: Both of your questions you ask I think is too closely affiliated to the case, and I’m not going to do anything that’s going to jeopardize a fair hearing outside in the case. I’m not giving you any generality. You don’t do generalities when you are fighting a case. Nothing I say is going to interfere with my ability to be a defense. My attorney told me what are the boundaries, and I respect my attorneys, and any of you that are in something like this, you should do the same. 

Question: [..] considering the indictments, you said you’ll fight this with every ounce of your strength and spirit. How are you going to effectively perform your duties as mayor of 8 million people fighting these charges?

 You have a court date tomorrow. I assume you’re going to have court dates going forward that you’ll have to be at. How are you going to continue to be mayor, and are you at least considering resigning? 

Mayor Adams: I need to do a recording of this so I could just say it one time and everybody could hear it. 

Every day New Yorkers are hit with bad news. Every day. And the message is that when you reach an obstacle, just throw up your hands and give up. I mean, that’s not who I am. And if that’s who I am, then I should have never have put myself in this position to be mayor. So I can’t be any clearer. Obstacles don’t stop me. They strengthen me. That has been my life story. 

[…] I’ve been dealing with difficult moments throughout my entire life. And in spite of all those difficult moments, I’m called the mayor of the City of New York.

© h. nazan ışık 

Photos © h. nazan ışık. / NKENdiKEN