Eric Adams’ legal defense has requested that his trial be moved up by three weeks so that it will not interfere with his reelection campaign. The mayor’s defense attorney, Alex Spiro, filed a letter motion with United States District Court judge Dale E. Ho earlier today asking for the change, seeking a start date of April 1st 2025 instead of April 21st.
In his letter detailing the request, Spiro argued that “an earlier trial date will ensure that Mayor Adams’s speedy trial rights are upheld, that the Mayor will be able to fully participate in his reelection campaign and that this City’s voters can be rid of the distraction of this misguided indictment as they hear from and evaluate the Democratic candidates for Mayor on their merits.” The letter also states that “Mayor Adams waives all discovery motions in this matter,” in the interest of simplifying the rescheduling process.
Eric Adams was indicted last September on federal corruption charges, accusing him of accepting over $100,000 in travel perks and upgrades from people tied to the Turkish government, as well as funding his campaign with illegal donations from foreign sources and using them to acquire over $10 million in matching campaign funds from the City. Part of the over-50-page indictment against the New York City mayor details how Adams allegedly pressured a fire chief into allowing a Turkish consular building to open to the public despite numerous safety flaws in its construction.
Adams’ defense rests on the legal definition of the gifts and payments that he received, which his team argues were a form of gratuity rather than bribes. This interpretation hinges on a decision from the United States Supreme Court this past summer, which found that a small-town mayor had not been bribed when he took a $13,000 payment from a trucking company that had been awarded over $1 million in business with said town, because the payment to him from the company came after his town’s contract with it, and therefore amounted to a gratuity.
In the weeks leading up to the election, then-candidate Trump defended the Democratic mayor of the city, saying “I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric,” in a speech at a New York event both men attended. Adams appeared to respond in kind in the days that followed, pushing back against fellow Democrats who painted Trump as a fascist: “I don’t think it’s fitting to anyone to state that the former president is equal to being Hitler.” A poll from last month found that over 70% of New Yorkers want the mayor to resign.
