Mayor Eric Adams is expected back in court Friday afternoon as his attorneys seek to have a federal bribery charge against him dismissed.
Adams was charged late last month in a federal indictment accusing him of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. The mayor has consistently denied any wrongdoing, with his legal team arguing that prosecutors have “misunderstood” the law regarding bribery and lack evidence that Adams accepted travel perks from Turkish officials.
“This motion to dismiss deals only with the bribery part,” said criminal defense attorney Duncan Levin during an interview on “Mornings On 1” Friday. Levin does not represent Adams in the case. “And really, this stems from a series of Supreme Court rulings over the past several years that have sort of chipped away at government misconduct in the area of bribery and said there really needs to be a quid pro quo. The Supreme Court has held in some cases recently that a gratuity is not enough, so that if a politician got some kind of gift or money, it has to be tied to some sort of official action.”
Even if the bribery charge is dismissed, the case against Adams is far from over, Levin said.
“It leaves a pretty significant part of the case. But then it's easier to defend one case than two cases. And what he would ultimately turn out to say is that, on this campaign finance part: Yes, there were straw donors. That is a normal part of the campaign, and he didn’t know anything about it. He had nothing to do with the donations and didn’t know that they were through straw donors. So it becomes easier to defend against it if it’s just that,” Levin said.
Adams is expected to attend Friday’s hearing, a requirement so criminal defendants are informed of each stage of the proceedings against them, he said.