Federal prosecutors claim that they’ve uncovered more alleged criminal conduct from Mayor Eric Adams, who is already fighting federal corruption charges.
The claim was made in court papers filed this week.
What You Need To Know
- Law enforcement uncovered "additional criminal conduct" by Mayor Eric Adams, prosecutors wrote in a court filing
- Adams currently faces federal corruption charges
- The mayor's attorney called the claim by prosecutors "extra irrelevant nonsense"
Prosecutors wrote in a filing that "law enforcement has continued to identify additional individuals involved in Adams’ conduct, and to uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams."
Adams brushed off questions about it during his weekly question-and-answer session with reporters.
"Even Ray Charles can see what's going on," he said.
The mayor provided a few answers to the questions about the revelation.
"The greatest level of discipline that I've ever experienced in my entire life is not to respond to all of this," Adams said.
"They often - and in this case it seems clear - that they're continuing their investigation they're continuing to interview other witnesses they're continuing to potentially proffer and get cooperation from other witnesses," Julie Rendelman, a defense attorney, said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to detail the nature of the illegal conduct.
Adams' attorney, Alex Spiro, told NY1 that the prosecutors' allegations of additional criminal conduct were "extra irrelevant nonsense lines in a motion" trying to prevent the defense from seeing the evidence in order to get headlines.
The filing was made in the government's efforts to stop Adams from obtaining more details about the allegations, evidence and identities of unindicted co-conspirators, so he can mount his defense.
In their opposition to this defense effort, prosecutors cite "the threat of witness tampering" by Adams.
The mayor was asked whether he directed any potential witnesses in this investigation to delete evidence.
"I do not tell people to commit criminal actions," he replied.