Eric Adams Fantasizes About Going to Turkey To ‘Get Away’ After Being Indicted for Taking Bribes from Turkey
X/@ericadamsfornyc
New York City Mayor Eric Adams fantasized in a video on Thursday about flying to Istanbul or Ankara in Turkey to “get away,” less than a year after he was charged with taking Turkish bribes.
Lashing out at his mayoral election opponents Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo in a campaign video, Adams said, “I’m told my opponents are leaving town, either to celebrate winning half an election or maybe writing another book on failed leadership,” as Cuomo’s book appeared on-screen with a 99 cents clearance sticker.
“I can think of many places I’d go to get away from y’all. Ankara, Istanbul, or Zero Bond. Gonna have a good trip,” the mayor continued, as he could be seen packing his bag.
The video then cut to Adams in a car saying, “But I realized, I’m not a wannabe mayor. I’m the actual mayor. I can’t just get up and leave. If I’m gone, there won’t be an Eric Adams keeping things under control. Somebody has to keep us safe and get stuff done. Without me, the local press might actually need to report the news. What would they write? ‘City is fine, mind your business.’ That won’t sell at all.”
He concluded, “So I’m staying. I was born here. I spent my entire life here. So no matter what happens, Eric Adams isn’t going anywhere.”
Adams’ reference to two cities in Turkey raised eyebrows on social media given that, just ten months prior, the mayor was charged with taking Turkish bribes.
Adams is accused of abusing his power in New York politics over the years “to obtain illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel,” including from a Turkish official who then pressured Adams to repay the favor.
According to the indictment, a “senior official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment,” referred to only as “the Turkish official,” allegedly “facilitated many straw donations” to Adams and provided him and his companions with free travel on Turkey’s national airline to several different destinations, including Turkey itself.
“The Turkish Official and other Turkish nationals further arranged for ADAMS and his companions to receive, among other things, free rooms at opulent hotels, free meals at high-end restaurants, and free luxurious entertainment—while in Turkey,” the indictment claimed:
In September 2021, the Turkish Official told ADAMS that it was his turn to repay the Turkish Official, by pressuring the New York City Fire Department (“FDNY”) to facilitate the opening of a new Turkish consular building—a 36-story skyscraper—without a fire inspection, in time for a high-profile visit by Turkey’s president. At the time, the building would have failed an FDNY inspection. In exchange for free travel and other travel-related bribes in 2021 and 2022 arranged by the Turkish Official, ADAMS did as instructed. Because of ADAMS’s pressure on the FDNY, the FDNY official responsible for the FDNY’s assessment of the skyscraper’s fire safety was told that he would lose his job if he failed to acquiesce, and, after ADAMS intervened, the skyscraper opened as requested by the Turkish Official.
In April, a judge dismissed federal corruption charges against Adams after President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice opted to drop the case.
Trump took credit for the dismissal of the charges this month, calling Adams “a very good person” and boasting, “I helped him out a little bit.”
“He made a statement to the effect that, ‘This is terrible. New York City can’t have all these immigrants come in,’ and like, he was indicted the following day. And I said that was a phony indictment, and it was a phony indictment,” said Trump. “That was a Biden indictment.”
