联邦政府指控纽约市市长埃里克·亚当斯向外国人出售影响力。他说他不会辞职。
【中美创新时报2024 年 9 月 26 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）纽约市市长埃里克·亚当斯周四发誓要继续任职，此前联邦检察官公布了一份起诉书，指控他让土耳其官员和商人通过非法竞选捐款和奢华的海外旅行来购买他的影响力。美联社记者杰克·奥芬哈茨对此作了下述报道。
亚当斯是一名民主党人，他面临五项指控，包括共谋、电信欺诈和贿赂指控，这些指控概述了长达十年的腐败历程，从他在布鲁克林担任民选官员开始，一直持续到他担任市长期间。
除其他事项外，检察官称亚当斯还获得了价值超过 10 万美元的免费和大幅折扣的航班升舱、豪华酒店套房的免费住宿和昂贵的餐食，以及来自虚假捐赠者的竞选捐款，其中一些捐款帮助他获得了超过 1000 万美元的配套公共竞选资金。
“我想明确一点，这些升舱和免费赠品不是某些常旅客或面向公众的福利计划的一部分，”美国检察官达米安·威廉姆斯在新闻发布会上说。“这是一个多年的计划，目的是从一位正在崛起的纽约市官员那里买来好处。”
根据起诉书，为了换取贿赂，亚当斯采取了一些似乎对土耳其领导人有利的行动，包括加快领事馆大楼的消防安全检查，以及在亚美尼亚种族灭绝纪念日不发表声明。
美国检察官说，亚当斯有责任披露他收到的礼物，但他年复一年地“对公众隐瞒”。
在格雷西大厦外发表讲话时，亚当斯否认自己有任何不当行为，并表示他不打算辞职。在著名黑人神职人员的簇拥下，亚当斯猛烈抨击联邦检察官，并暗示自己受到了不公平的针对。亚当斯是纽约市第二位黑人市长。
“我要求纽约人先听取我们的辩护，然后再做出任何判断，”他说。“从现在开始，我的律师会处理这个案子，这样我就可以照顾好这座城市了。”
亚当斯的提审定于周五中午在地方法官凯瑟琳·帕克面前进行。
最近几周，联邦政府对市长及其高级助手展开了一系列调查，起诉书的发布使调查达到了惊人的高潮，导致警察局长、学校校长和高级法律顾问辞职。
尽管亚当斯面临共和党人以及明年 6 月市长初选中几位可能的对手要求他辞职的呼声，但参议院多数党领袖查克·舒默和众议院民主党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯等民主党高层人士并没有要求他下台，而是表示应该走法律程序。
州长凯西·霍楚尔有权罢免亚当斯，但她尚未表明是否会采取这一特别措施。她告诉记者，她将于周四晚些时候就此事发表看法。
如果亚当斯辞职，他将立即被进步民主党人朱马恩·威廉姆斯取代，后者是该市的公共倡导者。威廉姆斯随后将安排一次特别选举。威廉姆斯在周四的一份声明中表示，亚当斯展示自己能够有效治理并重新赢得城市信任的时间“正在迅速流逝”。
亚当斯在纽约市警察局工作了 22 年，之后进入政界，先是担任州参议员，然后担任布鲁克林区区长，这是一个很大程度上是礼仪性的职位，但却为他 2021 年竞选市长提供了跳板。
联邦调查局特工最初在近一年前查获了亚当斯的电子设备，作为一项调查的一部分，调查重点是他竞选市长期间的竞选捐款以及亚当斯与土耳其政府和土耳其裔美国商界的互动。从那时起，他在新闻发布会上多次被问及他多年来频繁的全球旅行以及谁支付了这些旅行的费用。
亚当斯说，他的旅行没有任何邪恶之处，他从未做过任何不当的事情来换取竞选资金。
但检察官指控，亚当斯通过土耳其外交机构的一位未透露姓名的官员，寻求并接受了非法捐款，这些捐款流入他的竞选活动。起诉书称，这位官员安排亚当斯和他的同伴乘坐土耳其国家航空公司的免费或折扣航班前往法国、中国、斯里兰卡、印度、匈牙利和土耳其等目的地。
此外，检察官指控，亚当斯还向外国官员寻求捐款——法律禁止这些官员向美国政治候选人捐款——然后通过玩弄该市的配套资金计划“增加收益”，该计划为小额捐款提供慷慨的配套资金。起诉书称，他的竞选活动总共收到了超过 1000 万美元的配套公共资金，这些资金本应只提供给遵守规则的候选人。
检察官称，2021 年 9 月，一名土耳其官员告诉亚当斯，是时候回报他的贡献和好处了，他向消防部门施压，要求他们在没有消防检查的情况下协助领事馆开放，以迎接土耳其总统的访问。这项请求是在亚当斯上任前几个月提出的，但当时他已经确定会成为市长。
即使在消防部门官员警告说领事馆大楼存在重大缺陷，导致“不安全居住”之后，亚当斯仍敦促安全官员允许其开放。起诉书称，几天后，亚当斯将批准的消息转达给了土耳其官员，后者称亚当斯是“土耳其真正的朋友”。起诉书称，亚当斯回答说：“你是我的兄弟。我来帮忙。”
起诉书称，几个月后，这名土耳其官员给亚当斯的一名工作人员发了另一条信息，要求市长“不要在 4 月的纪念日之前发表任何有关亚美尼亚大屠杀的声明”。这位工作人员证实亚当斯不会提及此事，而他确实没有提及。土耳其政府否认 1915 年杀害约 150 万亚美尼亚人的事件构成种族灭绝。
检察官称，亚当斯有时会伪造并指示他人伪造书面记录，以谎称他已支付了实际上是免费的旅行福利。起诉书称，他还删除了与其他不当行为有关的人之间的信息，有一次他向同谋保证，他“总是”删除她的短信。
他的律师亚历克斯·斯皮罗辩称，指控中描述的行为要么与市长无关，要么并不违法，并指出免费航班通常提供给政客。他说亚当斯回应了一位土耳其官员的“礼节性”请求，该官员希望加快对新领事馆的消防检查。“纽约人一直都这样做，”斯皮罗补充道。
周四凌晨，联邦调查局特工进入市长官邸格雷西大厦并没收了他的手机，几个小时后，这些指控被公开。
美国检察官威廉姆斯表示，腐败调查将继续进行。
据信，联邦检察官正在领导多项独立调查，涉及亚当斯及其高级助手、这些助手的亲属、竞选筹款以及可能向警察和消防部门兜售影响力。
仅在过去两周内，警察局长和学校校长就已辞职。两人都没有被指控犯罪或公开指控有不法行为。 9 月初，联邦调查人员从警察局长、学校校长、两名副市长和其他亚当斯信任的密友手中缴获了设备。
美联社视频记者 Aron Ranen 对本报道做出了贡献。
题图：纽约市市长埃里克·亚当斯面临五项指控，包括共谋、电信欺诈和贿赂指控，这些指控描述了长达十年的犯罪历程。
附原英文报道：
Feds charge NYC Mayor Eric Adams with selling his influence to foreign nationals. He says he won’t resign.
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ The Associated Press,Updated September 26, 2024
NYC Mayor Eric Adams vows not to resign amid federal corruption charges
New York City Mayor Eric Adams faces conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery charges in a five-count indictment that describes a decade-long trail of crimes.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to stay in office Thursday after federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment accusing him of letting Turkish officials and businesspeople buy his influence with illegal campaign contributions and lavish overseas trips.
Adams, a Democrat, faces conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery charges in a five-count indictment outlining a decade-long trail of corruption that began when he served as an elected official in Brooklyn and continued through his mayoral administration.
Among other things, prosecutors say Adams received free and steeply discounted flight upgrades valued at more than $100,000, free stays in opulent hotel suites and expensive meals, as well as campaign contributions from straw donors, some of which helped him qualify for more than $10 million in matching public campaign funds.
“I want to be clear, these upgrades and freebies were not part of some frequent flyer or benefits program available to the general public,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference. “This was a multiyear scheme to buy favor from a single New York City official on the rise.”
In exchange for the bribes, Adams took actions that appeared to benefit Turkey’s leaders, including expediting the fire safety inspection at a consulate building and not releasing a statement on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, according to the indictment.
Adams had a duty to disclose gifts he received, but year after year “kept the public in the dark,” the U.S. attorney said.
Speaking outside Gracie Mansion, Adams denied wrongdoing and said he doesn’t plan to resign. Flanked by prominent Black clergy members, Adams, who is the city’s second Black mayor, lashed out at federal prosecutors and suggested he had been unfairly targeted.
“I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments,” he said. “From here, my attorneys will take care of the case so I can take care of the city.”
Adams’ arraignment was scheduled for noon on Friday before Magistrate Judge Katharine Parker.
The indictment brought a stunning crescendo to the drumbeat of federal investigations that has engulfed the mayor and his top aides in recent weeks, prompting resignations from his police commissioner, schools chancellor and top legal adviser.
While Adams faced calls to resign from Republicans and several of his likely opponents in next June’s mayoral primary, top Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries stopped short of asking him to step down and instead said the legal process should play out.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove Adams from office, but she hasn’t indicated whether she would take that extraordinary step. She told reporters she would offer thoughts about it later Thursday.
If Adams were to resign, he would be immediately replaced by Jumaane Williams, a progressive Democrat who serves as the city’s public advocate. Williams would then schedule a special election. In a statement Thursday, Williams said Adams’ time to show he can effectively govern and regain the city’s trust “is rapidly running out.”
Adams spent 22 years in New York City’s police department before going into politics, first as a state senator and then as Brooklyn borough president, a largely ceremonial position but one that gave him a springboard to run for mayor in 2021.
FBI agents initially seized Adams’ electronic devices nearly a year ago as part of an investigation focused on campaign contributions during his mayoral run as well as Adams’ interactions with the Turkish government and the Turkish American business community. Since then, he has been asked repeatedly at news conferences about his frequent global trips over the years and who paid for them.
Adams said there was nothing nefarious about his trips and that he never did anything improper in exchange for campaign money.
But prosecutors allege that Adams sought and accepted illegal contributions funneled to his campaign through an unnamed official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment. The official arranged for Adams and his companions to receive free or discounted travel on Turkey’s national airline to destinations including France, China, Sri Lanka, India, Hungary, and Turkey, the indictment contends.
Additionally, Adams sought contributions from foreign officials — who are banned by law from donating to U.S. political candidates — then “compounded his gains” by gaming the city’s matching funds program, which provides a generous match for small-dollar donations, prosecutors allege. In total, his campaign received more than $10 million in matching public funds, which are only supposed to be available to candidates who play by the rules, according to the indictment.
In September 2021, a Turkish official told Adams it was time to repay him for the contributions and benefits by pressuring the fire department to facilitate the opening of the consulate without a fire inspection, in time for a visit by Turkey’s president, according to prosecutors. That request would have been a few months before Adams took office, but after it was clear he would become mayor.
Even after a fire department official warned that major defects at the consulate building had left it “unsafe to occupy,” Adams pushed safety officials to allow it to open. Days later, Adams relayed news of the approval to the Turkish official, who called Adams a “true friend of Turkey,” the indictment states. Adams responded: “You are my brother. I am hear (sic) to help,” according to the indictment.
Several months later, the Turkish official messaged an Adams staffer with another request: that the mayor “not make any statement about the Armenian Genocide” ahead of an April remembrance day, according to the indictment. The staffer confirmed that Adams wouldn’t mention it, which he didn’t. The Turkish government denies that the 1915 killing of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians qualifies as a genocide.
At times, Adams created and instructed others to create fake paper trails in order to falsely suggest he had paid for travel benefits that were actually free, prosecutors allege. He also deleted messages with others involved in his misconduct, at one point assuring a co-conspirator that he “always” deleted her text messages, according to the indictment.
His lawyer, Alex Spiro, argued that the conduct described in the charges either didn’t involve the mayor or wasn’t illegal, noting that free flights are commonly afforded to politicians. He said Adams had responded to a “courtesy” request from a Turkish official seeking to expedite a fire inspection at a new consulate. “New Yorkers do this all the time,” Spiro added.
The charges were made public hours after FBI agents entered the mayor’s official residence, Gracie Mansion, and seized his phone early Thursday.
The U.S. attorney, Williams, said the corruption investigation would continue.
Federal prosecutors are believed to be leading multiple, separate inquiries involving Adams and his senior aides, relatives of those aides, campaign fundraising and possible influence peddling of the police and fire departments.
In the last two weeks alone, the police commissioner and schools chancellor have resigned. Neither has been charged with a crime or publicly accused of wrongdoing. In early September, federal investigators seized devices from the police commissioner, schools chancellor, two deputy mayors and other trusted Adams confidants.
Associated Press video journalist Aron Ranen contributed to this report.
