Eric Adams Is Indicted in New York

A special election would most likely draw a number of candidates, at least some of whom have already declared that they will run against Mr. Adams in next year’s Democratic primary. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is seeking a political comeback, could also join the field.

Mr. Adams, in a videotaped speech posted online late Wednesday, proclaimed his innocence, vowed to fight any charges against him and made it clear he did not plan to resign.

Video

transcript

Back

0:00/1:12

-0:00

transcript

Mayor Eric Adams Vows to Fight Federal Indictment Against Him

In a videotaped speech, Mr. Adams said any charges against him would be “false” and said that he will continue to lead as mayor of the city.

My fellow New Yorkers. It is now my belief that the federal government intends to charge me with crimes. If so, these charges would be entirely false based on lies. But they would not be surprising. I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target. And a target I became. I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit. If I’m charged, I know I’m innocent. I will request an immediate trial so that New Yorkers can hear the truth. I have been facing these lies for months since I began to speak out for all of you and their investigation started. Yet the city has continued to improve. Make no mistake. You elected me to lead this city. And lead it I will. I humbly ask for your prayers and your patience as we see this through. God bless you and God bless the City of New York. Thank you.

There is another way Mr. Adams could leave office: The New York City Charter gives Gov. Kathy Hochul the power to remove him. But the process would be complicated.

Under the charter, Ms. Hochul, who had not commented on the indictment as of late Wednesday, could suspend Mr. Adams for up to 30 days and then remove him “after service upon him of a copy of the charges and an opportunity to be heard in his defense.”

That is where New Yorkers would be entering uncharted territory. A governor has not exercised such powers in recent memory. The closest precedent occurred in 1931, when Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt held 14 days of hearings into the misconduct of Mayor Jimmy Walker, who eventually resigned in 1932 before going to Europe.

Roosevelt’s hearings took place in the Statehouse’s Red Room. As he prepared to assume the presidency in 1933, he filed several memorandums explaining the hearings with the state attorney general and defending his power to remove Mr. Walker.

Roosevelt, The New York Times wrote at the time, thought the memos were “of some importance because the Walker case in the future would be referred to in other cases involving the power of removal of certain public officials by the governor and because, unlike cases at law, no opportunity exists for including a digest of any such extensive cases in any law report.”

It is unclear how Ms. Hochul would pursue Mr. Adams’s removal, or if she would try.

“When the Constitution, statutes and City Charter are read together, the governor has broad latitude in deciding what actions or failures to act would justify removing a mayor from office,” said James M. McGuire, a former counsel to Gov. George Pataki now in private practice. Mr. McGuire noted that some specific charges are required, but the courts have never determined how specific they must be, enabling governors “to use the removal power as a club to force resignations.”

“If I am charged, I know I am innocent,” he said. “I will request an immediate trial so that New Yorkers can hear the truth.”

Mr. Adams, the city’s second Black mayor, won a competitive Democratic primary in 2021 on a public safety message. As a former police officer, he has said that he follows the law and instructs city officials to do the same.

He vowed to continue as mayor despite a series of high-profile departures from his administration, including his police commissioner, schools chancellor and health commissioner.

“I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit,” he said, his demeanor alternating from sober to indignant.

Mr. Adams has had a rocky relationship with the Biden administration over the migrant crisis, and the mayor has warned that it would destroy New York City. He mentioned that battle as an example of how he had fought injustices during his career and appeared to suggest that it might be a reason he was targeted.

“Despite our pleas, when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics,” he said.

Mr. Adams ended the speech with a reference to his faith, a central part of his biography. The mayor has said that God told him that he would be mayor.

“I humbly ask for your prayers and your patience as we see this through,” he said. “God bless you and God bless the city of New York.”

So far, the field includes Brad Lander, the city’s left-leaning comptroller who recently pledged to end street homelessness for severely mentally ill people, and Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller who has focused on affordable housing and whose 2021 mayoral campaign was derailed by allegations of sexual misconduct.

There is also Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is proposing free “universal after-school” programs, and Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who has focused on affordability and is friendly with unions.

Zohran Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens who is weighing entering the race, wants to stop rent increases that have taken place under Mr. Adams. And former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 after facing a series of sexual harassment allegations, is also considering running, and has focused this year on combating antisemitism.

If Mr. Adams resigns, the city’s public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor and might run for the job on a permanent basis. Mr. Williams is a left-leaning former City Council member from Brooklyn who has been a fierce critic of Mr. Adams, assailing the mayor’s aggressive policing strategy.

Mr. Adams’s approval rating was already dismal before his indictment. In a Quinnipiac poll taken last December, only 28 percent of New Yorkers approved of the job he was doing — the lowest rating for any New York City mayor in a Quinnipiac survey since it began polling the city in 1996.

Mr. Adams, a former police officer who ran for mayor on a public safety message, won by a slim margin in the 2021 Democratic primary. He beat his closest challenger, Kathryn Garcia, the city’s former sanitation commissioner, by roughly 7,200 votes.

“There is simply zero chance that the wheels of government will move forward from this full steam ahead,” Mr. Stringer said in a statement. “Instead, we are left with a broken down train wreck of a municipal government.”

Brad Lander, the current New York City comptroller, who is also running for mayor, echoed the sentiment.

“Mayor Adams, like all New Yorkers, deserves due process, the presumption of innocence, and his day in court,” he wrote on X. “However, it is clear that defending himself against serious federal charges will require a significant amount of the time and attention needed to govern this great city. The most appropriate path forward is for him to step down so that New York City can get the full focus its leadership demands.”

Zellnor Myrie, a state senator from Brooklyn who is also running for mayor against Mr. Adams, joined the chorus. “We need a leader who is fully focused, without distraction, on the enormous challenges we face — from housing affordability to public safety,” Mr. Myrie wrote on X. “A mayor under the weight of a serious indictment can no longer do that — and today I am calling on him to resign.”

Councilman Shekar Krishnan, who represents a district in Queens, said Mr. Adams “will absolutely be unable to lead from inside a courtroom. He must resign.”

State Senator John Liu, another Queens Democrat, said New Yorkers “need a mayor who is able to devote full time and full energy to putting the city on the right track, including recruitment and retention of top leadership for the city.” He added: “Mayor Adams is simply unable to do that for the foreseeable future and therefore, for the good of all New Yorkers, must resign immediately.”

Other elected officials who have called for Mr. Adams to step down include State Senators Gustavo Rivera, Julia Salazar and Jabari Brisport; City Councilmembers Tiffany Cabán and Alexa Avilés; and Assemblymembers Emily Gallagher and Phara Souffrant Forrest.

Mr. Williams has been a fierce critic of Mr. Adams, assailing the mayor’s aggressive policing strategy and pushing to end solitary confinement in city jails. Mr. Williams has also cast doubts about the mayor’s ability to govern amid a swirl of federal investigations.

Within three days of becoming mayor, Mr. Williams would name a date for a special election to pick a new mayor, according to the city’s charter. The nonpartisan election could be held within 90 days. The city’s relatively new ranked-choice voting system, in which voters can rank multiple candidates, would be used.

No public advocate has become acting mayor before. Only two mayors have resigned — Jimmy Walker in 1932 and William O’Dwyer in 1950 — both after corruption scandals. The office of public advocate was created in 1993.

Mr. Williams said recently that he was exhausted and angered by the troubling headlines about Mr. Adams and his administration, arguing that the municipal corruption scandals appeared to be “the worst since Tammany Hall.”

“I’m not sure how you continue to govern with, every day, more corrupt arrests, more corrupt suspicions,” he said.

Mr. Adams has insisted that he will not resign. The mayor recently told reporters that more than 700,000 people had voted for him in the 2021 election.

“I was elected by the people of the city, and I’m going to fulfill my obligation to the people of this city,” he said.

On Wednesday, after news of his indictment was made public, the mayor made it clear that his stance had not changed.

“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Mr. Adams said in a statement. “If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”