Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday that he has not personally asked President-elect Donald Trump for a pardon in connection to the federal indictment against him.
The Southern District of New York indicted Adams in September on five federal charges relating to allegations that he āsought and accepted improper valuable benefitsā from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official for nearly a decade.Ā The mayor told Fox Newsā Martha MacCallum that he has not sought out a pardon from Trump after the president-elect said Tuesday that he is open to the idea of pardoning Adams.
āHave you asked for the president-elect to pardon you?ā MacCallum asked.
āI did not ask him that and our conversations, weāve both expressed our love for and the years he was in office, they were combative,ā Adams said. āIām working with and his administration and Iām warring with him. I say that quote over and over again. And my attorney is an excellent attorney, heās going to hand-do every avenue to pursue justice. I should not have been charged, no American should go through what Iām going through right now. This country believes in fairness and what Iām experiencing is not only a professional tragedy, itās a personal tragedy.ā
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Adams has been charged with āconspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals,ā along with one count of wire fraud, two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national and one count of bribery.
A Turkish official who sent straw donations to Adamsā 2021 mayoral campaign allegedly gave the now-mayor free or discounted travel on a Turkish airline to several international locations in exchange for Adams agreeing to have a Turkish diplomatic outpost established in the city, according to the indictment. Adams allegedly failed to divulge the travel benefits on his financial disclosures.
Adams has maintained his innocence since being charged and has accused President Joe Bidenās administration of retaliating against him for criticizing their ābroken immigration policiesā in a Sept. 26 statement. The mayor criticized the administration for allegedly providing no relief to city officials as they have dealt with āoverloadedā shelters, along with a rise in crime and homelessness across New York City as a result of the migrant surge.
Trump said during a Tuesday press conference at Mar-a-Lago that Adams has been ātreated pretty unfairlyā and stated that everyone in the room had āprobably been upgraded on an airplane,ā at some point.
The New York City mayor met with Tom Homan, who Trump appointed to serve as the upcoming border czar, on Thursday where they discussed the migrant crisis and agreed that all illegal immigrants with a criminal history should be deported.
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