court. Let’s let’s go out to
Andrew Siff now outside of City
Hall with the update of what’s
happening inside the courthouse.
Andrew Right. Just seconds ago,
Eric Adams pleaded not guilty in
this 26th floor courtroom. This
is a note coming from my
colleague Jonathan Dienst in the
courtroom. The judge reading
counts three and four that he
knowingly and willfully accepted
and aided and abetted
contribution from foreign
national. Another count bribery
solicited, free and heavily
discounted travel from a Turkish
official. The judge then asked
the mayor if he read these
charges. He said yes, I have,
your Honor. And then the mayor
said, I waive a public reading.
And the mayor then said, I am
not guilty, Your Honor. So
that’s what happened. Just
moments ago in the courtroom,
Mayor Adams saying, I am not
guilty. Your honor, that is his
entry of a not guilty plea. And
now this arraignment goes on
with some administrative
procedure, and we’ll learn the
next court date as we move
forward. All right, Andrew,
thank you for that. Let’s get to
Danny Cevallos. Get back to you
about the quid pro quo, the
appearance of such with regard
to the trips, the luxury hotels.
ET cetera. ET cetera. And then
the involvement with the Turkish
government. What does the
government have to prove to
ensure that that quid pro quo.
Well, not legally, we won’t call
it that. That sticks that charge
sticks. In recent years, the
Supreme Court has made
prosecutors job a little more
difficult in proving that quid
pro quo, they need a little more
explicit evidence of the this
for that. That makes up a public
corruption case. And in
particular, it’s the bribery
charge and some of the other
related charges. I mean, the
campaign finance or the election
charges are going to involve
quid pro quo as part of their
proof. But really the bribery
charge is the key. When it comes
to that. This for that, that
they need to show. And this is
what they did. They did this in
the Menendez case. What they do
is they pile on all the goodies
that the government official
gets, and then they have to
prove all the benefits that the
private individual got, that
they shouldn’t have gotten that
were official acts that they
weren’t entitled to otherwise.
And that really leaves a narrow
set of defenses for any public
official, criminal defendant. In
this case, one might be, hey,
when I called the fire
department, I was doing that as
mayor, using my own judgment. It
had nothing to do with all the
benefits I got from Turkish
individuals or anybody else. I
was doing that because I
believed in my own judgment as
an official. It was the right
thing to do. And you often see
officials take that approach.
Some of the other defenses might
be, well, it wasn’t really me.
It was my minions. It was the
people below me that were doing
this and not me. But as you can
see from the indictment, the
government is alleging that
those people were essentially
doing so at the behest of the
mayor himself. But yes, with the
quid pro quo, that is a common
defense. I’ve tried it. I mean,
I’ve used it in my cases that
involve this exact statute,
bribery charges. And essentially
the argument is going to be,
look, this was my independent
judgment had nothing to do with
the goodies that I got. The
problem is you have to convince
a jury of that, and that can be
a hard sell. Okay, so it’s now
official mayor Adams has pleaded
not guilty to criminal charges.
Danny, what is the clues that we
have so far from the mayor about
his line of defense? Because he
again, is vowing to fight this
at this point at least giving no
indication yet that there’s any
kind of deal or resignation as
mayor. So what’s interesting to
me is that there’s been a hint
that the mayor is going to take
the approach of I instructed all
of the people working for me or
with me to not take these
things. But if you look at the
indictment, it’s pretty clear
that the government has had
access to many individuals. I
mean, you just need to read a
few pages of the indictment. And
they have they use pseudonyms.
You know, names to protect the
actual names. But you get up to
numbers like businessman number
four, which means there’s
businessman one, two, and three.
The point is, there are a lot of
individuals identified in this
indictment, and if Mayor Adams,
a defense is going to be I told
them not to accept these things,
then the government might march
in those very people to say that
is not what he told me. Instead,
the directive was clear accept
these things. Get him on that
airline, get him in that Turkish
hotel. And again, I’m just
hypothesizing we don’t know who
the government is going to call,
but that might be how the
government responds. If Mayor
Adams defense is. I told the
people working for me and with
me to not do any of this. He may
find that the government has
witnesses to say the opposite.
We talked about this earlier,
Danny, about the fact that the
Feds yesterday, the U.S.
attorney made it clear that he
thinks there are other people
out there who have information
and asks them to come forward
before the train leaves the
station, if you will. What is
the likelihood, what kind of
time frame are we looking at for
that? Because the investigation
obviously is continuing. But
also, as you said, they usually
like that 70 to 90 day, you
know, go to trial. What do you
what kind of a timeline do you
think what makes this case
somewhat unique is that you see
only one defendant in the
caption, and this is a
conspiracy case. It doesn’t they
don’t have to include every
coconspirator you can have
unindicted coconspirators, which
we all know from following these
high profile cases, but only
Adams is named as a defendant.
Could we see a superseding
indictment adding defendants
possibly. Could we see a
superseding indictment adding
more charges against Eric Adams?
That’s also possible. And one
way you can infer that
possibility is that the
government is still
investigating. Reportedly
yesterday they were seizing
devices. Now you don’t seize
devices if you think your
investigation is complete. And I
say that because our devices,
our phones, our iPads, our
computers hold the most complete
picture of information about us
and the bad things that we’re up
to. So if they’re only now
getting access to Adam’s cell
phone, their investigation is
clearly ongoing. That’s what
that tells me. Danny, we’re
going to pause you for one
moment because we’re getting
some more information from
inside the courthouse, where,
again, no cameras are allowed.
But Jonathan Dienst is in there
with his electronic device. He’s
sending out information. Let’s
go to Andrew Siff outside the
courthouse with what we just
learned. Andrew. Right. Adam.
They’re discussing the issue of
bail. Prosecutors have said the
mayor can be released on his own
signature, which is the same as
on his own recognizance with no
cash offered. As long as he has
no contact with witnesses in the
case. The prosecutors said it’s
okay for the mayor to talk with
his relatives and staff, as long
as he doesn’t talk to them about
the issues in this case. So
that’s sort of a notable tidbit
that came up as they’re
discussing bail, but apparently
have agreed that the mayor can
be released on his own signature
without having to post up any
cash, which is somewhat common
in an arraignment like this. All
right, Andrew, thank you. You
know, let’s go back up to
Melissa Russo because, you know,
we’re talking about the fact,
Melissa, that the mayor says he
is not going to step down, that
he can continue to govern
throughout this. Yet we’re
already seeing now he can’t talk
to certain staff. And some of
those staff or maybe those
people that Kathy Hochul, the
governor, is asking him to
subtly, perhaps suggesting that
they be removed from the
administration, or at least set
in a different part. So how, you
know, a lot of people are
expressing doubts about his
ability to govern. And this is
what and this is. Yeah, you’re
right. Pat and this is why some
of his own team members have
walked away, because precisely,
they have advised him, you know,
you need to get rid of some of
these people who we know are
under investigation. Sure. Maybe
they’re innocent until proven
guilty, charged with anything
yet. But there are enough people
in city government who are
feeling kind of frustrated. We
saw the emergency management
Commissioner, Zach Iscol,
expressing some frustration,
thinking about whether or not he was going to stay in his job. We
saw the mayor’s own counsel
resigning. So you know, and then
the other thing is, as Danny
just mentioned, they just went
back for more evidence by taking
the mayor’s phones, which means they’re not even done with this
particular investigation in
terms of gathering evidence. But
then what about all the other
investigations that we know are
underway, the investigation into
the police commissioner and
whether his brother was involved
in a shakedown operation
against, you know, bars and
nightlife in New York City in
terms of getting favorable
treatment from police in
exchange for paying the
commissioner’s brother, he
maintains he’s innocent. But,
you know, it’s out there, the
schools chancellor who has a
brother, who is the deputy mayor
for public safety. These are the
banks brothers, who we learned
has have a third brother,
Terrence Banks, who was running
a consulting company outside of
government lobbying and
attempting to get city business
before the agencies that are run
by his brothers. That is also
under investigation. The schools
chancellor’s home was raided. He
lives with the first deputy
mayor, Sheena Wright, who is you
know, it’s a very I’m not going
to say incestuous, but it’s a
very close knit circle. They are
there are a lot of family ties
in this administration. Melissa,
we’re getting some more news
trickling out from the
courtroom. So let’s get back to
News 4’s Andrew Siff with what’s
happening right now. Andrew.
Right Adam. So Eric Adams is
going to be released without
with his own recognizance today.
This has been confirmed from
inside the courtroom. Adams’s
attorney, Alex Shapiro saying
that he and the prosecutors
spoke before court. They agreed
to the terms of the bail here,
that the mayor is to have no
contact with any witnesses or
with any person on the list
provided by prosecutors
concerning the facts and
circumstances in the indictment.
This does not preclude him from
conducting routine, routine
business or private family
matters. The judge has also set
the next court date. That’s
Wednesday of next week, 10:30
a.m. conference. And the defense
also says that on that day, they
will be filing a motion to
dismiss all the charges. That is
somewhat standard for a defense
to do in this case, but
certainly carries a lot of
weight when essentially the
mayor’s team will be presenting
to the federal judge here a