New York City Mayor Denies Threatening Jobs of FDNY Inspectors

Mayor Adams filed a motion to dismiss the bribery count in his federal corruption indictment Monday, calling the feds’ allegations “extraordinarily vague” and saying they lacked proof he broke the law. 

The mayor’s attorney, Alex Spiro, said the bribery allegations against him lack evidence of Adams agreeing to perform any official act when he received a benefit.

The bribery count “alleges only that while serving as Brooklyn Borough President not Mayor, or even Mayor-elect he agreed generally to assist with the ‘operation’ or ‘regulation’ of a Turkish Consulate building in Manhattan, where he had no authority whatsoever, in exchange for travel benefits,” Spiro wrote. 

“That extraordinarily vague allegation encompasses a wide array of normal and perfectly lawful acts that many City officials would undertake for the consulate of an important foreign nation.”

Spiro said the three text messages cited in the indictment, filed Thursday, that the mayor sent to former Fire Department Commissioner Daniel Nigro, in which he said the consulate needed to be opened in time for the Turkish president’s visit, “conspicuously does not allege” that he agreed to take specific actions in exchange and do not meet the federal standard for bribery.

He said there was no evidence Adams knew FDNY staffers faced threats of losing their jobs.

“The indictment contains no allegation that Adams was even aware of that threat, let alone that he himself threatened anyone or directed the FDNY Commissioner to do so. If the government’s implication is that the officials were worried that Adams would be elected Mayor and then decline to retain them, that is not enough to show that Adams exerted pressure.”

Spiro, expected to hold a press conference later Monday, did not return a call. 

Adams, 64, became the first New York City mayor in the modern era to face criminal charges last week and has refused to step down. 

He’s pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment alleging he traded his influence for luxury trips around the world, illegal campaign contributions from overseas donors, and other gifts for nearly a decade.

Spiro indicated how he plans to attack the other charges in the motion.

“To be sure, the remaining counts in the indictment—which all relate to so-called ‘straw’ campaign donations on behalf of foreign nationals—are equally meritless because they rest on a host of false claims evidently attributable to a self-interested staffer with an axe to grind, which will be revealed in the course of litigation,” Spiro wrote, in a thinly-veiled reference to Rana Abbasova.

Abbasova, Adams’s former longtime aide and former Turkish community liaison is cooperating in the case. Her attorney declined to comment on her description in the defense motion.

This developing story will be updated.

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