Mayor Adams’ legal team on Monday asked the judge presiding over his public corruption case to set an earlier trial date so he can focus on getting reelected in 2025.
The case is set to go on trial on April 21. Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, in a letter to Manhattan federal court Judge Dale Ho, asked that it begin weeks earlier on April 1.
“As it currently stands, the resolution of trial would only be one month before New York voters cast their ballots in the 2025 Democratic primary. Moreover, given the enormous early voting turnout in the recent election, it is likely that many New Yorkers will cast their ballots on the first days of early voting, which begins on June 14, 2025,” Spiro wrote.
“An earlier trial date will ensure that Mayor Adams’s speedy trial rights are upheld, that the Mayor will be able to fully participate in his reelection campaign and that this City’s voters can be rid of the distraction of this misguided indictment as they hear from and evaluate the Democratic candidates for Mayor on their merits.”
Adams, 64, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy, bribery, wire fraud and secretly soliciting campaign contributions from overseas donors in a five-count indictment handed up by a grand jury in September. The charges carry a potential decades-long sentence.
Among other allegations, the indictment accuses Adams — starting when he was Brooklyn borough president — of accepting more than $100,000 worth of lavish trips, cruises and hotel stays from a Turkish government official and Turkish businessmen who believed his rising political career would see him one day take the White House.
Adams allegedly repaid the favors by pulling strings for his secret benefactors, like pressuring the FDNY to expedite the opening of the 36-floor Turkish Consulate in Manhattan despite serious fire safety concerns.
Outside of the lavish gifts, the mayor allegedly solicited and accepted tens of thousands of dollars in illegal straw donations from Turkish nationals — funneling the donations through U.S. citizens to disguise their origins.
According to the feds, the illegal donations were maximized through the city’s public matching funds program, contributing to the $10 million in public money he received in his last campaign. They say the illegally garnered contributions tainted the whole pot.
Prosecutors conducting several probes involving the mayor and his inner circle have said that more indictments will “quite likely” be brought.
Adams denies the allegations and has pushed the court to dismiss the bribery count, arguing the indictment fails to establish a “quid pro quo.”
Detailing the busy campaign calendar Adams had when he last ran for mayor, Spiro’s Monday letter argued that a late May verdict would allow prosecutors “to sideline Mayor Adams for the vast majority of his remaining reelection campaign, during many of the most important moments.”
“[The] Mayor is in the midst of a reelection campaign, and, as the Court has already noted, this prosecution will continue to cast a cloud over that campaign until it is resolved by a jury of New Yorkers,” Spiro wrote.
A spokesman for the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.
