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New York City Mayor Eric Adams is set to return to court Wednesday in a case where he is accused of taking bribes and illegal campaign contributions.
The Democrat is set to make a 10:30 a.m. appearance before a judge at a federal courthouse in Manhattan, just a few blocks from City Hall. The proceeding isn't expected to involve a deep exploration of the evidence. A judge could set a preliminary timetable for the trial.
Adams was indicted last week on charges that he accepted about $100,000 worth of free or deeply discounted flights, hotel stays, meals and entertainment on international trips that he mostly took before he was elected mayor, when he was serving as Brooklyn's borough president.
Prosecutors say the travel perks were arranged by a senior Turkish diplomatic official in New York and Turkish businesspeople who wanted to gain influence with Adams. The indictment said Adams also conspired to receive illegal donations to his political campaigns from foreign sources who weren't allowed to give money to U.S. political candidates.
The indictment said that Adams reciprocated those gifts in 2021 by helping Turkey open a new diplomatic facility in the city despite concerns that had been raised by the Fire Department about whether the building could pass all of its required fire safety inspections.
Adams has denied knowingly accepting any illegal campaign contributions. He also said there was nothing improper about the trips he took abroad or the perks he received, and that any help he gave to Turkish officials regarding the diplomatic building was just routine “constituent services.” He has said helping people navigate the city's bureaucracy was part of his job.
A spokesperson for Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oncu Keceli, said in a statement that the country's missions in the U.S. and elsewhere operate according to international diplomatic rules and that "Our meddling in another country’s internal affairs is out of the question.”
The judge appointed to oversee Adams' trial, Dale Ho, could also on Monday potentially deal with a request by the mayor's lawyer to open an investigation into whether prosecutors with the U.S. attorney's office improperly leaked information to reporters about the investigation.
The court filing didn't cite any evidence that prosecutors broke grand jury rules, but it cited a string of news reports by The New York Times about instances where the investigation had burst into public view, like when FBI agents searched the home of one of Adams' chief fundraisers and when they stopped the mayor as he left a public event last November and seized his electronic devices.
It was unclear whether the court would schedule a trial in advance of New York's June mayoral primary, where Adams is likely to face several challengers.
