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Donald Trump appeared to suggest that New York mayor Eric Adams had been indicted after criticizing the Biden administration’s policy on “illegal migrants.”
Speaking at a press conference at Trump Tower on Thursday, the former president said he wished Adams “luck” with his charges, but then admitted he didn’t know “anything about what he did.”
Adams has been charged with bribery, wire fraud, solicitation of contribution by a foreign national and conspiracy, becoming the first sitting mayor in modern history to face federal criminal charges.
US Attorneys in the Southern District of New York unveiled a sprawling five-count indictment against the mayor on Thursday, accusing him of seeking and accepting “illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value, from foreign nationals.”
At his press conference, Trump said that although he did not know Adams well, he had been “fairly generous to me in his statements.” He then claimed he had predicted the mayor’s arrest and subsequent indictment over a year previously.
“I watched about a year ago when he talked about how the illegal migrants are hurting our city and the federal government should pay us and we shouldn’t have to take them, and I said ‘you know what, he’ll be indicted within the year’ and I was exactly right,” he said.
“We have people that use the justice department and the FBI at levels that have never been seen before, so I wish him luck – I don’t know anything about what he did.”
“These are dirty players… These are bad people, we need an honest justice department, we need an honest FBI and we need it fast.”
Trump later repeatedly declined to acknowledge a question about whether he would pardon Adams, should he return to the Oval Office.
The charges against Adams stem from a months-long federal investigation into his 2021 mayoral campaign and his ties to Turkish government officials and Turkish nationals.
Federal prosecutors are accusing the mayor of accepting “illegal” campaign donations, funneled through a straw donor scheme, and accepting luxurious benefits in exchange for wielding his power to intervene in a fire inspection at the Turkey consulate.
Adams said he was “not surprised” by the charges and denied all allegations of wrongdoing, after the indictment was unsealed on Thursday.
