"I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you," Eric Adams told New York City residents in a video released last night, "that I would be a target -- and a target I became." That much, at least, came to pass last night. The Department of Justice issued a sealed indictment for Adams late yesterday, making him the first sitting mayor of the Big Apple to face federal prosecution.

The indictment came after months of probes into corruption in Adams' administration, but the exact nature of the charges remain unclear. Adams will appear in federal court today, when the court will unseal the indictment. At the moment, rumors claim that the DoJ will allege that Adams took money from Turkey in a scheme to approve their consulate plans. Turkey may not be the only source of funds, either, in developments from earlier in the week:

Federal prosecutors investigating whether Mayor Eric Adams conspired with the Turkish government to funnel illegal foreign donations into his campaign have recently sought information about interactions with five other countries, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The demand for information related to the other countries — Israel, China, Qatar, South Korea and Uzbekistan — was made in expansive grand jury subpoenas issued in July to City Hall, the mayor and his campaign, the people said. The prosecutors’ focus on the other five countries has not been previously reported.

The full scope of the inquiry into the mayor is not publicly known, and it remains unclear why investigators were seeking information about the additional countries or whether Mr. Adams has had dealings with them. But the investigation has focused at least in part on whether, in exchange for illegal donations, Mr. Adams pressured the Fire Department to approve a new, high-rise Turkish Consulate in Midtown Manhattan despite safety concerns. Investigators have also examined free flights and flight upgrades the mayor received from Turkish Airlines.

What next? Calls from fellow Democrats in New York have already started for Adams to resign, although mainly from hard-Left progressives that felt slighted by Adams' law-and-order approach. The most notable of these is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, never a fan of Adams in the first place:

I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City.

The flood of resignations and vacancies are threatening gov function. Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration.

For the good of the city, he should resign.…

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 25, 2024

As you'll see in a moment, Adams himself sounds determined to remain in office while fighting these charges. Adams ally Frank Carone added to that perception, telling reporters late last night that Adams would not resign:

At around 11:30 p.m., Frank Carone, the former City Hall chief of staff, exited Gracie Mansion. In a grey suit, Carone described the mayor as “strong” and said he would not respond to calls to resign. “Like anybody else, he is innocent until proven guilty and he deserves his day in court,” Carone said. In response to questions about whether Adams would or should be replaced, he spoke sternly. “There is one mayor of New York City, and that is Eric Adams.”

True -- for now, anyway. Adams could be removed from office by Governor Kathy Hochul, according to the city charter. In fact, it's been tried once before, by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1931-2, when Jimmy Walker's alleged corruption came to light in what was known as the Seabury Commission investigation. Walker ended up resigning, but not before FDR started the process in earnest a few weeks before his first presidential election. The New York Times notes that the process is tricky and the precedents few:

The New York City Charter gives Gov. Kathy Hochul the power to remove him. But the process would be complicated.

Under the charter, Ms. Hochul, who had not commented on the indictment as of late Wednesday, could suspend Mr. Adams for up to 30 days and then remove him “after service upon him of a copy of the charges and an opportunity to be heard in his defense.” ...

“When the Constitution, statutes and City Charter are read together, the governor has broad latitude in deciding what actions or failures to act would justify removing a mayor from office,” said James M. McGuire, a former counsel to Gov. George Pataki now in private practice. Mr. McGuire noted that some specific charges are required, but the courts have never determined how specific they must be, enabling governors “to use the removal power as a club to force resignations.”

If Hochul decides not to intervene, the city government could organize an "inability committee" to rule that Adams has lost the capacity to govern. That's an even trickier process, one that would still require two-thirds of the city council to support such a finding. That would trigger an all-in special election held under ranked-choice voting rather than a primary, which again looks pretty messy. (That's true with a resignation and a Hochul intervention too, however.) Unlike the gubernatorial action, this has never been tried before in New York, so don't expect a mad rush at what's basically a 25th Amendment option at the city level. 

The news prompted some surprise about the DoJ going after a Democrat mayor at all, let alone the most high-profile mayor in the country. Given the sprawling nature of the investigation -- the DoJ has been sniffing around city officials for months in what clearly looked like a corruption probe -- perhaps this is nothing more than just good work. But Adamss has been particularly critical of the Biden administration for a Democrat mayor too, especially on the Biden-Harris border crisis and immigration:

Mayor Eric Adams — who was federally indicted Wednesday — has spent the latter end of his first term mired in battles with the White House over the migrant crisis, with Hizzoner lobbing repeated accusations that President Biden has left the Big Apple to fend for itself.

“Help is not on the way,” Adams told reporters after meeting with Biden to discuss the crisis back in December 2023 — and ever since his rhetoric towards the White House has only grown grimmer.

“The national government has turned its back on New York City,” he said months later, adding that “every service in this city is going to be impacted by the asylum seeker crisis.”

Well, I'm sure that the Biden-Harris DoJ would never use its power to go after its political enemies. Oh, wait ...

We'll learn more later today about the specifics, of course, and then see the evidence ourselves if this goes to trial. In the meantime, remember that (a) indictments aren't convictions and (b) denials aren't evidence. In this prepared video statement, Adams insisted that the indictment is nothing but "lies" and that he expects to be fully exonerated. It doesn't sound as though he plans to go anywhere at the moment.