Free flights from Turkey.
A waived fire inspection.
Then Trump made it disappear.

Seven years. Seven trips. $123,000 in upgrades. None of it disclosed.

According to the 57-page SDNY indictment unsealed September 26, 2024, the scheme began in 2014 when Adams was Brooklyn Borough President. A senior Turkish government official and a Turkish Airlines manager began cultivating Adams as a political asset, arranging free and heavily discounted business-class travel for Adams and his domestic partner on Turkish Airlines flights — routes that sometimes went hundreds of miles out of the way to pass through Istanbul so the airline could be used.

Over seven trips from 2016 to 2021, Adams accepted more than $123,000 in travel benefits: free business-class upgrades on flights to India, France, China, Hungary, Ghana, Turkey, and other countries. In 2018, Adams’s partner had purchased economy tickets to Budapest for approximately $560 each. At Adams’s direction, a staffer called the Turkish Airline Manager and quietly secured free business-class upgrades — tickets that would have cost more than $14,000 if purchased at retail. He also received multi-night stays in the Bentley Suite and Cosmopolitan Suite at the St. Regis Istanbul. None of this appeared on the financial disclosure forms he was legally required to file.

The indictment further alleged that Adams solicited and accepted illegal campaign contributions from Turkish nationals and a “senior official in the Turkish diplomatic establishment.” Those donations, routed through straw donors to create the appearance of domestic contributions, then generated public matching funds — part of a $10 million pot of government money allocated to qualifying campaigns under New York City’s matching funds program. Adams and his staff allegedly created a “fake paper trail” to conceal that the contributions were foreign-sourced.

“Adams committed these crimes for personal gain and to advance his political career. This was a grave breach of the public trust.”

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York — September 26, 2024

A 36-story skyscraper. Serious fire defects. The FDNY chief was told he’d lose his job.

In September 2021, as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan prepared to visit New York City, a senior Turkish official told Adams it was “his turn to repay.” The demand: pressure the New York City Fire Department to approve the new Turkish Consulate — a 36-story skyscraper known as Turkish House — in time for Erdoğan’s arrival, despite the building having failed fire safety inspection.

The FDNY had already reviewed the building and refused to approve it, citing “numerous reported fire safety defects, some of which were serious.” The department’s own assessment concluded the building would fail any proper inspection. According to prosecutors, Adams intervened directly: he coerced the FDNY Fire Prevention Chief and his superior into issuing an “unprecedented” approval letter. The FDNY official responsible for the safety assessment was told, according to the indictment, that he would lose his job if he did not comply. He complied. The building opened.

Immigration cooperation for case dismissal. Seven prosecutors said no and walked out.

In February 2025, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to the SDNY ordering prosecutors to dismiss all charges against Adams. The stated rationale: prosecuting the mayor was undermining New York City’s ability to cooperate with President Trump’s federal immigration enforcement priorities. Adams had already taken concrete steps in that direction, signing an order allowing ICE personnel access to the Rikers Island jail complex — a significant reversal for the city’s sanctuary status.

Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon refused the order and resigned. In her resignation letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon wrote that Adams’s attorneys had “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” She called this “a breathtaking and dangerous precedent.”

Sassoon was not alone. Lead prosecutor Hagan Scotten resigned. Acting Public Integrity Section chief John Keller and three members of his team resigned. Acting criminal division chief Kevin Driscoll resigned. In April 2025, three additional SDNY prosecutors — Celia Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach, and Derek Wikstrom — resigned rather than comply with demands that they admit wrongdoing. In total, seven federal prosecutors quit in protest over the dismissal of a sitting mayor’s bribery case.

“Adams's attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. It is a breathtaking and dangerous precedent to reward Adams's opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment.”

Danielle Sassoon, Acting U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York — Resignation letter to AG Pam Bondi, February 2025

“Everything here smacks of a bargain.” — Judge Dale Ho, April 2, 2025

On April 2, 2025, District Court Judge Dale Ho dismissed the five-count indictment with prejudice — permanently, meaning the DOJ cannot refile the charges at a later date. The dismissal came despite the Trump administration’s request that it be without prejudice, which would have allowed the charges to be revived as leverage.

Judge Ho rejected the DOJ’s reasoning in its entirety, writing in his order that the government’s immigration enforcement rationale was “both unprecedented and breathtaking in its sweep.” He wrote: “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions.” The case — which had been built on seven years of documented evidence and a 57-page grand jury indictment — was extinguished. Adams faced no criminal consequences.

From the first upgrade to the dismissal. Eleven years. Documented.

A first in NYC history. Charges dropped. Seven prosecutors gone. The building still stands.

Eric Adams served as Mayor of New York City from January 2022 through December 2025. He was the first sitting New York City mayor ever to face criminal charges in the city’s history. His indictment alleged a seven-year pattern of accepting luxury travel from a foreign government in exchange for official acts — including causing the FDNY to approve a building with serious fire safety defects because Turkish officials demanded it.

The charges were dropped not through acquittal, not through lack of evidence, but through a political negotiation. The DOJ’s own acting U.S. attorney resigned and documented what she called a quid pro quo: policy cooperation for prosecutorial dismissal. A federal judge agreed the arrangement “smacks of a bargain” and dismissed the case permanently, ensuring it could never be used as political leverage again. Adams faced no criminal consequences for the alleged conduct. He dropped out of the 2025 mayoral race, was replaced by Zohran Mamdani (D), and left office.