The indictment of New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) punctures yet another hole in Donald Trump’s and his allies’ unsubstantiated claims that the Justice Department has been weaponized against their side. With the addition of Adams, the Justice Department has now indicted a handful of prominent Democrats, including former senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Tex.) and President Joe Biden’s own son, Hunter Biden.
Perhaps sensing yet another setback in Trump’s conspiracy theory, many on the right quickly greeted news of Adams’s indictment by suggesting it actually reinforced their point.
This too was about political targeting, they suggested and outright claimed — the twist being that this time the targeting was of a Democrat who had declined to toe the party’s line on issues like immigration and crime.
But such theorizing came mostly before the indictment was released Thursday. And the details in the actual document quickly undermined that thin explanation.
The document outlines schemes that appear brazen. It suggests at least some knowledge on the part of Adams and an aide that what was being undertaken was not exactly on the up-and-up. And some episodes detailed came years before Adams’s comments alienated some Democrats.
The indictment charges Adams with five counts, including bribery, wire fraud and seeking illegal campaign donations from foreign sources — allegations that Adams denies.
The suggestion that Adams was targeted quickly flew on the right, with an assist from Adams himself and later Trump.
After a popular right-wing X account connected the indictment to Adams having complained about an influx of migrants last year, Elon Musk responded that Adams “was told to shut up by the ‘Democratic’ Party after this.” The New York Post ran a suggestive piece juxtaposing Adams’s indictment with his “battles with the White House over the migrant crisis.” Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said, “It sounds like if you don’t fall in line with the Biden family, or this White House, or this administration, or the top Democrats, your life can be ruined.” Plenty of others wagered or suggested much the same.
Trump joined them later Thursday, saying he had predicted Adams would be indicted when Adams began complaining about migrants last year. “You take a look at what they do, these are dirty players. These are bad people,” Trump said at a news conference, while acknowledging he was unfamiliar with the indictment.
Adams, too, gestured at such theories, claiming in a video released Wednesday night, “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target, and a target I became.”
But the indictment contains a number of colorful scenes and details that are difficult to square with the idea that Adams was singled out for political reasons.
At one point, the indictment describes an Adams staffer wagering that his boss would object to a particular aspect of an alleged scheme — only to later find out his boss had no such qualms.
In June 2018, the unnamed Adams staffer spoke with an unnamed Turkish entrepreneur about Adams raising money in Turkey, according to the indictment. The staffer asked how the money raised would be declared in the United States, given you can’t legally do that, and the entrepreneur floated funneling it through an American citizen who was Turkish.
“I think he wouldn’t get involved in such games,” the Adams staffer allegedly replied of his boss, while adding: “I’ll ask anyways.”
The indictment goes on to say that, after the staffer brought the idea to Adams, “contrary to the Adams Staffer’s expectations, ADAMS directed that the Adams Staffer pursue” it.
At another point, in 2021, the indictment describes the Adams staffer negotiating with the New York City-area general manager of Turkey’s national airline over flights to Istanbul.
The airline official suggested Adams pay just $50 for the tickets, but the Adams staffer objected and said the price should be higher to “Let it be somewhat real.”
The indictment says that Adams became so accustomed to the travel benefits from the airline that he went well out of his way to use the carrier. He even at one point asked if it could be used for flights to Easter Island in the South Pacific — a route the carrier does not offer.
Another detail suggests Adams understood what was allegedly the quid pro quo nature of his relationship with Turkish interests.
It describes a 2021 phone call in which a Turkish official told the Adams staffer that, because of their support for Adams, it was “his turn” to support them — specifically by helping them obtain a temporary certificate of occupancy for a building in New York known as the Turkish House.
When the staffer relayed the sentiment that it was Adams’s “turn,” Adams allegedly responded, “I know.”
The indictment describes other instances that prosecutors could use to establish consciousness of guilt.
While texting with his staffer about a trip to Turkey in 2019, the indictment says the staffer urged Adams, “To be o[n the] safe side Please Delete all messages you send me.” Adams allegedly responded, “Always do.”
According to the indictment, Adams also changed the password on his personal cellphone after the investigation broke into public view in November 2023 — but then just days later claimed he had forgotten the new password.
Adams produced the cellphone a day after FBI agents on Nov. 6, 2023, conducted a search that obtained other phones but not his personal device.
The password was changed to six digits from four. The indictment says Adams claimed he did so on Nov. 5, in the indictment’s words, “to prevent members of his staff from inadvertently or intentionally deleting the contents of his phone because … he wished to preserve the contents of his phone due to the investigation.”
But when he handed the phone over and it was locked, the indictment says, Adams “claimed he had forgotten the password he had just set, and thus was unable to provide the FBI with a password that would unlock the phone.”
To put that into timeline form, the investigation became public knowledge on Nov. 2, 2023, and Adams apparently changed his password on Nov. 5. But just two days later, he turned over the phone and claimed he didn’t know the password.
Trump allies have long leaped at weaponization conspiracy theories, given the volume of Trump allies — and now Trump himself — who have been charged and in some cases convicted. The idea that the Justice Department is “weaponized” has become an article of faith on the right, an easy way to explain away why so many in Trump’s orbit are convicted criminals.
But if anything shows how speculative the whole exercise has been, it might be the attempt to immediately shoehorn the notion into an indictment of a prominent Democrat.