New York City mayor Eric Adams has become the first of the city's 110 mayors to be criminally charged while in office, after being hit with a range of charges that have prompted calls for his resignation.
Adams was charged on Thursday (local time) with wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations and bribery conspiracy.
The grand jury indictment follows a sweeping investigation into the mayor's conduct and whether he conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal contributions in return for favourable treatment.
Scandal has swirled around Adams for months, with several high-ranking allies resigning as others were indicted or raided by federal agents. The drama escalated with a pre-dawn raid of his official residence.
Who is Eric Adams?
Born in Brooklyn in 1960, Eric Adams is a former New York City police captain who served 22 years on the force. He retired in 2006, winning election to the New York State Senate that year.
In 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn borough president, providing a springboard for his mayoral ambitions, and in 2022, he won New York City's highest office with a centrist, tough-on-crime platform.
Early in his tenure, he brought back a disbanded special crimes unit. Since then, a monitor found illegal police stops had risen under Adams' leadership, and rivals have criticised his strategies as overly aggressive.
As New York continues to struggle with a cost of living crisis, Adams' approval ratings are dismal, at one point sinking lower than any mayor in the city since Quinnipiac University in Connecticut began surveying almost three decades ago.
As he confronted a migrant crisis saturating New York's shelter system, the mayor said new arrivals in the city historically famous for welcoming immigrants would "destroy New York City".
He was also widely criticised after describing New York as a place where "you could experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center through a person who's celebrating a new business that's open".
He declared war on New York's notorious rat population, nominating a so-called rat czar before holding a National Urban Rat Summit.
Meanwhile, he was ticketed again and again for allowing rat infestations at his Brooklyn property as he resided at the official mayoral residence, Gracie Mansion.
What is Eric Adams accused of?
The 57-page indictment against Adams accuses the mayor of the most populous city in the United States of crimes going back a decade, when he took office as Brooklyn's borough president.
He allegedly accepted luxury international flights, hotel suites and free high-end restaurant meals, including from at least one Turkish government official.
As he began planning to run for mayor in 2018, Adams "not only accepted but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value, from foreign nationals", according to the court documents.
Eric Adams became mayor of New York in 2022 with a tough-on-crime platform. Source: AAP / Yuki Iwamura/AP
"As Adams's prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear" he would become mayor, reads the indictment.
"Adams agreed, providing favourable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received," it says.
In one example, prosecutors say Adams pressured the city's fire department to approve Türkiye's new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns.
US district attorney Damian Williams, whose federal office is bringing the charges, said the mayor was "secretly being showered" with gifts for years, breezing past "bright red lines".
"The conduct alleged in the indictment — the foreign money, the corporate money, the years of concealment — is a grave breach of the public's trust," Williams told journalists.
He said the investigation is ongoing: "We will hold more people accountable."
How has Adams responded?
A defiant Adams told reporters that he looked "forward to defending" himself, and he dismissed demands to step down, urging New Yorkers to "wait to hear our side of the story".
New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called for Adams to step down "for the good of the city". Source: AAP / Annabelle Gordon/CNP/Sipa USA
What happens next?
Many city and state officials are demanding Adams resign, including on Wednesday when influential New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said he must step down "for the good of the city".
Fellow New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, stopped short of that call, saying that while the indictment was "a serious and sober moment for New York City", the mayor was "entitled to the presumption of innocence".
If he steps down, the city's public advocate, the progressive Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor ahead of a special election.
