(New York) Halfway through a first term that he is no longer guaranteed to finish, Eric Adams perhaps consoles himself with the idea of being supported by Donald Trump in at least one of the cases that ‘overwhelm.
On November 23, the mayor of New York was civilly accused of sexual assault, for alleged acts dating back to 1993, when he was a police officer. The 63-year-old Democratic elected official thus joined numerous personalities, including former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who were the subject of a wave of legal actions before a planned one-year window. by a New York law is not closed for cases otherwise prescribed.
“I hope that Mayor Eric Adams, Andrew Cuomo and everyone else who has been taken to court based on this ridiculous law where someone can be sued decades later, and without any evidence, will fight it because “it is totally unfair and UNCONSTITUTIONAL,” wrote on Truth Social Donald Trump, who himself was found responsible for sexual assault last May, for a case dating back to 1996, and ordered to pay $5 million to the complainant, the former columnist of the magazine She E. Jean Carroll.
Eric Adams denies knowing the woman who accuses him of sexually assaulting her while they both worked for New York City. But this affair, the details of which remain unknown, is not the only one where this politician renowned for his style, or more precisely his “swag”, is reminiscent of the former Republican president.
An example: like Donald Trump, Eric Adams has a weakness for Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan, the strong man of Turkey, and his country, which he boasts of having visited six times, including at least two at the expense of entities Turks during his time as Brooklyn borough president.
However, these links come back to haunt him today. On November 2, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the home of Brianna Suggs, responsible for financing Eric Adams’ first campaign for mayor of New York. They seized two laptops, three iPhones and a file folder labeled “Eric Adams.”
According to the search warrant, federal prosecutors and investigators are seeking to determine whether the Eric Adams campaign conspired with members of the Turkish government, including its consul in New York, to receive illegal donations through loans. names.
They are also examining whether anyone affiliated with the mayor’s campaign provided legal or illegal benefits to a Brooklyn construction company owned by Turkish immigrants or Turkish government officials.
They are particularly interested in pressure exerted by Eric Adams in July 2021 on the chief of the New York fire department to give the green light to the opening of the new Turkish consulate in New York in time for a visit of President Erdoğan. A temporary occupation permit was eventually granted despite the fact that the 35-storey building did not comply with fire regulations.
A week after the search at Brianna Suggs’ house, it was the turn of Eric Adams himself to receive a visit from the FBI. After an event, he was surrounded on the sidewalk by federal agents who asked his bodyguards to step aside before getting into his official SUV with the mayor. Inside, they seized two cell phones and an iPad tablet.
After the news of this search spread, Eric Adams made a typical statement: “There is not always fire where there is smoke. »
It must be said that there has always been smoke around this former NYPD captain, who survived corruption cases as a state senator and Brooklyn borough president, and whose administration is populated of friends and relatives of friends.
At this time, neither Brianna Suggs nor Eric Adams have been charged in connection with the federal investigation. But one of the mayor’s allies, state senator Leroy Comrie, elected in the borough of Queens, denounced a “witch hunt”, an expression dear to Donald Trump.
In a column published by the Daily NewsComrie and former Bronx Borough President Rubén Díaz Jr. even raised the possibility of a link between Eric Adams’ criticism of the Biden administration over the migrant crisis plaguing New York and the federal investigation targeting his campaign.
“We can’t say for sure whether these things are related or not. But members of our communities are speaking out and their skepticism is turning into anger,” wrote the signatories of the forum.
We think we are hearing Donald Trump, who feeds the conspiracy of his troops with his favorite phrase: “A lot of people say…”
Eric Adams has long claimed to be more scrutinized than other politicians because of the color of his skin. “My face will appear on the front pages of newspapers, asking: ‘Is there any unethical or immoral behavior?’ “, he told members of a black church in Brooklyn, three days after the search of which he was the subject.
The mayor of New York, who once claimed to have received a message from God about his political destiny, added: “I live within the limits of my religious beliefs, I am here to serve and God would never have brought me to where I am if I didn’t stay true to who he told me to be. »
Megalomania seems to be another trait that Eric Adams shares with Donald Trump.