The Intriguing Role Public Financing of Campaigns Played in the Eric Adams Indictments

On Thursday, the Department of Justice unsealed an indictment of Eric Adams, making him New York City’s first sitting mayor to be indicted while in office. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.

The first-term Democrat stands accused of wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343; soliciting, accepting, and receiving a campaign contribution by a foreign national, in violation of Title 52, U.S. Code, Section 30121(a)(2); and bribery, in violation of Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 666(a)(1)(B). The mayor declares he is innocent and vows to vigorously fight the charges relating to foreign travel, hotels, and other benefits totaling more than $100,000.

What myriad news accounts aren’t emphasizing—and should—is that New York City’s admirable public finance system for city offices laid the groundwork for the federal indictment. Adams, who insists he will not resign, intimated, without proof, that he was a target of the investigation because he had stood up to the Joe Biden administration’s policies toward migrants.

Campaign finance irregularities in Adams’s mayoral campaign 2021 were flagged by New York City’s Campaign Finance Board (CFB), which administers the city’s excellent public finance system. In 2021, Adams, a police officer for much of his career and an elected official, including Brooklyn borough president, ran and won his first campaign for the city’s highest office using public funding. That meant he was subject to CFB’s notoriously rigorous post-election audits to ensure taxpayer funds were appropriately used.

As a publicly funded candidate, Adams needed to account for every cent going into and out of his mayoral campaign. Simply put, the numbers did not add up, with a $2.3 million gap, which is a huge red flag. As the New York Times reported of the audit, Adams’s campaign seemed to have “secret bundlers [and] sham donations.” The Justice Department, in its indictment, accuses Adams of violating the wire fraud statute by getting public matching funds through fraudulent means.

The DOJ’s investigation of Adams was no surprise, even if the indictment was, given that the feds had seized his iPad and phones last year. In late 2023, the FBI searched the home of an Adams fundraiser named Brianna Suggs. On Thursday, FBI agents searched Gracie Mansion, the Mayor of New York’s official residence, and earlier this year, the FBI took his cell phone and other devices.

The laws Adams stands accused of breaking may sound familiar to those who followed Robert Mueller, the former FBI Director and special counsel who investigated foreign efforts to influence Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Likewise, those glued to the trials and tribulations of rapper Pras Michel have heard these charges. As I explained in my book Corporatocracy, Michel was found guilty of violating campaign finance laws during Barack Obama’s administration by helping to funnel foreign funds into the 2012 federal election. Michel has yet to be sentenced.

The ban on foreign nationals making contributions or expenditures is a mainstay of American politics and something every candidate knows. It can be found at 52 U.S.C. § 30121. There is an exception for green card holders who spend money in American elections. However, foreign nationals abroad or those just in the U.S. on a visa cannot lawfully spend money in a U.S. election. Full stop.

The Supreme Court upheld the ban on foreign nationals spending money in American elections in Bluman v. FEC in 2012, involving a Canadian who wanted to spend on independent expenditures. The Bluman case at the D.C. Circuit level was authored by then-Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who, of course, would be nominated to the Supreme Court by Trump and confirmed by the Senate. Kavanaugh wrote in Bluman:

“The Supreme Court has long held that the government (federal, state, and local) may exclude foreign citizens from activities that are part of democratic self-government in the United States. For example, the Supreme Court has ruled that the government may bar aliens from voting, serving as jurors, working as police or probation officers, or teaching at public schools. Under those precedents, the federal ban at issue here readily passes constitutional muster.”

Kavanaugh’s Court of Appeals ruling was affirmed by the Supreme Court 9-0. Thus, if Adams wants to argue that the foreign ban is unconstitutional, the case law is not on his side.

Adams is also accused of accepting bribes from a Turkish official. (The New York Post headline on Friday was “Grand Theft Ottoman.”) The recent example of Democratic ex-U.S. Senator Bob Menendez shows the potency of these anti-corruption laws. Menendez was convicted of taking bribes from Egypt, including in the form of gold bars, no less.

Like any defendant, Adams is innocent until proven guilty. But make no mistake: These charges are as serious as a heart attack. Keeping foreign money out of American politics is a bright line that politicians cross at their own risk. Public financing, with its rigorous accounting, makes such behavior even riskier.

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