Attorney David Schwartz Talking About NYC Mayor Eric Adams @NewsNationTV

Youtube transcript
0:00 [Music] 0:01 and I look 0:02 forward to defending myself and 0:06 defending the people of this city all
0:10 right joining us now with more on all 0:11 this is New York Daily News City Hall 0:13 reporter Chris sumers felt he's on the 0:15 phone former Federal prosecutor Francy 0:18 hakes and criminal defense attorney 0:20 David Schwarz he's known and worked with 0:22 mayor Adams for years Chris you're the 0:25
city hall reporter so I want to start 0:26 with you maybe my bar for bribery is 0:29 high after Senator Mendez was found with 0:32 stacks of gold bars and bags of cash and 0:34 a mercedesbenz but did Adams allegedly
0:38 really sell his soul for free flights in 0:40 hotel 0:41 rooms it sounds like it based on the 0:45 indictment but I will still say we are 0:47 talking about 0:50 $125,000 worth of free flights free 0:53 hotel rooms for him and multiple of his 0:56 associates according to indictment but 0:58 perhaps even more serious is the fact
1:01 that the mayor is being accused of 1:03 having received tens of thousands of 1:06 dollars in illegal campaign donations 1:09 that are coming from Turkish Nationals 1:11 or being funded by Turk Turkish 1:14
Nationals the way that New York City's 1:17 campaign Finance system works is that 1:19 these allegedly illegal donations 1:23 unlocked nearly $10 million in what's 1:27 called public matching fund 1:30 right which is City taxpayer dollars 1:32 that were able to prop up the mayor's 1:34 campaign quite a lot and what the
1:37 prosecutors are alleging is that he 1:39 should have gotten none of this money 1:41 because of the illegal Turkish donations 1:43 that he allegedly uh received all right 1:46 David the indictment says that not only 1:48 did the campaigns Adam Adams campaign 1:51 take this money they did it explicitly 1:54 at the direction of Adams himself 1:56 according to text messages in this 1:58 indictment right so we have to look at 2:00 the text messages we have to look at all 2:02 the surrounding circumstances I agree it 2:04 would be it would be very serious if 2:06 Adams knew about it or he directed it 2:09 but right now there is no evidence an 2:12 indictment is evidence of nothing okay 2:15 an indictment is a prosecutor preparing 2:18 a 57 page document which outlines what 2:22 they think their case is going to show 2:24 the only time it's relevant is when 2:26 there's a conviction so an indictment is 2:28 evidence of nothing uh there has to be a 2:31 quidd pro quo here so although well the 2:34 allegation is he took all this money 2:35 from turkey and from Turkish interests 2:38 and then he when they couldn't get a 2:40 building approved to be open he told the 2:42 fire inspector if you don't agree to 2:44 open this building I'll fire you and I 2:46 think that's all hypothesis and that's 2:48 speculation and the Supreme Court was 2:50 very clear on on this issue there has to 2:53 be an exact quid proquo there has to be 2:56 the exchange between what I'm benefiting 2:58 from and what you're benefiting from has 3:00 to be very tight and and so far I don't 3:04 I don't see that I see some upgrades I
3:07 don't see gold bars going to Eric Adams 3:09 I don't see sacks of cash going to Eric 3:12 Adams where did Eric Adams benefit 3:14 personally from when from my reading of 3:16 that indictment yes the campaign may 3:18 have benefited he had upgrades he had 3:21 hotel rooms but that's not benefit he 3:24 had some free there there are text 3:25 messages to the extent that you know he 3:27 was he was flying and staying in hotels 3:30 not just upgraded but for free or 3:32 sometimes paid a nominal fee but we'll 3:34 get we'll those are technical violations 3:36 yes okay not a crime Francy indict the 3:39 indictment was handed down last night 3:40 he's going to appear in court tomorrow 3:42 it was sealed I'm just curious why did 3:45 the feds raid the mayor's home this 3:47 morning after the indictment was handed 3:50 down well they must think Elizabeth that 3:53 they can find more evidence they must 3:55 think that since the indictment was 3:57
unsealed that there is something at Eric 4:00 Adams house that they can find that 4:02 proves their case which is a little 4:04 concerning typically speaking when you 4:06 unseal the indictment the investigation
4:09 is largely over other than maybe 4:11 flipping codefendants or even the 4:13 defendant himself or some other 4:15 Witnesses so it is a little bit curious 4:17 I have to agree with David though 4:19 Elizabeth this is this indictment is a 4:21 little bit small ball and the Civil 4:24 campaign Finance violations have been 4:26
handled civil rather than criminally in 4:29 many cases in the past so it makes me 4:31 curious as to why the Department of 4:34 Justice has brought this indictment 4:35 because if you look at the Hillary 4:37 Clinton campaign the Barack Obama 4:38 campaigns they had very serious very 4:41 high dollar campaign Finance violations 4:44 that could have been prosecuted 4:46 criminally but were instead handled 4:48 civil and Donald Trump with the stormmy 4:50 Daniels payments and now Eric Adams with 4:53 this campaign Finance scheme as they 4:55 call it is being handled criminally so 4:58 I'm curious as to the different 4:59
treatment uh it's it also it's not just 5:01 the seizure by the way Francy of the 5:03 mayor's own devices 10 months ago and 5:05 again this morning the feds have also 5:08 searched and seized the phones of so 5:10
many senior AIDS in the Adams 5:12 Administration this is unusual and very 5:15 aggressive well this is them trying to 5:18 prove what they've got in the indictment 5:21 which is all these conversations I'll 5:23 give you a great example of something 5:24 that can be argued either way they said 5:26 they have a text message that Eric Adams 5:28 at one point said regarding uh campaign 5:31 contributions everyone has to be a US
5:33 citizen his defense attorneys are going 5:35 to say that Eric Adams was describing 5:38 the lawful donation that it has to be 5:41 from US citizens but what the government 5:43 is saying is that he was in effect 5:46 inviting a fraudulent and criminal 5:49 scheme so that's just one place where I 5:51 want to see the evidence that I think 5:53 can be found if it exists on all these 5:56 different devices all right super quick
5:58 Chris C governor Kathy hokel says quote 6:00 this is a very serious matter that is 6:03 unfolding and that she would quote 6:05 deliberate before deciding whether or 6:06 not she's going to remove him from
6:08 Office what do you think is going to 6:11 happen it's very hard to tell at this 6:14 point uh Governor hokel has been a 6:16 steadfast Ally standing by Eric Adams 6:18 throughout a lot of scandals and as you 6:21 mentioned there have been quite a few 6:22 even before this indictment was handed 6:26 down the fact that she did not come out 6:29 and offer support immediately for the 6:31 mayor stood out to me just given how 6:35 supportive she has been for him for a 6:38 long time oh all right whether or not 6:40 that means that we should know that we 6:42 should read into that that the governor 6:43 is going to try to actually unseed them 6:46 we we can't tell at this point do you 6:47 think you survived 10 seconds I believe 6:49 in the presumption of innocence so um 6:51 that's not the same that's not what I'm 6:52 asking I believe I believe the facts 6:55 will come out I'm not too sure right now 6:57 oh you're not sure you're not sure he'll
6:59 I'm hoping survives because the 7:01 presumption of innocence Chris 7:03 sommerfelt David Schwarz Francy hes 7:05 thank you so much all of you for joining 7:07 us on that political hurricane of sorts 7:10 in New York City