Attorney David Schwartz Talking About NYC Mayor Eric Adams @NewsNationTV

Gotham
In The News

At Gotham Government Relations, we take pride in staying ahead of the curve when it comes to policy developments and current events that impact our esteemed clientele and team members. "Gotham In The News" is your go-to page for comprehensive coverage of news articles and videos that directly pertain to our areas of expertise.

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