Mayor Eric Adams swaggered right into a corruption indictment. By Eric Lach 
It took four centuries for a mayor of New York City to be charged with criminal conduct while in office. There have been some close calls: in 1986, agency heads in Mayor Ed Koch’s administration were indicted in a sprawling scandal, but the Mayor himself was not charged, and finished out his term. Before this week, Jimmy Walker, the ninety-seventh mayor of the city, arguably came closest to being indicted while on the job. Known as Beau James, and sometimes as the Night Mayor, Walker was forced from office in 1932 amid allegations involving bribery and municipal contracts. He skipped town, and went to Europe with his girlfriend (and, later, wife), a Ziegfeld girl named Betty Compton. He never faced prosecution. It’s interesting to think about what foreign countries Eric Adams might hole up in. According to an indictment that was unsealed on Thursday, the hundred and tenth mayor of New York City is facing five federal counts of fraud, bribery, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. The charges are not exactly surprising: last year, federal agents took at least two of the Mayor’s phones, and an iPad, as part of an investigation into his campaign’s and administration’s ties to the Turkish government and Turkish business interests. These charges are the result of that investigation. And over the years Adams himself has made no secret of his fondness for Turkey, its people, and their financial resources. Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » | 
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