By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. prosecutors on Thursday charged New York City Mayor Eric Adams with accepting illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel from Turkish nationals seeking to influence him, capping an investigation that has sent the largest U.S. city's government into turmoil.
In a 57-page indictment, prosecutors laid out an alleged scheme stretching back to 2014 that helped to underwrite Adams' 2021 mayoral campaign and showered him with free rooms at opulent hotels and meals at high-end restaurants.
In return, Adams pressured city officials to allow the country's new 36-story consulate to open despite safety concerns, prosecutors said.
The Democrat faces five criminal charges and could face decades in prison if found guilty.
Adams, 64, denied wrongdoing and said he would fight the charges in court. He said he would not step down.
"I will continue to do my job as mayor," he said at a news conference, where some onlookers called on him to resign.
He is due to appear in court on Friday at noon Eastern Time (1600 GMT).
Turkey's foreign ministry and president's office and its embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier on Thursday, federal agents searched the mayor's Gracie Mansion home on Manhattan's Upper East Side, according to a Reuters witness. Around a dozen people in business attire were seen walking on the mansion's grounds with briefcases and duffel bags.
Adams, a former police officer who rose to the rank of captain, is the first of the city's 110 mayors to be criminally charged while in office.
He could be removed from office by Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul but the process is complicated, said Pace University Law School professor Bennett Gershman.
Hochul issued a statement saying she would "review my options and obligations as the Governor of New York."
"I expect the Mayor to take the next few days to review the situation and find an appropriate path forward to ensure the people of New York City are being well-served by their leaders," Hochul said.
'A TRUE FRIEND OF TURKEY'
According to the indictment, Adams accepted free travel from a Turkish airline worth tens of thousands of dollars while serving as Brooklyn borough president and paid $600 to stay two nights at a luxury suite in the St. Regis (NASDAQ:RGS) hotel in Istanbul, well below the actual cost of $7,000.
Prosecutors said Adams would fly on the Turkish airline even when it was inconvenient. "You know first stop is always Istanbul," he wrote in a 2017 text message when his partner expressed surprise that they were flying from New York to Paris through Istanbul.
For his 2021 mayoral campaign, Adams disguised campaign contributions from Turkish sources by funneling them through U.S. citizens, the indictment said. Those funds allowed Adams to qualify for an additional $10 million in public financing.
"This was a multiyear scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise," Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said at a news conference.
Prosecutors say Adams responded to Turkish concerns.
Acting on a request by a Turkish diplomat, Adams pressured city safety inspectors to allow the country's new 36-story consulate to open in time for a September 2021 visit by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan even though it would have failed a fire inspection, the indictment said.
After repeated messages about the building from Adams, a senior Fire Department official allegedly told a subordinate he would lose his job if he did not allow the consulate to open. Adams notified the diplomat when the Fire Department approved the building to open later in the day, the indictment said.
"You are a true friend of Turkey," the diplomat allegedly responded.
Adams performed other favors as well, the indictment said. Before serving as mayor, Adams allegedly cut ties with a community center in Brooklyn that the diplomat said was affiliated with a hostile political movement, according to the indictment.
Shortly after he was inaugurated in 2022, an Adams staffer assured the diplomat that the new mayor would not make a statement on 1915 massacres of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire that Washington has called a genocide.
Adams said he was aiming for a public trial to clear his name. "If it's foreign donors, I know I don't take money from foreign donors," he said.
TOP CITY OFFICIALS RESIGN
The case is likely to complicate any Adams bid for re-election in 2025, as other Democratic politicians, including New York City comptroller Brad Lander, plan to challenge him.
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat who represents portions of the city, called on Adams to step down. But two powerful lawmakers from Brooklyn, U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House of Representatives Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, stopped short of doing so.
New York has been in a state of political upheaval for the past month. Police Commissioner Edward Caban resigned on Sept. 12, a week after FBI agents seized his phone. Days later, Adams' chief legal adviser resigned.
On Wednesday, the city's public schools chief David Banks said he would retire at the end of the year, after the New York Times reported his phones were seized by federal agents.