NEW YORK >> New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted on five federal charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations that prosecutors said began when he was a top elected official in the Brooklyn borough and continued after he became mayor.

The indictment, which was unsealed this morning, follows an investigation that started in 2021 and has focused at least in part on whether he conspired with the Turkish government to receive illegal foreign campaign contributions and whether he took official actions on its behalf.

At a news conference, Adams said he had been demonized and urged New Yorkers to be patient: “I ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense.”

Federal prosecutors said Adams “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits” since at least 2014, when he was then the Brooklyn borough president, according to the indictment.

The benefits included luxury international travel — free and discounted Turkish Airlines tickets to Turkey and free meals and hotel rooms while there — from wealthy foreigners and at least one Turkish government official, prosecutors said. He traveled on the airline even when it was inconvenient, they said, including a 2017 flight to France from New York that first stopped in Istanbul.

Adams tried to hide the gifts or make them appear as if he had paid for them, according to the indictment, and also deleted messages to cover his actions. The value of the gifts exceeded $100,000, prosecutors said.

In exchange for the perks, Adams as mayor pressured officials at the New York Fire Department to open a new Turkish consular building in Manhattan despite fire inspection issues. A Fire Department official who was overseeing the building’s fire safety assessment said he was told he would lose his job if he did not follow the mayor’s order.

“As Adam’s prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that Adams would become New York City’s mayor,” prosecutors said in the indictment. “Adams agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”

Early this morning, federal agents searched the official residence of Adams. At about 6 a.m., nearly a dozen men and women dressed in business attire arrived in SUVs outside the entrance of Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Many agents were still at Gracie Mansion later in the morning when some of the mayor’s top advisers and his former chief counsel, Brendan McGuire, walked inside.

A lawyer for Adams, Alex Spiro, issued a statement today saying that the agents had come for the mayor’s phone, even though investigators had taken some electronic devices from him last year.

In a statement sent by email, Spiro said: “Federal agents appeared this morning at Gracie Mansion in an effort to create a spectacle (again) and take Mayor Adams phone (again). He has not been arrested and looks forward to his day in court. They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in.”

On Wednesday night, a number of elected officials called for Adams to resign, including several Democrats running against him in next year’s Democratic primary. Gov. Kathy Hochul has the power to remove him from office; she has yet to comment on the indictment.

But Adams proclaimed his innocence. “I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers, that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams, 64, said in a taped video.

Adams, a retired police captain, was elected New York’s 110th mayor in 2021 after a campaign built on a pledge to reduce crime and bring professionalism to City Hall. His inner circle has been engulfed by federal investigations that have targeted the highest officials in city government, some of whom have recently resigned.

Here’s what else to know:

— What could happen: If Adams resigns, the acting mayor would be Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate. He would schedule a nonpartisan special election for a new mayor, which could take place within 90 days.

— Timeline: The investigation involving Adams burst into public view nearly a year ago when the FBI raided the home of his chief fundraiser. Investigators seized his electronic devices a few days later.

— Array of inquiries: Four federal investigations have ensnared the Adams administration and high-ranking officials, including the police commissioner and the schools chancellor.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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