JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made no secret of his affinity for the country and people of Turkey.
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ERIC ADAMS: New York City is the Istanbul of America. We have some of the largest Turkish population.
SUMMERS: To be fair, he said similar things about the capitals of Mexico and Ukraine and Haiti and Croatia, but Turkish interests are at the center of yesterday's federal indictment of Mayor Adams. The charges have to do with accepting illegal campaign contributions and luxury travel in exchange for political favors. Today, Adams pleaded not guilty.
Reporting for Politico, Joe Anuta has documented that these connections with Turkey date back to 2014. Joe Anuta joins us now. Welcome to the program.
JOE ANUTA: Thanks for having me.
SUMMERS: So Joe, the headline of a story that you wrote about a year ago reads that Eric Adams attended nearly 80 events celebrating Turkey, and that was before he was mayor. What can you tell us about those events?
ANUTA: Yeah, so at the time, Eric Adams was Brooklyn borough president - this kind of odd position, very unique to New York. It's sort of a largely ceremonial post now. And while there's certainly a Turkish community in Brooklyn, when you look at how small it is compared to how often the mayor was meeting with these groups, it just struck us as interesting and newsworthy. He's going to a lot of dinners, meetings with the Consul General at the time, cutting ribbons, that sort of thing.
SUMMERS: That story was written a year ago, when this was just a federal investigation, before the news of this week. But how do those events - those nearly 80 events celebrating Turkey that you and your colleagues documented - how do they look in light of this new criminal indictment?
ANUTA: For the last year, we have kind of known the broad strokes of what the FBI and the Southern District were looking at. They were looking at the mayor accepting gifts from Turkish individuals and a Turkish official. And in exchange, he allegedly pushed to approve a fire inspection for the Turkish Consulate in Midtown before fire officials thought it was ready.
What I think is interesting about the indictment, and what we've all been poring over for the last day, is it provides so much more detail into a lot of the interactions with a couple key players. I think there's just a lot more dots being connected overall.
SUMMERS: The U.S. attorney overseeing this case said, and I'm quoting here, "this was a multiyear scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise." Joe, based on your reporting, do you get a sense that there's more to this than perhaps we've heard?
ANUTA: I think it's tough to say. I will say that Turkish officials in New York and officials that are affiliated with the Erdogan administration - they're always working to cultivate relationships with influential elected officials or officials who they think will be influential. If you look in the indictment, there was a character in there who - he's kind of a promoter, a sort of impresario maybe, who thought Adams might be president one day. But all this to say that it's not surprising at all that they would want to engage with decision-makers, especially in New York - a very prominent, you know, international city.
SUMMERS: Meanwhile, Mayor Adams was arraigned today. He briefly appeared in court, where he pleaded not guilty. He said that he will not resign. Tell us what comes next in this case.
ANUTA: You know, I've been covering the mayor for a few years, and I think, from my perspective, and if you ask others who have known him for longer, he's not really the resigning type. So I think we're going to see a dramatic showdown between Eric Adams and Damian Williams, the U.S. prosecutor in the southern district.
SUMMERS: Joe Anuta is a senior reporter covering New York City Hall for Politico. Joe, Thank you.
ANUTA: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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