Eric Adams Indictment Not As Bad As That Time AOC Wore A Dress, Says Jonathan Turley
Just a masterclass in utter nonsense.
(Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
Jonathan Turley continues his effort to erode any lingering misconception that he understands the law by rushing to the aid of embattled NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Despite an indictment filled with more smoking guns than a Guy Ritchie film, Turley assures readers — like a broad caricature of an old-timey cop — to “move along, nothing to see here,” dismissing some 23 overt acts and a cornucopia of embarrassingly damning text messages to explain how, as political corruption goes, this isn’t as bad as the time AOC wore a designer dress.
To borrow from George S. Patton: Never tell Turley how to explain legal concepts. Tell him what partisan result to get and he will surprise you with his disingenuity.
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How does one explain away all the trips and gifts?
For example, many of the gifts from Turkish sources were realized in the form of upgrades on flights to business class or expensive hotel suites. It is not clear what Adams knew of the logistics for such travel or their inclusion in annual reports. Despite their public personas, many populist politicians tend to be a pampered class who expect to be feted in the best quarters as they speak as the “voice of the people.”
“First stop is always Istanbul,” Adams wrote apparently coincidentally. The indictment includes multiple exchanges where Adams exhibits firsthand knowledge of what’s going on. And, of course, there was the other side of the quid pro quo in the form of letting Turkey erect a building on one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the world that couldn’t pass basic safety laws.
Turley digs deep:
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Luxury, Lies, And A $10 Million Embezzlement
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Luxury, Lies, And A $10 Million Embezzlement
The government alleges that Turkish officials immediately dialed up their well-groomed ally, Adams, and told him that it was “his turn” to support Turkey.
Adams intervened and prosecutors say that FDNY officials were afraid for their jobs.
Once again, however, Adams has defenses. He can argue that New York is the home of the United Nations and a large population of diplomats and international organizations. This was a foreign country seeking to open a consulate and he intervened to avoid an embarrassing diplomatic tiff.
He only blessed the death trap because he’s a diplomat. 10/10. No notes.
The biggest problem for Adams is that the US Attorney’s Office went public with a threat for all of those who do not cooperate and pledged that more will be “held accountable.”
In other words, the indictment amplified the tune in a game of musical chairs. Anyone close to Adams may want to sit down before the music stops. That means that Adams can expect close associates to be testifying against him with the enthusiasm of those threatened with ruin by federal prosecutors.
If Eric Adams is convicted, it will be at the hands of his associates.
Yes. Those associates are customarily called “witnesses.” This is actually how criminal cases work.
For Turley, the real injustice involves targeting a mayor for allegedly taking illegal foreign campaign contributions in exchange for political favors when a more liberal politician… wore a dress once.
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That was captured most vividly by NYC Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sashaying at the Met Gala in a designer dress reading “tax the rich.” It was a scene with a crushing irony. The dress itself was worth more than some people make in a year and it was just “loaned” to AOC despite being made specifically for her. She also did not pay for her ticket, which would cost $35,000.
It triggered an ethics investigation and allegations of ethical violations.
Yeah, and what happened with that ethics investigation? Seems like the fact that she paid the expenses with personal funds would be a worthwhile fact to include here. Turley opens his piece stressing that Adams should be given every benefit of the doubt at this stage… weird to not extend the same courtesy over a fizzled House rules investigation from over a year ago.
It’s also not clear how there’s any potential influence peddling involved in wearing a rented dress as opposed to, you know, TAKING TEN MILLION DOLLARS OF ILLEGAL CONTRIBUTIONS.
Is it possible that Turley is just Turkey’s burner account?
And, of course, being Turley, he finds a way to ramrod Hunter Biden into the conversation:
The Adams allegations would constitute a fairly crude form of corruption by today’s standards. For the Biden family, it looks like small potatoes. Adams lacked a Hunter and the type of labyrinth of accounts maintained by the Bidens to funnel millions from foreign sources.
It seems at least marginally relevant that Eric Adams was a public official and Joe Biden was not at the time his son did all this work overseas. Turley tends to overlook that because he can’t figure out how calendars work, but there’s not really anything wrong with a guy working with a foreign company while his dad isn’t even an elected official.
But despite Turley’s cartoonish effort to wave away the Adams indictment and drag other Democratic Party figures instead, he does hit on one potentially accurate point:
Suggesting that a push to cut short fire inspections may be difficult to maintain under a bribery theory. That was the type of expansive case that government attorney Jack Smith used against former Virginia Republican Gov. Robert McDonnell and it failed spectacularly before the Supreme Court.
While it does violence to the concept of rule of law to cite the Supreme Court’s fixation on legalizing bribery, it is a reality. The Supreme Court decided that McDonnell’s graft couldn’t sustain a conviction and recently declared that bribery laws can’t be used to prosecute an official who accepts money under the table AFTER doing the favor.
The current majority is on a holy crusade to legalize payola so it’s unfortunately not absurd to think Adams will eventually prevail. So give Turley his due on this one.
Broken clocks and all that.
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter or Bluesky if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
