New York City Mayor Eric Adams spent Sunday praising God and pledging not to resign.
Rather, the Democratic mayor, under federal indictment for allegedly soliciting illegal campaign donations from foreign entities and falsifying paper trails to cover them up, said he is “going to reign,” according to the New York Post.
Adams spoke to the congregation of the Emmanuel Presbyterian Reformed Church in The Bronx for about 30 minutes, and refused to answer reporter’s questions afterward, the Post reports.
“God placed me in this moment and placed in my heart to continue to move this city forward,” Adams said on Sunday. “And so you’ll hear the small number of loud people saying, ‘But he should step down.’ No, I’m going to step up. I’m not going to resign. I’m not going to resign. I’m going to reign.”
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Adams’ legal team filed a motion to dismiss the bribery charge from the federal indictment. The charge accuses Adams of accepting luxury travel bribes in 2021 and 2022 in exchange for the New York City Fire Department to allow the 36-story Turkevi Center, also known as the Turkish House, to go through despite fire safety concerns.
According to the indictment, federal investigators were looking into whether Adams’ 2021 and 2025 mayoral campaigns conspired with Turkish officials, business leaders and other entities to illegally raise funds. Court documents allege wrongdoing as far back as 2016.
His legal team says the indictment alleges a bribery scheme that does not fit the definition of bribery.
“Despite the fact that the indictment reproduces quotes from messages, emails, and conversations for numerous other points, it does not allege any specific exchanges or conversations in which Adams and the Turkish official entered into this purported quid pro quo agreement,” his legal team wrote.
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Adams allegedly defrauded taxpayers for $10 million over the past decade and frequently took free or steeply discounted vacations bankrolled by his foreign benefactors.
Adams released a video statement saying any charges filed against him would be “entirely false, based on lies,” and he insinuated that his criticism of the Biden administration‘s disastrous border policies made him a target for retaliation.
“The federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief,” he said in a video statement. “I put the people of New York before party and politics.”
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Investigators denied the claim that the case was political retaliation during a news briefing Thursday.
Adams is due back in court on Wednesday for a conference before U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho, who the TV station says will preside over the case going forward, according to FOX 5 New York.
He could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted of all charges, which include one count of conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals and to commit wire fraud and bribery, one count of wire fraud, two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals and one count of soliciting and accepting a bribe.
FOX News’ Joseph A. Wulfson, Michael Ruiz and Maria Paronich contributed to this report.
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