A federal indictment against New York Mayor Eric Adams (D) is expected to soon be unsealed, after investigations intensified around his administration in recent months. In a video message Wednesday night, he said any federal charges would be “entirely false,” and vowed to stay in office.

Here’s what we know about the 110th mayor of America’s largest city and the indictment against him in Manhattan federal court.

Who is Eric Adams and why was he indicted?

• Adams was elected Mayor of New York in 2021. A retired police captain, he ran as an advocate for the working class, with a focus on stamping out crime. The city’s second Black mayor, Adams grew up in Brooklyn and Queens and struggled with poverty and police harassment in his youth, according to his official biography. He subsequently joined the New York Police Department “and became one of its most outspoken officers, calling out racism and bias in the department and pushing for major reforms,” it said.
• Federal prosecutors in New York have obtained an indictment against Adams, a person familiar with the investigation told The Post on Wednesday. An indictment is a document approved by a grand jury that formally spells out a charge or charges against someone before they can be prosecuted. The New York Times reported that the charges against Adams, which have not been made public, are tied to a corruption investigation that began in 2021.
• Reports that an indictment was coming emerged as investigations have intensified around the Adams administration in recent months. Allies had their phones seized and homes searched, and several have resigned. But aspects of the apparently wide-ranging probe are still unclear.
• Adams has denied the anticipated charges and pledged to continue leading New York as the investigation unfolds.

What problems have plagued his administration?

In recent weeks, Adams’s administration has seen a flurry of high-profile resignations, among them Lisa Zornberg, Adams’s top legal counsel, who stood down abruptly this month, as well as the head of New York City’s public schools system, David Banks, who announced that he would retire at the end of the year.

Adams’s former police commissioner Edward Caban, whose devices were collected by federal authorities for examination and his home searched by investigators, also stepped down this month.

Adams and his team have denied any wrongdoing.

Previously, Adams’s phones were seized last year by federal agents who were looking for potential improper ties between his campaign and the Turkish government, The Post reported. An Adams campaign worker, Brianna Suggs, had her Brooklyn home searched around that time and agents seized smartphones, computers and a folder labeled “Eric Adams,” according to the Times, though Suggs was not accused of wrongdoing.

The investigation focused in part on whether Adams pushed the New York Fire Department to green-light the opening of a new Turkish consulate near the United Nations headquarters despite safety concerns relating to the building, the Times reported.

The investigation has cast doubt on Adams’s ability to win reelection as his party prepares for a primary in June.

What has the reaction been so far?

Adam issued a video message late Wednesday outlining his innocence and pledging to remain in office.

“I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target,” he said, dismissing possible charges as false and “based on lies.”

“For months, leaks and rumors have been aimed at me in attempt to undermine my credibility and paint me as guilty,” he said. “Enough. I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit. If I’m charged, I know I am innocent. I will request an immediate trial so New Yorkers can hear the truth.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has so far been the most prominent Democratic voice calling for Adams to resign.

“I do not see how Mayor Adams can continue governing New York City,” she wrote on X, noting that a “flood of resignations” were threatening government function.

“Nonstop investigations will make it impossible to recruit and retain a qualified administration,” she said. “For the good of the city, he should resign.”

New York Comptroller Brad Lander (D), who is second in line behind the city’s public advocate to take over for Adams if he resigns or is removed from office, and who has announced his intentions to run for mayor in 2025, called it a “sad day for New Yorkers.”

“It is clear that defending himself against serious federal charges will require a significant amount of the time and attention needed to govern this great city,” Lander said of Adams. “The most appropriate path forward is for him to step down so that New York City can get the full focus its leadership demands.”

What’s going to happen next?

Adams in his video Wednesday made clear that he would not stand down. “If I am charged, many may say I should resign because I cannot manage the city while fighting the case … but I have been facing these lies for months,” he said. “Make no mistake, you elected me to lead this city, and lead it I will.”

But it’s not clear whether his position is tenable.

If he chooses to resign or if he is removed from office by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), the city’s public advocate, Jumaane D. Williams, will take over until a special election is held. William Gerlich, a spokesman for Williams, said in a statement that news of the indictment was “incredibly serious.”

“As the facts emerge, the Public Advocate will have more to say to the people of New York City, and right now, he is focused on how best to ensure that New Yorkers can regain trust, confidence and stability in city government,” Gerlich said.

A panel of federal judges heard arguments Tuesday in a case that could upend the rules for counting a sliver of mail ballots in Mississippi just weeks before Election Day, with possible ramifications for all states.

At issue is a Mississippi law that allows mail ballots to be counted if they arrive up to five days after Election Day and are postmarked by Election Day or earlier. Seventeen other states and Washington, D.C., have laws allowing postmarked mail ballots to be counted if they arrive after Election Day, according to the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures.

The case in Mississippi is one example of a nationwide effort by Republicans to invalidate mail ballots over issues unrelated to whether they were cast by a legitimate voter. Republicans say they want to ensure states strictly follow voting laws, while Democrats and voting rights advocates say Republicans are trying to throw out otherwise valid votes because Democrats have disproportionately embraced mail voting.

Mississippi is a reliably Republican state that will not sway the presidential election. But the challenge to its law could ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court for a decision that affects the options available to all states. Such a ruling would have significant implications for the presidential race, as well as some closely fought congressional contests.

Republicans are fighting over mail ballots on many fronts even as the days dwindle until the November vote.

In Pennsylvania, a battleground state that could decide the presidential election, the Republican National Committee last week filed a lawsuit arguing that voters should not get a chance to fix errors on their mail ballots to make sure their votes get counted. Another lawsuit seeks to throw out mail ballots when their outer envelopes are undated or misdated, even if they arrive by Election Day. If voters aren’t able to fix their mistakes, tens of thousands of ballots could be thrown out in Pennsylvania.

“It is really a brazen voter suppression effort,” said Vic Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

Gates McGavick, senior adviser to RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, dismissed that criticism. “The idea that widely-supported election integrity safeguards somehow constitute ‘voter-suppression’ is a far-left conspiracy theory,” McGavick said in a statement.

The RNC brought its lawsuit over the Mississippi law in January, arguing elections must be completed by Election Day because Congress has set a specific day for the election. A district court upheld Mississippi’s law in July, finding that Congress has not regulated mail ballots and has left states with “the authority and the constitutional charge to establish their lawful time, place, and manner boundaries.”

The RNC, joined by the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The three judges who heard arguments Tuesday — all appointed by former president Donald Trump — asked probing questions about the history of voting laws and the definitions of “Election Day” and “casting” ballots.

“An election occurs when a voter expresses their choice,” said T. Russell Nobile, an attorney for the Libertarians. “They make it known and communicate it to election officials by a given time, and the given time is on or before Election Day.”

Donald Verrilli Jr., a former solicitor general representing the Democratic National Committee, compared Mississippi’s law with the federal government’s deadline for filing taxes.

“When you mail your tax payment in, so long as it’s postmarked by April 15th, you’ve paid your taxes on time, even though they arrive after April 15th,” he said.

Considering the case are Judges James C. Ho, Stuart Kyle Duncan and Andrew S. Oldham. They did not say how soon they would rule but noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has expressed reservations about courts changing voting rules in the run-up to an election.

The 5th Circuit is based in New Orleans and has jurisdiction over Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. Its ruling will be binding in those three states and could undo Mississippi’s law as well as one in Texas that allows mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive by 5 p.m. on the day after Election Day.

The 18 states that allow mail ballots to be counted if they arrive after Election Day include the swing state of Nevada, Democratic bastions California and Illinois, and Republican strongholds Ohio and North Dakota.

The Portage County, Ohio, elections board has barred its sheriff’s office from providing security during early voting after Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski (R) urged people to collect the addresses of residents displaying yard signs for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The board’s decision Friday, which affects in-person absentee voting, came a week after Zuchowski said in public Facebook posts that residents should “write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!” The messages sparked concerns among local residents, civil rights groups and regional politicians about voter intimidation during the presidential election, in which Harris is the Democratic nominee.

The elections board is now considering whether police from the town of Ravenna, Ohio, or a private firm will take over election security duties. And Zuchowski, who is seeking reelection, took down his posts after the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio sent him a letter last week arguing that he had “made an impermissible threat” against residents for expressing their political beliefs.

Elections board member Randi Clites, who introduced the motion to change the county’s elections security policy, said in a statement Friday that public comments in response to Zuchowski’s posts had made clear “there is perceived intimidation by our Sheriff against certain voters.”

“I believe walking into a voting location where a Sheriff Deputy can be seen may discourage voters from entering,” Clites (D) wrote.

In a Facebook post on Sept. 17, the day the ACLU sent the sheriff its letter, Zuchowski wrote on his public page that he had “a first amendment right as do all citizens,” adding that his posts “may have been a little misinterpreted??”

Zuchowski wrote that if Portage County residents voted for Harris and supported her board policies, “then that is their prerogative.” He continued: “That being said…I believe that those who vote for individuals with liberal policies have to accept responsibility for their actions!”

He did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment Tuesday evening.

In recent weeks, Portage County has joined Springfield — about 160 miles southwest — as an Ohio community thrust into the national spotlight after conservative politicians made public, inflammatory comments about immigrants there.

Tensions in Portage County rose on Sept. 13, when Zuchowski made identical posts on his public and private Facebook accounts suggesting that the county would see an influx of undocumented immigrants if Harris wins the presidential race.

He said residents should note the addresses of Harris supporters so that if undocumented immigrants — whom he described collectively as a “locust” — moved there after the election, “We’ll already have the addresses of their New families … who supported their arrival!” he wrote.

Alongside the caption, Zuchowski posted photos from Fox News coverage of Springfield and Aurora, Colo. — both of which former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have mentioned while repeating baseless claims about immigrant communities.

In the days after Zuchowski’s initial posts, residents called the county’s board of elections office to share concerns about the sheriff’s messages, said Terrie Nielsen, deputy director of the board.

As those worries grew, the county’s NAACP chapter held an emergency meeting Thursday for community members to discuss the matter. Nielsen, who attended, said it was “disheartening” to hear residents talk about the posts.

“There were so many people who stood up and said they were afraid to vote, and that is just not acceptable,” she told The Washington Post.

The next day, the four-person board of elections voted to change its policy on security for in-person absentee voting. Three members — Clites, Doria Daniels (R) and board chair Denise Smith (D), who is also chair of the county’s Democratic Party — voted for the change.

Amanda Suffecool, a board member and chair of the Portage County GOP, dissented, calling the vote “unfortunate.” In a Facebook post Monday, Suffecool said that hiring alternate security improperly “casts aspersions” on the sheriff’s department.

“These men and women from the sheriff’s department have committed no crime and serve the county faithfully,” Suffecool wrote. “For them to be caught up in this fight between the parties is unacceptable.”

In her statement Friday, Clites thanked the Portage County deputies who had worked during previous elections.

“I do not for one second believe any Deputy would not continue to provide that level of service this election cycle, however not every citizen or voter has had that same opportunity to build the level of trust with our Deputies,” Clites said.

Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday pushed beyond U.S. intelligence assessments of Iranian interference in the presidential election in an effort to disparage his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Officials with the director of National Intelligence briefed Trump on Tuesday about “real and specific threats” by Iran to assassinate him with the goal of destabilizing the United States and sowing chaos, campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement.

The ODNI, in joint statements with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, has described Iran becoming “increasingly aggressive” in undertaking a “multipronged approach … to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our electoral process.” In August, federal prosecutors charged a Pakistani man with an Iranian-backed murder-for-hire plot targeting an unidentified U.S. politician.

Cheung’s account of the briefing was consistent with intelligence officials’ public description of intensifying Iranian efforts to stoke discord. He also restated that law enforcement agencies across the government are working to protect Trump and prevent foreign election interference.

But Cheung then went further, claiming without evidence that Iran wanted Harris to win the election. “Make no mistake, the terror regime in Iran loves the weakness of Kamala Harris, and is terrified of the strength and resolve of President Trump,” Cheung said.

The Biden administration had previously alerted the Secret Service of an unspecified threat to Trump by Iran before an assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania in July, though the shooting is not believed to be related to any Iranian effort, U.S. officials said.

For the past few years, Western security and law enforcement agencies said they have disrupted attempts to assassinate anti-Iran activists as well as former U.S. officials, including John Bolton, who was Trump’s national security adviser. Officials have said that plots against former Trump administration officials are driven by Iran’s desire to retaliate for the killing of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, which Trump ordered in 2020.

Intelligence officials have said Iran views this presidential election as “particularly consequential” for its national security, but they have not said whether Iran has a preferred candidate.

There was no evidence of Iranian involvement in the two assassination attempts on Trump, on July 13 in Butler, Pa., and Sept. 15 in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Other Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, have also accused Iran of favoring Harris.

An ODNI spokesperson acknowledged the briefing but declined to address any specifics.

Deprecating Harris as “weak” has been a core message of Trump’s campaign since she replaced Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee in July. The word “weak” frequently appears as a tagline in Trump campaign ads. In a July interview, Trump proposed Harris’s appearance as a reason for arguing she would not be able to hold her own with world leaders.

“She’ll be like a play toy,” Trump said in the Fox News interview. “They’re going to walk all over her.” He then turned to look at the camera and added: “I don’t want to say as to why. But a lot of people understand it.”

On Sept. 18, ODNI, the FBI and CISA said Iranian hackers stole information from the Trump campaign and tried to supply it to reporters and to people associated with the Biden campaign. There was no indication that the recipients associated with the Biden campaign responded.

The joint statement said Russia and China are also trying to exploit divisions in the United States during election seasons.

Josh Dawsey contributed to this report.

We’ve documented many times the false claims that former president Donald Trump has made about his achievements during his presidency. But there are also instances when Trump claims credit for something that either Barack Obama or Joe Biden did. Here’s a recent sampling.

Capped insulin at $35 a month

“Low INSULIN PRICING was gotten for millions of Americans by me, and the Trump Administration, not by Crooked Joe Biden. He had NOTHING to do with it. It was all done long before he so sadly entered office. All he does is try to take credit for things done by others, in this case, ME!”

— Trump, in a social media post, June 8

“And Kamala and Crooked Joe, they try and take credit for $35 insulin. But I was the one that did the $35 insulin, not them.”

— Trump, in a rally speech in Wilkes-Barre, Penn., Aug. 17

“I got insulin down, and they took credit for it, but I got it down to $35. And I said, ‘I hope I win because somebody’s going to take credit.’ It takes a period of time before it kicks in statutorily. And I got it down to $35, which was a very low price, and they took credit for it, which is, you know, now, I’m taking credit because I’m talking to you.”

— Trump, in an interview with comedian Theo Von, Aug. 20

In a constant refrain, Trump accuses Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of claiming credit for imposing a $35-per-month cap on insulin; in one speech, he denounced it as “a lie.” But this is highly misleading, especially when he says Biden and Harris had nothing to do with a $35 cap.

Trump did establish a voluntary, time-limited model for a $35 monthly cap on insulin that was only available to some seniors enrolled in certain insurance plans. Less than half of Medicare Part D prescription drug plans chose to participate, and they were able to select what insulin products would be available at $35. Medicare estimated that the two-year model was made available to about 800,000 Medicare enrollees who used insulin.

Naturally, when Trump ran for re-election in 2020, he falsely claimed that the $35 cap was available to every senior. When he announced the temporary program in 2020, he jabbed, “Sleepy Joe can’t do this.”

Even today, notice how Trump, in one interview, said the program took a “period of time before it kicks in statutorily.” That misleadingly suggests he passed a law, not just authorized a temporary pilot program.

A law is what Biden achieved. Over the opposition of the pharmaceutical industry, the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (passed with a tiebreaking vote in the Senate by Harris) permanently required all Part D plans to charge no more than $35 per month for all insulin products; it also limited cost sharing for insulin covered under Part B (Medicare medical insurance) to $35 per month. KFF, a nonprofit health-policy organization, estimated that nearly 3.3 million Americans would benefit from this provision of the law. That’s four times more than people who were covered under Trump’s temporary measure.

Trump announced a small pilot program for a group of seniors with an expiration date; Biden passed a law that benefited every senior. There’s no comparison.

Lowest Black unemployment rate

“Achieved the lowest African American unemployment rate, the lowest ever.”

— Trump, in remarks to Black American business leaders, June 26

The current Black unemployment statistic has been in existence for about 50 years. It fell to 5.3 percent for two months in 2019 during Trump’s presidency before rising to 6.1 percent in February 2020 — and then of course soared above 15 percent during the pandemic.

Trump keeps talking about this “lowest ever” achievement but the Biden-Harris administration topped his brief record. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the Black unemployment rate reached a new low of 4.8 percent in April 2023. The unemployment rate was lower or matched Trump’s 5.3 percent for a total of five months under Biden. As of August, the rate is 6.1 percent.

Passed VA Choice

“In my first term, I gave the VA Choice and made it permanent. You know, VA Choice, when you don’t have a doctor, you go, and you go outside. I mean, people were waiting for four months, for five months. You people probably know it. You have friends that know it very well. They go in for something that was not a big deal, and they’d end up being terminally ill because they couldn’t get to see a doctor. So, I created and have VA Choice. They’d been wanting to do it for 57 years. I got it done, passed in Congress.”

— Trump, remarks to National Guard Association Conference in Detroit, Aug, 26

This was a favorite claim during Trump’s presidency — he said it more than 200 times, according to our database of Trump’s false and misleading claims — but he actually signed the MISSION Act, which was a modest update of the VA Choice law passed by Obama in 2014. The Obama legislation expanded veterans’ ability to go to private doctors.

In 2020, our colleague Ashley Parker documented how this falsehood took root, using it as an example of Trump’s method. “The president’s handling of the VA Choice legislation offers a crystalline window into the anatomy of a Trump lie: the initial false claim, the subsequent embellishment and gilding, the incessant repetition and the clear evidence that he knows the truth but chooses to keep telling the falsehood — all enabled by aides either unwilling or unable to rein him in,” she wrote.

It’s four years later, and Trump is still trying to claim credit for Obama’s achievement.

Saved the auto industry

“When I came into office, the auto industry was on its knees, gasping its last breaths after eight long years of Obama and Biden … It is no exaggeration to state the Trump presidency and the deftly used and applied Trump tariffs and taxes saved the American auto industry from extinction time and time again.”

— Trump, remarks at a campaign rally in Clinton Township, Mich., Sept. 27, 2023

Yet another false claim. During the 2008-2009 Great Recession, Obama (and George W. Bush before him) saved the auto industry with significant interventions. Obama’s Treasury Department, for instance, organized taxpayer-financed reorganizations of General Motors and Chrysler. The auto industry was in good shape when Trump took office in 2017.

Auto retail jobs under Trump declined 77,000 from February 2017 to February 2021, according to the BLS. Auto and auto parts manufacturing jobs saw a slight increase — 2,500 jobs — in the same period. If one looks at job creation before the pandemic tanked the economy, there were 61,000 new auto manufacturing jobs and 38,000 auto retail jobs under Trump though February 2020.

But compare that to Obama’s record: a gain of 238,000 auto manufacturing jobs and 332,000 auto retail jobs. That’s a total of 570,000 jobs — more than five times more than Trump’s pre-pandemic number. Under Biden, auto manufacturing jobs have risen 125,000 and auto retail jobs 146,000 — almost three times more than Trump’s pre-pandemic number. (In a speech on Tuesday in Savannah, Ga., Trump falsely said “our auto industry has been decimated.”)

As for Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum helping the auto industry, that’s wrong too. Automakers reported that Trump’s tariffs cost hundreds of millions of dollars in profits and led to job losses and plant closings.

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