Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
Share
Opinion

NYC Mayor Adams’ true offense is that he crossed Biden

Share
Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
Share

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged New York City Mayor Eric Adams with five federal charges, including wire fraud, conspiracy and campaign finance violations, and alleges that Adams accepted bribes from foreign government officials. Mayor Adams pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his legal defense team said that there is no credible evidence for any of those charges.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten shares why he believes that the charges against Mayor Adams are politically motivated, and how he says this fits into a larger picture of selective accountability.


Be the first to know when Ben Weingarten publishes a new opinion! Download the Straight Arrow News app and enable push notifications today!


The following is an excerpt from the above video:

[New York City Mayor Eric Adams] may well be corrupt and guilty of the alleged offenses just brought against him in an indictment, but color me skeptical that that indictment was brought on the merits, rather than as a form of political payback from our brave new lawfare apparatus.

Set aside, for a moment, the number of politicians who walk into office poor and leave rich; who suddenly become the best stock market traders you’ve ever seen; who snag incredible real estate deals; who seem to get awfully close to foreign governments and then later lobby for them; and whose family members and friends land plum jobs and contracts, yet all of whom never get investigated, let alone prosecuted. There’s one defining feature marking the prosecutions of high-profile Democrats during the Biden years. It’s that they crossed our ruling regime.

Judging by the crime, dirtiness and madness plaguing New York streets, Democrat Eric Adams has not done a good job as mayor. He may well be corrupt and guilty of the alleged offenses just brought against him in an indictment, but cover me skeptical that that indictment was brought on the merits rather than as a form of political payback from our brave new lawfare apparatus set aside for a moment the number of politicians who walk into Office poor and leave Rich, who suddenly become the best stock market traders you’ve ever seen, who snag incredible real estate deals, who seem to get awfully close to foreign governments and then later lobby on their behalf, and whose family members and friends land plumb jobs and contracts, yet, all of whom never get investigated, let alone prosecuted. There’s one defining feature marking the prosecutions of high profile Democrats during the Biden years. It’s that they crossed our ruling regime. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, prosecution was a successor to the DOJ has failed prosecution under the Obama Biden administration. Menendez has always been seen as a corrupt politician and based on the charges to which he was found guilty, compromised by foreign powers, no small thing when talking about a man who chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but Menendez legal trials and tribulations followed his public opposition, his point by point demolition in 2015 of then President Obama’s chief foreign policy item, the Iran nuclear deal, Menendez reprised his role in opposition to the Biden Harris administration’s effort to revive the Iran nuclear deal, panning the administration in 2022 over its enforcement of a quote, sanctions regime that now leaks like a sieve and indirectly blamed it for Iran’s booming oil trade with adversaries like China and Leaving of Americans and our allies defenseless in the face of Iran’s aggression, a return to the 2015 nuclear deal was not around the corner, and it is not in the US strategic interest, he said. Then a year later, he found himself under indictment. Democrat member Henry Clare of Texas comes from a border district described in roll call as one of the most conservative House Democrats and a pro life Democrat, he says the last one in Congress in March 2021 clay are condemned Biden’s so called humane approach to immigration, which Clair said is actually feeding the narrative that the bad guys are twisting to get people over no ifs, no buts, while backing Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to combat illegal immigration. He defended the conduct of border patrol agents when they were under fire from the left later in 2022 he said President Biden’s border policy consisted of, quote, just letting everybody in. He also said the border is not closed and that there’s got to be repercussions, otherwise they’ll keep coming. That year, Claire at his home raided by the FBI just several weeks out from early voting in a razor thin primary race against a progressive competitor, two years later, Now, prior to the 2024 election, he’s indicted on foreign corruption charges. Claire disputes them and also believes the charges were brought to damage him politically and because he is a conservative Democrat. And then there’s Mayor Adams. The charges brought against Adams are piddling relative to say what the Biden family’s international influence peddling scheme entailed, or even the hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer dollars, Adams’ predecessor’s wife seems to have made disappear, as my colleague Mark Hemingway tweeted in response to the headline number that Adams allegedly received over ten million in matching funds, a SMT of which came from straw donors, and that he traded 10s of 1000s of dollars worth of unreported gifts from Turkish Government and greased the skids for a related permit. Quote, too bad Adams wasn’t smart enough to let his son take all the foreign bribes. The DOJ is incapable of figuring out that scheme. These seemingly trumped up charges, albeit concerning a foreign power, which is more than disturbing, were brought against Adams after he, too had been critical of the Biden administration’s immigration policy, saying back in 2023 the influx of asylum seekers the city was supporting to the tune of billions of dollars, quote, will destroy New York City. CNN, in September of that year, reported that the relationship between Biden and Adams over immigration began breaking down in private months earlier, with Adams panning the administration during a meeting with Biden aides in the Chief of Staff’s office. Beyond the sniping is a creeping fear among white house and New York officials that the failure to find solutions and tamp down concerns around immigration could blow up into a major political problem for Democrats heading into 2024 CNN reported in November 2023 the day the FBI raided the home of his former chief fundraiser. Adams was scheduled to be in Washington, DC, meeting with senior White House officials regarding the immigration crisis the administration had created and that he criticized. Adams suddenly canceled that trip. Are we supposed to believe it’s a coincidence? Adams doesn’t, or at least wants to message he doesn’t, releasing a video following the unsealing of the indictment, noting that quote, despite our pleas when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics. Now, again, all of these figures may have. Committed, the crime is alleged, and they may deserve to go down for them, but an awful lot of Democrats alleged have engaged in equally, if not far worse, behavior, have toed the party line and never faced prosecution. The ones who step out of line seem to incur the wrath of the regime to face, perhaps selective prosecution, particularly if they’re insufficiently progressive and radical. That’s not justice, that’s politics. You.

More from Ben Weingarten