President-elect Donald Trump indicated he would consider issuing a pardon to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, who was indicted on corruption charges in September.
At a press conference on Monday, Trump – one all too familiar with federal indictments – said he believed Adams was “treated pretty unfairly” and “would” issue a pardon if he reviewed the indictment.
“Now I haven’t seen the gravity of it all but it seems like being upgraded in an airplane many years ago,” Trump said – a reference to the upgraded flights that Adams allegedly took as a form of bribery.
Federal prosecutors allege Adams accepted travel benefits from Turkish officials over the years in exchange for wielding his power for favors. Additionally, they accused Adams of participating in a straw donor scheme.
Adams has denied all wrongdoing and indicated he believes he was indicted for political reasons – a claim Trump has made as well.
He has recently cozied up to Trump by publicly praising his immigration agenda.
Both Adams and Trump have taken a harsher stance on migrants crossing the border and being sent to New York City. Adams has complained about so-called migrant crime in the city since buses from the southern border began bringing more than 100,000 into Manhattan.
Adams has complained about the lack of federal resources to assist in the influx of migrants and last week the mayor even met with Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan.
As a result, Trump said he believed Adams was unfairly targeted for taking a more conservative stance on immigration.
“I think he was treated – you know it’s very interesting, when he essentially went against what is happening with the migrants coming in and he made some pretty strong statements,” Trump said.
“I said, ‘You know what, he’ll be indicted soon’. I said it, not as a prediction a little bit lightheartedly, but I said it. I said ‘he’s going to be indicted’ and a few months later he got indicted,” the president-elect added.
Trump is sensitive to federal indictments given he was federally indicted twice last year, once for allegedly unlawfully retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home and another time for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
When Trump becomes president on January 20, he will obtain the power to pardon people. During his first term, Trump used the power to pardon his close associates.
So far, Trump has promised to pardon the January 6 rioters who were charged with crimes for their actions that day.
