Public Advocate Jumaane Williams slams Mayor Adams’s Trump quid pro quo assist

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
Mayor Eric Adams may have parlayed his way to a Presidential push to have the DOJ drop the five federal charges in the felony bribery and corruption indictments. It would mean the end of the months-long investigation, and no re-election campaign interrupting April trial.
“This is obscene and obvious – the White House doesn’t want to lose their deputy in New York City,” slammed Public Advocate Williams.

Technically, the Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon may still reject Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s order to drop the case against Adams. Bove, who was Donald Trump’s former personal criminal attorney, said, “The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.”

Immigration advocates said that Adams is in “Trump’s back pocket,” and they are concerned about how far Adams will go along with his administration.

Public Advocate Williams said, “According to the Department of Justice’s recent directive, Mayor Adams adopted a strategy of selling out marginalized New Yorkers and our city’s values to avoid personal and legal accountability. Well, it worked. I hope it was worth it.”

Reiterating the irony, Williams noted, “The mayor said he wanted his day in court, but instead sidestepped that system using the privilege and power that so few people have access to…He owes New Yorkers what he has refused to demonstrate to date: honesty, transparency, humility, and some assurance that he can make up for the many bad decisions that got us here. But he knows what we all know – the person he really owes, a fealty that should anger and worry us all, is Donald Trump, and the worst of his policies.”

Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, called it a “quid pro quo” arrangement, where the charges can be reinstated if Adams does not go along with Trump’s immigration plan, so has to walk in step” with him, even though he has shown concerning attitudes towards the most economically and socially vulnerable.

In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Mayor Adams blamed “the most difficult 15 months of my life” on “sensational and false claims… I never broke the law, and I never would. I would never put any personal benefit above my solemn responsibility as your mayor.”

He loudly proclaimed, “I never asked anyone to break the law on my behalf or on behalf of my campaign, never. And I absolutely never traded my power as an elected official for any personal benefit. No witness ever came forward publicly to make claims against me. None of the baseless threats from prosecutors of new charges and new evidence ever materialized. And this case will no longer continue.”

Not addressing the charges specifically. Instead, Adams bragged, “We have achieved record drops in crime, record increases in affordable housing, and the highest number of jobs in New York City history…double-digit drops in shootings, homicides, and subway crimes. The most new housing built in a three-year period ever, and the most jobs ever.

We moved more than 185,000 migrants through our system and out of our care…We put thousands of new police officers on our streets and in our subways, and we connected thousands struggling with mental illness to services.”

Black Law Enforcement Alliance PR director retired detective Marquez Claxton told Our Time Press, “The allegations were ALL before elected Mayor, and there was no direct evidence against him except when he went to Turkey he got airline and hotel upgrades. They then tried to make him calling the Fire Chief to get their building inspection expedited – a crime.

“Eric has a history of being targeted and accused, but never selling out…In the Senate, they had the corruption whisper campaign against him, too. John Sampson, Malcolm Smith, William Scarborough, Shirley Huntley were all charged and went to prison, and Eric moved to borough president.”

Far from begging Trump for anything, Claxton said Adams is “playing his version of chess. It’s not in him to be subservient to anyone. He made the City grow under Black and woman-centered leadership.”

Williams remains unimpressed, telling Our Time Press, “You only need one of the five senses to recognize that the mayor is compromised, and now he’s making decisions right now, which in my opinion are pretty harmful to our city. It seems he’s more of an assistant to Donald Trump as opposed to the mayor of New York City.

“What we need right now is leadership to guide New York City through a time period that is going to be rough–people are afraid, not someone who is going to abuse those fears to cause more harm to come to us… There are so many things that we have to face that deal with crime, homelessness, mental health.

“We need to have people who have the courage to put in plans that actually deal with the root causes of these issues.”
Last week, it was revealed that the Mayor had been under anesthesia during an undisclosed January colonoscopy.

“I think he may have been able to use the colonoscopy situation as a way to encourage other people to get it, but that is a personal decision,” Williams told the paper. “This administration has a history of trying to figure out how far they can bend the rule or even break one–and this was a continuation of that.

“It wasn’t for me about trying to see if I could be mayor for an hour or 30 minutes. It’s about communication because there is a line of succession that the [City] Charter calls for, that if the mayor is sick enough that he cannot do his duties, such as being under anesthesia, technically I was acting mayor for about an hour or so, which didn’t really mean that much because you can confer the powers to the first deputy, which he did. But, the Executive Order cannot override the City Charter, and we have a Mayor who does not understand that.

“This is who they are. They don’t like transparency. They don’t like accountability. They try to see how far they can push the envelope. This is how the Mayor has conducted business for the last three and a half years. That’s been a part of the problem.”

Brooklyn’s Jamell Henderson, NYC Regional Board Chair of Citizen Action NYC, told Our Time Press, “To the people who voted for Eric Adams for mayor, he not only betrayed you, but he chose to stand with the one person who is intentionally targeting the people you love and care for, who are in your communities. On June 24, 2025, millions of New Yorkers will hit the polls like never before to elect a mayor who will get to work and stand for all of us.”