Eric Adams has implied that the criminal indictment against him is a result of his criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis.
The Democrat became the first sitting New York Mayor to be federally indicted on Wednesday, almost a year after his phones were seized as part of an investigation into illegal foreign donations.
Responding to the charges, Mr Adams suggested the investigation was the result of the Biden administration unfairly targeting him because of his criticism of the White House for failing to help the city cope with the influx of immigrants crossing the US southern border.
“I have been fighting injustice my entire life”, Mr Adams, 64, said during a video address on Wednesday night.
“That fight has continued as your mayor.
“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.”
More than 210k migrants in New York since 2022
Once close allies, the relationship between Joe Biden and Mr Adams has cooled in recent years as the New York Mayor continued to criticise the president over the migrant crisis.
More than 210,000 migrants have arrived in the Empire State since the spring of 2022.
New York has a legal obligation to provide shelter to anyone who asks, and the influx of migrants, many of which were bussed up to the United States’ most populated city by Texas governor Greg Abbott, pushed the already stretched public system to breaking point.
“Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this,” the mayor said last year.
“This issue will destroy New York City.”
Accusing Mr Biden and New York governor Kathy Hochul of failing to help with the crisis, Mr Adams said last November: “DC has abandoned us, and they need to be paying their cost to this national problem. Don’t yell at me, yell at DC.”
At Thursday’s fiery press conference, Mr Adams suggested the indictment against him is politically-motivated.