Mayor Eric Adams is buried underneath a rising mountain of unpaid authorized payments he racked up throughout a historic bribery case — as donors to his protection fund fully disappear.
Hizzoner has an unpaid tab of greater than $3 million for his combat towards federal corruption prices, along with his high-profile lawyer Alex Spiro billing him almost $2.3 million, in response to his newest public submitting.
However Spiro’s regulation agency has but to cost Adams for illustration this yr, which might add a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} to his rising debt. Quinn Emanuel charged the mayor about $775,000 within the final three months of 2024.
On the identical time, the fund failed to gather a single donation this yr.
A federal choose signed off on the dismissal of the case introduced by the Southern District of New York in early April after a controversial order from the Trump DOJ, which sparked an exodus of prosecutors, together with the interim head of the Decrease Manhattan workplace.
The delay in dismissal and historic low polling numbers for an incumbent mayor led to Adams pivoting from the Democratic main and setting his sights on the November basic election as an impartial.
Whereas the political probabilities for a third-party victory are slim, it provides the mayor months of potential relevance within the public eye to boost cash.
Adams additionally owes the regulation agency of his former chief counsel, Brendan McGuire, greater than $2 million and his protection fund supervisor, Vito Pita, almost $100,000, in response to the quarterly submitting with the Battle of Curiosity Board launched late Tuesday.
Adams’ marketing campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro performed down the abysmal submitting, saying, “The mayor is exploring all acceptable avenues to handle the debt with out compromising his duties to town.
“With the recent dismissal of charges, he is now focused on restoring public trust and ensuring that all obligations, including legal expenses, are met in a transparent and ethical manner,” he added.
Adams’ marketing campaign has confronted the same hurdle over current months with donations drying up as supporters seemingly noticed little likelihood that he might be re-elected, however he nonetheless has greater than $3 million in his struggle chest.
