President-elect Donald Trump delivered unscheduled remarks at his Mar-a-Lago estate Monday, where, among other things, he told reporters he’d consider pardoning New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“Yeah, I would,” Trump told reporters when asked if he was open to the possibility. “I think that he was treated pretty unfairly.”
“It seems like being upgraded on an airplane many years ago,” he added, apparently alluding to Adams having allegedly gone on numerous free luxury trips paid for by the Turkish government.
“I know probably everybody here’s been upgraded,” Trump continued, pointing at people in the audience. “They see you’re all stars, and they say, ‘I want to upgrade that person from NBC, I’m gonna upgrade him.’ And that would mean you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.”
Trump conceded that he “doesn’t know” all of the facts in the case. He then speculated that perhaps Adams was targeted because “he essentially went against what was happening with the migrants coming in.”
Federal prosecutors indicted Adams earlier this year over allegations he accepted bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals in exchange for various political favors.
Democracy In The Balance
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Instead of disclosing gifts he’d received from foreign governments, prosecutors say Adams also falsified documents to suggest he’d paid for them.
Adams, a former New York Police Department captain, faces five counts for what prosecutors described as a decade-long trail of crimes including conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery charges.
The mayor has called the charges “entirely false, based on lies.”