That this indictment was coming and would be Unsealed Today. We expect him to take that podium any moment now, but im going to hand off to jose diazbalart, who picks up our breaking News Coverage right now. Good morning, 11 00 a. M. Eastern, 8 00 a. M. Pacific. All eyes are on new York City where mayor Eric Adams could speak at any moment. Just after Federal Prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with bribery, Wire Fraud, and many other charges. Federal prosecutors are scheduled to hold a News Conference later this hour as well. Were going to, of course, bring you all these remarks when they occur, but youre seeing there that dais has been set up right outside where were going to be hearing from the mayor of new York City any moment now. Adams is the first mayor in modern new York City history to be charged while in office. The indictment was unsealed hours after the Mayors Attorney said Fbi Agents went to the mayors residence, Gracy Mansion, to take the mayors phone. With us now, nbc News Correspondent Rahema ellis, katherine, Chuck Rosenberg, a former u. S. Attorney and senior fbi official. He is an msnbc legal analyst. And frank figliuzzi, former Fbi Assistant director for counterintelligence and an Msnbc National Security analyst. Were expecting the mayor any minute now. When he comes to speak, we will go to that, but what more do we know about the allegations against the mayor . Reporter lets talk about what you mentioned, jose, that it is a fivecount indictment on 56 pages. The counts are a count one conspiracy to commit Wire Fraud, federal Program Bribery and receive Campaign Contributions by foreign nationals. Count two, Wire Fraud. Count three and four, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national. Count five, bribery. And going through some of this, one of the things thats hit me when reading this 57page Indictment of which i have not gotten through all of it, but something pointed here that the mayor received, it says, some 10 Million in matching public funds for his 2021 mayoral campaign. They say that that was fraudulently received because they were using something called a nominal donor. This was coming from foreign nationals, people who were not supposed to be submitting Campaign Contributions to an american political campaign. And that the mayors office, that they disguised it. They did not reveal exactly where that money was coming from. It was as if it were coming from american donors, and it brought him up to a particular level of donations where he could receive public Matching Funds in the tune of some 10 Million. A significant amount of money. It should be mentioned, too, that the mayor has repeatedly said, despite all of the allegations swirling around his top members in his administration, that he has said that nothing is wrong. Hes going to conduct business as usual. He said last night that theres no way that hes going to resign. Hes going to continue doing the job of mayor of the city of new york, despite what was happening around the campaign. One of his Campaign Finance persons, who had her home searched last year, devices were taken from her home. Her phone was taken. The mayor even, at one point, was stopped in The Street. His car was stopped, and federal authorities went into the mayors car, taking devices from him, as well as his phone, and a number of people have been mentioned as part of a broad corruption investigation, a broad probe around the mayor. The former Police Commissioner the Police Commissioner had his phone taken and just recently, he resigned, so, so many things in this 56page Indictment of which i know you have people sitting with you, jose, who are going to help in sifting through all of it, but this comes ive talked to some people on The Street in terms of reaction. People have said they are disappointed, but No One i spoke to said they were surprised to hear that these charges have now come against the mayor, because there has been so much in terms of a drip, drip of allegations swirling around his top aides. Jose . So much here to go through, and chuck, i mean, 57page Indictment. What are some of the most serious charges against the mayor here . Well, theyre all serious in a sense, jose, as you can imagine. Theyre all felonies. And theyre all federal charges, so but there are gradations. I think its a fair question. Theres a couple of interesting points, i think, to make. One is, the investigation to raheemas reporting and the reporting of others, seems to be ongoing. My understanding is that the fbi had another Search Warrant this morning to seize another phone of the mayor, which tells you that more charges are possible, if not probable. And other defendants may well be named. Now, some of thats just informed speculation and time will tell, but the charges that strike me as most serious, obviously, as someone who prosecuted public Corruption Cases, jose, are the Bribery Charges. Now, theyre hard charges to prove. You have to show that someone took money in exchange for an official action. But assuming that the government can prove it, the selling of ones public office is an extraordinarily serious crime. I know mayor adams has denied it. People often do deny charges at this stage. Many of those folks who deny charges often end up convicted. We shall see. But the Bribery Charges strike me as moe mentous. Im going to check on page three when they outline the different charges and what they mean. Theres one the way it was worded was that he according to the to this document, again, the mayor has said he is completely not guilty of everything, but once he started receiving payments by Turkey And Turkish officials and governmentconnected Business People, adams then was asked, specifically, to facilitate inspection in time for a Highprofile Visit by Turkish President at the time, and im quoting here, the building failed an fdny inspection. And this is the wording thats interesting, chuck. It says, in exchange for free travel and other travelrelated bribes in 2021 and 2022 arranged by the turkish official, adams did as instructed. It seems that theres a very close tie here, and as we see some movement coming that right side outside there in new York City, chuck, theres a very clear you know what . Let me just take a pause and lets go to these live pictures in new York City as we await the arrival of the mayor. But chuck, theres very clear wording to tie those payments or those gifts by turkish officials to essentially bribes, in exchange for free travel and other travelrelated issues, adams did as instructed. Thats right, jose. So, a nexus between what he received chuck versus the value of what he did. Chuck, let me interrupt you. Im so sorry. Heres the mayor of new york. This is not a black thing. This is a you thing. This is a you thing, Eric Adams. This is not a black thing. Your policies are antiblack. Youre a disgrace for all black people in this city. The things that you have done are unconscionable. Our children are harassed by police. This is ridiculous. This is ridiculous. You can shush me all you want, but the people are with us. This is not a black thing. This is a justice thing. First of all, i want to thank you for being here this morning, and i want to thank the supporters of all ethnic groups that i hear, particularly the men and women of the clergy thats here that have joined me here today. And we are not surprised. We expected this. This is not surprising to us at all. The actions that have unfolded over the last ten months, the leaks, the commentary, the demonizing, this did not surprise us that we reached this day. And i asked New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments. In about 30 minutes, youre going hear a story of the case that is in front of us. The story will come from the Federal Prosecutors. And i ask to wait and hear our side to this narrative. From here, my attorneys will take care of the case so i can take care of the city. My daytoday will not change. I will continue to do the job for 8. 3 million New Yorkers that i was elected to do. Amen. And the 300,000plus employees of our City Government will continue to do their jobs. Thats right. Because this is what we do as New Yorkers. Its an insult to the hardworking people of this city that anyone would say that they wont do their jobs while this case proceeds in the background. They are dedicated public servants, and i have been one of them for many years. And theyre going to continue to do their job, moving this City Forward every day. Its an unfortunate day, and its a painful day, but inside of all of that, its a day where we will finally reveal why, for ten months, i have gone through this. And i look forward to defending myself and defending the people of this city as ive done throughout my entire professional career. Thats right. I want to now turn it over to the person who started me on this journey, reverend herbert daugherty. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Our our mayor. As we continue to monitor what is going on in new York City, we just heard from the mayor of that city, saying that he is not surprised that why this is happening and why this is happening now. I want to go to tom winter. Tom, this 57page Indictment is filled with details. The mayor was saying that he is not surprised by this indictment. What are some of the most important points in this 57page Indictment . Well, im sure hes not surprised because it was approximately a year ago that he had his phone taken by the fbi when they approached him and his detail, asking for it. And one of the pieces of information thats contained with this indictment, jose, is the idea that the phone the phones that were taken were mostly related to his business. His personal phone was obtained via subpoena, and when it was handed over to the fbi, the password had been changed and the mayor of the city of new york said he didnt know what the new password was. Just one of the efforts they lay out in the course of their indictment, why they think that the mayor was obfuscating the ongoing investigation and the criminal action that was taking place. One of the things i find interesting, and this just comes from my knowledge within City Government, how this all works, the machinations of it, is that the fire commissioner, whos highly respected, somebody who really helped the city through its darkest days after 9 11, had served in the De Blasio administration, he had messaged Eric Adams in august of 2021, basically saying, hey, id still like to serve on in the in my capacity as fire commissioner. He was he was loyal and trustworthy, and adams sent a noncommittal response, and the only other message between the two was an invitation for adams to attend the 9 11 remembrance ceremonies in 2021 as well. The 20th anniversary. Its later that adams starts messaging him, and he starts messaging him about the turkish consulate, which was going through some real challenges. As ive had a chance now to read through about the types of stuff that was uncovered, we had been told that in previous reports, there was serious potential safety concerns with the turkish house, as its referenced. We did not know that there were nearly 60 violations that occurred, and there were issues with the buildings fire alarm. Pretty serious when were talking about a Highrise Building in the city of new york. Another thing, just looking at the this, the Pencil Math here, so i reserve the right to change it, but i dont think im off, its 123,000 in benefits thats laid out in a form of a type of a spreadsheet thats contained within the indictment, and it could be more than that. Its 12,000plus, if youre to add it all up. Its done, they say, that adams benefitted in the form of airline tickets, in the form of discounted Hotel Rooms. Were talking about 2021, turkey solicit and accepted but then canceled, was a free upgrade to Business Class for two on a round trip from new york to turkey. That was going to be 21,000 in discounts that he would have received for that. He flew from to france, turkey, and china, free Business Class tickets for three on a round trip to those places. That was a 41,000 benefit. Including a heavily discounted stay in the bentley suite of the st. Regis istanbul in turkey. So, just to lay out some of the things that Federal Prosecutors allege in their indictment that they uncovered in the course of their investigation, so to put it all together here, this is a relationship that predates adams mayoralship, his run, that clearly he had a longterm relationship with individuals associated with turkey. Theres no indication here, and im still going through it, and obviously, theres a lot of details and a lot of unnamed officials, no indication here of any involvement of the Turkish President , erdogan, but were still going through some of that, and well have to see what other things pop up. It is clear over the course of their relationship, the Federal Prosecutors and the allegations are to be believed here, that there was an extensive relationship, and clearly turkish officials knew that, in exchange for donations, and for gifts and for benefits, Eric Adams was willing to help them out in significant ways. I can tell you that i think the fbi and their recently appointed Assistant Director in charge of the new York Field office, james dennehy, recently with the newark Field Office and now hes back over in new york where he had been in charge of counterintelligence for some time, i think hes going to be very strong and pointed in his remarks at this Press Conference today. I think hes going to specifically point out the fact that not all politicians are corrupt, but when politicians are corrupt, we have to go after these individuals, and thats the type of language i think we can expect here at this Press Conference, slated to begin in about 14 minutes. And tom, thank you for that. Meanwhile, were seeing in new York City there, the mayor with a lot of his allies and his supporters, including some of the earliest of his supporters, theyre speaking. Theres some back and forth with some protesters that are just on the other side of that group of people that are supporting the mayor, but i want to bring in katherine christian, former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney and msnbc legal analyst. Katherine, theres so much here, and tom was referring to some of these trips that the mayor took and whether he was he either paid for them or not, but theres also the issue of im just going to quote from page 11 in order to conceal these valuable flight, hotel, and other benefits, Eric Adams accepted from foreign nationals seeking influence over him, he did not disclose any of these trips in his annual Disclosure Forms, despite a legal requirement to do so. There are a lot of instances outlined in these 57 pages of the mayor doing just that. And all Public Officials in new York City, particularly at the highest level, and mayor adams certainly is, and he was a Brooklyn Borough President and he was a captain in the new York City police department, are required to put annual all of their income, any gifts they receive over a certain amount, to the conflict of interest board. That is a requirement. I also want to say that mayor adams said this is a painful day. It certainly is for the city of new york. We have been saying this morning how a Search Warrant was executed on his residence. That really isnt his residence. That Gracy Mansion is on loan to him. Every mayor whos elected in new York City lives in Gracy Mansion. So, it was extraordinary. Its shocking that a Search Warrant would be executed on Gracy Mansion. So, yes, it is a very painful day for the city of new york. And it also says in the indictment, on that same page, that at all times relevant to this indictment, adams was an elected official, required to file annual Disclosure Forms. So, this indictment covers his periods when he was elected as Brooklyn Borough President through mayor, and its interesting, because the Search Warrant that was executed for his phones last year, when the fbi greeted him, the conduct allegedly continued after that. So, when he says, weve been aware of this, well, if youre aware of that, then you would think the alleged criminal conduct would stop, but apparently, according to this indictment, would stop, and i see the mayor is surrounded by many pillars of the community, the black community, united States Attorney in this case, southern district of northern, Damian Williams is a black man. The targeting, if thats what mayor adams is saying, hes being targeted because hes a black man, well, the united States Attorney for the Southern District Of New York is a black man. Yeah, hes also just essentially bringing in all of the people that have been supportive of him from even his earliest days in public office. And catherine, i want to talk about another thing. Its this whole matching Funds Issue that this indictment goes into some depth about, and im going to go page two, where it says, Eric Adams, the defendant, compounded his gains from the Straw Contributions that he was receiving, which would be essentially fake entities or entities that should not have the right to give those contributions, by using them to defraud new York City and steal public funds. New York City has a matching Funds Program that matches small dollar contributions from individual city residents with up to eight times their amount in public funds to give New Yorkers a greater voice in elections. Adams campaign applied for Matching Funds based on known straw donations, fraudulently obtaining as much as 2,000 in public funds for each illegal contribution. Adams 2021 mayoral campaign received more than 10 Million in public funds. Those