In today’s United States, the impartiality of the indictment against New York City Mayor Eric Adams could not possibly be taken for granted. The indictment directly uses misleading language to overstate the magnitude of the allegedly illegal funding Adams received. From paragraph 3 of the indictment:
“Adams and those working at his direction falsely certified compliance with applicable campaign finance regulations despite Adams’s repeated acceptance of straw donations, relying on the concealed nature of these illegal contributions to falsely portray his campaigns as law-abiding. As a result of those false certifications, Adams’s 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds.” [emphasis added]
The language suggests that $10,000,000 of public funds were illegal, but that is not what the indictment actually alleges. Some background: only the first $250 of a political contribution is matched by the government, tempting some politicians, including, allegedly Adams, to attribute a large donation to a number of fake donors, using small donations below the $250 limit in order for it all to be matched.
