Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club Demands Mayor Adams Pay for Own Defense

Clarification: The Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club's position is that Mayor Eric Adams must resign immediately. This has been our demand since the moment of his indictment. We regret any confusion caused by not including this demand in the release below about protecting taxpayer funds from going to Adams' defense.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Allen Roskoff, (917) 553-7180, aroskoff@mac.com

The Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club demands that Mayor Eric Adams pay for his own defense and no taxpayer money be allocated to his outside defense counsel. New Yorkers should not be charged a single dime to defend this mayor against federal criminal charges relating to corrupt personal actions.

The New York City Council must use all available levers of power to prevent taxpayer dollars from defending Mayor Adams, while the Comptroller must work within the bounds of the office to cancel corporation counsel contracts with outside defense counsel or cease such payments. All candidates for the mayorality or any future acting mayor must publicly commit to demanding corporation counsel stop paying for the mayor’s defense with taxpayer funds given the nature of these serious criminal charges. 

Mayor Adams is relying on Trumpian language and MAGA rationale to confuse New Yorkers about incredibly serious allegations of felony crimes. Adams baselessly accused all entities involved in the investigation, which include the FBI, DOJ, Southern District of New York and his own Dept. of Investigation, of pursuing him for political purposes. This is self-refuting nonsense.

We face an existential election in November, and the mayor is spreading misinformation that helps Donald Trump. The mayor’s words and actions demonstrate that he cares nothing for his city or his country.

The JOLDC endorsed Maya Wiley in the 2021 mayoral primary and refused to endorse Adams in the general election. Adams has failed all New Yorkers and the LGBTQ+ community specifically by appointing well-known bigots to serve in his administration. We stand by our decision and are unsurprised by this week’s events.

This is a sad day for New Yorkers. We must turn a new page for our city.

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