We will have to wait until prosecutors present their evidence before judging whether New York City Mayor Eric Adams is guilty of the corruption for which he was indicted on Sept. 25.
But we don’t have to wait to wonder whether the charges were politically motivated. That the justice system has been suborned and is now a militant wing of the Democratic Party is suspected by Republicans, conservatives, and increasing numbers of independents.
There is good reason, for there is a clear pattern.
What was once referred to unironically as “the majesty of the law” is being turned by state and federal prosecutors against political opponents, whether they be Republicans or merely Democrats who have stepped out of line.
Most notoriously, Donald Trump was swamped with charges after President Joe Biden let it be known he wanted his political opponent, the former president, prosecuted.
The sole conviction secured against Trump so far has been by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who ran for election on the promise to nail Trump and had to invent crimes and present them to a court presided over by a wildly biased judge and a jury drawn from a pool that in 2020 voted 86.7% for Biden.
And what of recent indictments brought against Democrats who, perhaps not merely coincidentally, have dared to challenge their party’s leaders and policies?
Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) in September 2022 broke from Biden on immigration and flatly contradicted the administration’s claim that the border with Mexico was secure. “They’re just not on the same page where they say the border is closed,” said Cuellar. “It’s not closed.”
Cuellar was one of an increasing number of Democrats no longer prepared to look ridiculous by pretending the administration’s policies were anything other than shambolic and duplicitous. By speaking out, Cuellar stoked national bipartisan anger. And it followed that in May this year he and his wife were charged with taking $600,000 in bribes, a charge he denies.
Likewise, then-Sen. Bob Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who has been at odds with Biden on Iran and illegal immigration, was indicted for bribery a year ago. That’s not to say he is innocent; he has been widely regarded as corrupt for many years. But the timing is suspicious. Obviously corrupt people favored by powerful Democrats get away with it until their patrons lose power — just as Hunter Biden.
Which brings us back to Adams. More than any other Democrat, it was Adams who put Biden and Kamala Harris on the defensive for the fiasco of their open border. As a high-profile blue party pol who runs one of the most important cities in America, he set the precedent among Democrats who have to deal with the debacle created by Biden and Harris.
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“The national government has turned its back on New York City,” he said. You can’t point the finger of blame more directly than that. Adams has had to spend billions of dollars of New York’s money to deal with migrants who would not be there if the federal government were doing its job.
The Democratic machine doesn’t like that kind of talk. Adams has been on the outs ever since. Maybe he is corrupt. He denies it. But maybe he just spoke truth to power.