In September 2024, a series of investigations into Adams’s administration emerged. Adams was indicted on federal charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. Adams pleaded not guilty to the charges. He alleged that the charges were retaliation for opposing the Biden administration‘s handling of the migrant crisis. In February 2025, the Department of Justice in the Donald Trump administration instructed federal prosecutors to drop charges against Adams. Judge Dale Ho dismissed the case against Adams on April 2, 2025.
In April 2025, Adams announced that he would seek re-election as an independent in the 2025 New York City mayoral election. In September, he withdrew his candidacy following flagging poll numbers.[3]
Eric Leroy Adams was born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on September 1, 1960.[4] He was the fourth of six children.[5] His mother, Dorothy Mae Adams-Streeter (1938–2021),[6][7] worked double shifts as a housecleaner and had received only a third-grade education.[8] His father, Leroy Adams, was a butcher who struggled with alcoholism.[9][10] Both of his parents moved to New York City from Alabama in the 1950s.[10] Adams was raised in a rat-infested tenement in Bushwick, Brooklyn. His family was so poor that he often brought a bag of clothes to school with him in case of a sudden eviction from his home.[5] As a young boy, he sometimes earned money as a squeegee boy.[5] By 1968, his mother managed to save up enough money to buy a house and move the family to South Jamaica, Queens.[10]
At age 14, Adams joined a gang, the 7-Crowns, and became known as “a tough little guy”.[10] He would hold money for local hustlers. He also ran errands, including purchasing groceries, for a dancer and part-time prostitute named Micki after she became injured.[10] After Micki refused to pay for the groceries he purchased or his work, Adams and his brother stole her TV and a money order. The two were later arrested for criminal trespassing.[10] While in police custody, they were allegedly beaten by NYPD officers until another cop intervened. Adams was sent to a juvenile detention center for a few days before being sentenced to probation.[10] Adams had post-traumatic stress disorder after the incident and has said that the violent encounter motivated him to enter law enforcement. He was particularly intrigued by black police officers and by the “swagger” and “respect” that comes with being in law enforcement.[10]Herbert Daughtry of The House of the Lord Pentecostal Church added to his motivation when he suggested that by joining the police force, he could aid in reforming police culture from within. Adams would later attend his church on occasion.[11][12]
Adams started in the New York City Transit Police and continued with the NYPD when the transit police and the NYPD merged.[23] He worked in the 6th Precinct in Greenwich Village, the 94th Precinct in Greenpoint, and the 88th Precinct covering Fort Greene and Clinton Hill. In 1986, white police officers raised their guns at Adams when he was working as a plainclothes officer; he was mistaken for a suspect.[10] During the 1990s, Adams served as president of the Grand Council of Guardians, an African American patrolmen’s association.[24]
Adams worked with the Nation of Islam in the 1990s because of their work in patrolling crime-ridden housing projects.[10] Adams met with their leader Louis Farrakhan and appeared on stage with him at an event. Adams also suggested that Mayor David Dinkins meet with Farrakhan and hire the Nation of Islam’s security company to patrol housing projects. Adams’s ties to Farrakhan—who has made antisemitic comments—received criticism in the New York Post.[10]
In 1995, Adams served as an escort for Mike Tyson when he was released from jail following his rape conviction.[25] That same year, in response to Rudy Giuliani‘s election as Mayor, he co-founded 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an advocacy group for black police officers that sought criminal justice reform and often spoke out against police brutality and racial profiling.[26][27] The group also held tutorials that taught black male youth how to deal with the police if they are detained, which included turning on the car’s dome light, putting their hands on the wheel and deescalating the situation. However, many activists, including Al Sharpton, criticized Adams’s efforts, claiming that he was merely teaching young black people how to “live under oppression.”[10][28]
In 2006, Adams was put under surveillance and investigated by the NYPD for appearing on television in his official capacity as a police officer and critiquing Mayor Michael Bloomberg.[25]Internal Affairs Bureau of the NYPD opened an investigation into this and charged Adams with disseminating misinformation, divulging official police business, and speaking as a representative of the department without permission. He retired from the police force with the rank of captain shortly after being found guilty for speaking in an official capacity.[29]
In the 1990s, Adams began to eye a political career with the ultimate goal of becoming the Mayor of New York City. He spoke to William Lynch Jr., who was an advisor to Mayor David Dinkins, about a political career.[5] Lynch encouraged Adams first to obtain a bachelor’s degree, rise within the NYPD’s ranks and successfully run for a lower political office.[5]
During the 1993 mayoral election, Adams, a supporter of the incumbent David Dinkins, made a controversial comment about a candidate for New York State Comptroller, Herman Badillo. Adams said that if Badillo—who was Puerto Rican—were concerned about the Hispanic community, he would have married a Hispanic woman and not a white Jewish woman.[30] These comments became a point of turmoil in the election. They caused controversy for Dinkins, who ultimately lost the election.[25]
In 1994, Adams ran for Congress against incumbent Major Owens in the Democratic primary for New York’s 11th congressional district, condemning Owens for denouncing Louis Farrakhan,[27] but failed to receive enough valid signatures to make the ballot.[31] Adams claimed his petition signatures had been stolen by someone on behalf of Owens, but police found no corroborating evidence.[5][25]
Adams registered as a Republican in 1997 before switching back to the Democratic Party in 2001, according to the Board of Elections.[27] Adams has said his switch to the Republican Party was a protest move against what he saw as failed Democratic leadership.[5]
He placed billboards around parts of Brooklyn bemoaning pants sagging.[5] He also published an instructional video to teach parents how to search their child’s room for contraband. In the demonstration, Adams finds a crack pipe in a backpack, bullets behind a picture frame, and marijuana secreted inside of a doll.[5] As a freshman state senator in 2007, he joined other legislators requesting a pay raise for New York’s lawmakers, who had not received a raise since 1999. At the time, they ranked third-highest in pay among state lawmakers in the United States.[33][34] During his speech on the floor supporting a pay raise for legislators, he said, “Show me the money.”[5]
In 2009, two New York State Senate Democrats aligned with Republicans, creating a standoff over who would be the Senate’s next leader.[5] Adams worked to foster a compromise to nominate John L. Sampson as the Minority Leader of the New York State Senate.[5] That same year, Adams was one of 24 state senators to vote in favor of marriage equality in New York State.[35] He spoke in support of the freedom to marry during the debate before the vote.[35] After the bill failed to become law, he again voted to legalize same-sex marriage in New York in 2011. On July 24, 2011, New York’s Marriage Equality Act came into effect.[36]
In 2010, Adams became Chair of the Senate Racing and Wagering Committee and was praised for his engagement. He would spend hours traveling and visiting racetracks to study the issue further.[5] He came under investigation for his handling of choosing an operator to run the gambling operation at the Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens. A report conducted by the state inspector general was critical of Adams’s judgment as he leaked information on the bidding process, fundraised from potential bidders, and attended the victory celebration of the company awarded the contract.[5][25] The matter was referred to the United States Department of Justice, but it took no action.[37] Adams admitted no wrongdoing, calling the report a “political hit piece”.[25][38]
In February 2010, Adams was one of just eight members of the New York Senate who voted not to expel Senator Hiram Monserrate from the legislature after he was convicted of assault for dragging his girlfriend down a hallway and slashing her face with a piece of glass.[5]
Adams was a vocal opponent of the NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policy, which predominantly affected young black and Latino men, and which, in 2000, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said constituted racial profiling.[39] In 2011, he supported calling for a federal investigation into stop-and-frisk practices.[39] He championed a bill to stop the NYPD from gathering data about individuals who had been stopped but not charged.[40]
In 2012, Adams served as co-chair of New York’s State Legislators Against Illegal Guns.[41][42] Adams and five other state lawmakers wore hooded sweatshirts in the legislative chamber on March 12, 2012, in protest of the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a Florida teen who was killed by another civilian, George Zimmerman.[43][44]
On November 5, 2013, Adams was elected Brooklyn Borough President with 90.8 percent of the vote, more than any other candidate for borough president in New York City that year.[45] In 2017, he was elected with 83.0 percent of the vote.[46] In both of his campaigns, he was unopposed in the Democratic primaries.[47]
Under the New York City Charter, borough presidents must submit Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) recommendations on certain uses of land throughout their borough.[48][49] Adams used his ULURP recommendations to propose additional permanently affordable housing units in the rezoning of East New York; the relocation of municipal government agencies to East New York to reduce density in Downtown Brooklyn and create jobs for community residents; and the redevelopment of 25 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg as manufacturing space, with increased property taxes directed to the acquisition of the remaining proposed sections of Bushwick Inlet Park and their development as a community resource.[50][51]
Based on a report prepared by the Independent Budget Office of New York City (IBO) at his request, Adams urged the City University of New York (CUNY) system to explore reinstating free tuition for two-year community colleges, which could improve graduation rates and lead to increased earnings potential and taxpayer contribution, as well as expand access to higher education.[52] Adams advocated for making two-year CUNY colleges free.[53]
Adams introduced a bill in the New York City Council that would require all municipal buildings providing services to the public to have lactation rooms. The council passed the bill on July 14, 2016.[54]
After Adams received a personal diagnosis of type two diabetes in 2016, he adopted and began advocating for policies that would promote a plant-based diet and healthier lifestyle. The Office of the Brooklyn Borough President launched a plant-based nutrition page on its website with links to resources encouraging vegan and plant-based lifestyles and printable handouts produced by the borough.[55] Adams urged the City Council to pass a resolution called “Ban the Baloney“, aiming for schools across the city to stop serving processed meats. He also avidly supported “Meatless Mondays” in public schools.[56] In 2021, Adams authorized a grant from the borough to SUNY Downstate College of Medicine to establish a plant-based supplemental curriculum.[57]
Adams criticized the use of excessive force in the arrest of Eric Garner, who died after being placed in a chokehold prohibited by NYPD regulations, and the arrest of postal carrier Glen Grays, who was determined not to have committed any crime or infraction.[58][59][60][61] After the 2014 killings of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos, Adams wrote an editorial for the New York Daily News calling on police officers and the community to work with each other to build a relationship of mutual respect.[58]
Following the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, Adams joined the efforts of Brooklyn students by organizing an emergency meeting at Brooklyn Borough Hall and a rally in Prospect Park to demand stricter gun laws.[62] That same month, after a correctional officer endured a beating from six inmates at the George Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island, Adams stood outside the Brooklyn Detention Center to express his support to reinstate solitary confinement in prisons.[63]
In 2014, Adams established the One Brooklyn Fund, a nonprofit organization for community programs, grant writing, and extolling local businesses. Critics characterized it as serving as a conduit for Adams’s public profile and allowing non-campaign “pay to play” contributions from developers and lobbyists.[64] Adams’s office was investigated twice by the city Department of Investigation (DOI) over One Brooklyn’s fundraising. The first investigation was in 2014 when potential attendees were asked if they would provide “financial support” to One Brooklyn. In 2016, the DOI found that Adams’s office had mistakenly licensed the use of Brooklyn Borough Hall for a Mayor’s Office event.[65][66]
Adams had long been mulling a run for New York mayor,[67] and on November 17, 2020, he announced his candidacy for Mayor of New York City in the 2021 election. He was a top fundraiser among Democrats in the race, second only to Raymond McGuire regarding the amount raised.[68]
Adams ran as a moderate Democrat, and his campaign focused on crime and public safety. He has argued against the “defund the police” movement and in favor of police reform.[69][70][71]Public health and the city’s economy were cited as his campaign’s other top priorities.[72] Initiatives promoted in his campaign include “an expanded local tax credit for low-income families, investment in underperforming schools, and improvements to public housing.”[73]
On November 20, 2020, shortly after formally announcing his run for mayor of New York City, Adams attended an indoor fundraiser with 18 people in an Upper West Side restaurant during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing criticism.[74] He held an already scheduled fundraiser the following day in Queens, when a 25-person limit on mass gatherings was in place. Adams’s campaign said that there were eight people at the event and that they were required to wear masks and practice social distancing.[75]
While Adams opposed NYPD’s “stop and frisk” policy, during his State Senate tenure,[39] he supported it during his 2021 mayoral campaign. In February 2020, Adams said that “if you have a police department where you’re saying you can’t stop and question, that is not a responsible form of policing”.[76][77] For much of the race, Adams trailed entrepreneur Andrew Yang in public polling.[78] However, Adams’s standing in the polls grew stronger in May. He emerged as the frontrunner in the final weeks of the election.[79] In the months leading up to the election, crime rose in New York, which may have benefited Adams, a former police officer, who ran as a tough-on-crime candidate.[80]
Adams with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on July 12, 2021
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