Follow us on social

Lobby Horse

New pal Trump dumps all foreign bribery charges for Mayor Adams

The New York City Democrat was facing indictments for allegedly taking gifts and cash from Turkish nationals — until the president stepped in

Analysis | QiOSK

Enjoy our new column by the Democratizing Foreign Policy team exposing stealth corruption infecting our system — in plain sight.

On Monday, the Trump administration dropped charges of bribery, campaign finance, and conspiracy offenses against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams had allegedly received some $123,000 in travel benefits from Turkish airlines and knowingly accepted tens of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from Turkish nationals.

A triumphant Adams addressed New Yorkers today; “I thank the Justice Department for its honesty. Now we can put this cruel episode behind us and focus on the future of our city.”

The Justice Department memo cited two reasons for this dismissal. First, the Justice Department invoked a fear of weaponization, suggesting that “it cannot be ignored that Mayor Adams criticized the prior administration immigration policies before the charges were filed.” (All of the targets of the most high-profile foreign influence cases of the Biden administration era were Democrats).

Second, Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said the decision was not based on the strength of evidence in the case, but rather it was distracting from law-and-order priorities.

If the mayor of the largest city in America being in the pocket of a foreign government is not a law and order priority, what is?

The memo echoed a series of orders dispatched by Attorney General Pam Bondi last week. Bondi noted that the Justice Department will only bring criminal charges of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) in “instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.” Her Justice Department also disbanded the Foreign Influence Task Force, made up of some 50 FBI agents tasked with uncovering covert plots to meddle in U.S. politics, citing “risks of further weaponization and abuses of prosecutorial discretion.”

Adams is the first to reap the benefits of this policy shift, having spent months auditioning for the Trump administration’s favor. Adams met with Trump in Mar-a-Lago, attended his inauguration, and the two even chatted ringside at a UFC fight at Madison Square Garden. Both maintain they were victims of a weaponized Justice Department; "We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric,” said Trump at a dinner in October.

Following an 11-year sentence for bribery and acting as a foreign agent, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is trying to follow the same playbook. “President Trump is right. This process is political, and it's corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores integrity to the system,” he said outside of a New York courthouse after his conviction in late January.

Menendez had used his role as Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee to benefit the government of Egypt, approving arms sales in exchange for gold bars and luxury cars.

There are several other ongoing cases. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) was indicted for bribery and acting as a foreign agent, receiving some $600,000 in kickbacks from a bank in Mexico City and an oil company controlled by Azerbaijan. Sue Mi Terry allegedly fed non-public U.S. government information to South Korean intelligence while working at various think tanks. An indictment against New York State official Linda Sun alleged that she was given millions of dollars while secretly working for China.

None of these cases have gone to trial, creating an awkward question of how they will proceed amidst the Justice Department’s shift away from FARA enforcement. Caplin & Drysdale’s Matt Sanderson told Politico that “it will be difficult to sustain an ongoing case that does not involve espionage-type behavior.”

One thing is for sure, though. If Trump’s first moves are any indication, it is open season for foreign influence in America. Perhaps most revealing, Adams was not even charged with a FARA violation. There are other laws on the books — bribery, after all, is still illegal — but what good are they if they are being dismissed too? For politicians looking to cash in from foreign governments eager to buy influence in Washington, the floodgates are open.


Top image credit: Khody Akhavi
Analysis | QiOSK
US think tanks are the world's least transparent
Top image credit: Metamorworks via shutterstock.com

US think tanks are the world's least transparent

Washington Politics

According to a new survey, North American think tanks are tied as the least transparent of any region. The poll, conducted by On Think Tanks, surveyed 335 think tanks from over 100 countries. The accompanying report, released today, found that only 35% of North American think tanks (mostly from the U.S.) that responded to the survey disclose funding sources. By comparison, 67% of Asian think tanks and 58% of African think tanks disclose their funding sources.

And there are signs that think tank funding transparency is trending towards more opacity. Just last month, the Center for American Progress — a major center-left think tank with $46 million in annual revenue — announced that it would no longer disclose its donors. The think tank said it was taking this “temporary protective step” out of concern that the Trump administration could target them.

keep readingShow less
Fort Bragg horrors expose dark underbelly of post-9/11 warfare
Top photo credit: Seth Harp book jacket (Viking press) US special operators/deviant art/creative commons

Fort Bragg horrors expose dark underbelly of post-9/11 warfare

Media

In 2020 and 2021, 109 U.S. soldiers died at Fort Bragg, the largest military base in the country and the central location for the key Special Operations Units in the American military.

Only four of them were on overseas deployments. The others died stateside, mostly of drug overdoses, violence, or suicide. The situation has hardly improved. It was recently revealed that another 51 soldiers died at Fort Bragg in 2023. According to U.S. government data, these represent more military fatalities than have occurred at the hands of enemy forces in any year since 2013.

keep readingShow less
Trump Netanyahu
Top image credit: President Donald Trump hosts a bilateral dinner for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Monday, July 7, 2025, in the Blue Room. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

The case for US Middle East retrenchment has never been clearer

Middle East

Is Israel becoming the new hegemon of the Middle East? The answer to this question is an important one.

Preventing the rise of a rival regional hegemon — a state with a preponderance of military and economic power — in Eurasia has long been a core goal of U.S. foreign policy. During the Cold War, Washington feared Soviet dominion over Europe. Today, U.S. policymakers worry that China’s increasingly capable military will crowd the United States out of Asia’s lucrative economic markets. The United States has also acted repeatedly to prevent close allies in Europe and Asia from becoming military competitors, using promises of U.S. military protection to keep them weak and dependent.

keep readingShow less

LATEST

QIOSK

Newsletter

Subscribe now to our weekly round-up and don't miss a beat with your favorite RS contributors and reporters, as well as staff analysis, opinion, and news promoting a positive, non-partisan vision of U.S. foreign policy.