Mayor Adams’ legal defense trust only received a single $1,000 donation in the immediate aftermath of his federal corruption indictment — part of a fundraising haul that totaled less than $100,000 over the past three months, new filings reveal.
Over the same period, from July 1 through Sept. 30, the filings show Adams’ trust spent nearly $500,000 on lawyer fees and other expenses associated with his defense against the criminal charges he’s facing alleging he took bribes from Turkish government operatives in exchange for political favors.
The latest filings confirm Adams’ trust has raised just over $1.8 million to date and spent more than $1.7 million. But the trust has also refunded more than $130,000 in donations due to restrictions on certain contributions — meaning it is already in the red.
Unless the trust’s clip of fundraising accelerates significantly in coming weeks, the deficit on display in the trust’s latest filing, released late Tuesday night, could spell serious trouble for how Adams is going to foot his legal bills going forward as he has pleaded not guilty and vows to go to trial. His legal bills are topping well over $100,000 each month at this stage, the filing shows.
Still, Vito Pitta, the compliance lawyer for both Adams’ trust and reelection campaign, said the “interest is strong” in financially helping the mayor with his legal defense.
“We expect more as the mayor’s defense enters a new stage,” Pitta said in a text. He didn’t reply to follow-up questions from the Daily News.
The trust’s new filing divulges Adams only received donations from 23 individuals in the latest reporting window, totaling $92,500. The trust pulled in $666,510 from 212 donors between its mid-November 2023 launch and Dec. 31, 2023.
Among the 23 latest donations was a $1,000 contribution made on Sept. 26, the same day the criminal charges were unsealed against Adams, by a Florida resident named Deborah Robins. That was the only contribution the trust reported receiving in the wake of Adams’ indictment before the latest reporting period ended Sept. 30.
Others who helped contribute to Adams’ latest trust haul was James Dolan, the owner of Madison Square Garden, who contributed the maximum $5,000 allowed by law on July 26. Dolan’s two adult sons, Aidan and Quentin Dolan, as well as his father, Charles Dolan, also contributed $5,000 each in July, as did Irving Azoff, James Dolan’s longtime business partner.
Another New York power-player who gave the mayor’s trust $5,000 in the latest reporting period was Daniel Loeb, a billionaire hedge fund manager, and his wife, Margaret Loeb.
Daniel Loeb recently landed in the headlines after the Washington Post reported he and other affluent businessmen held a private call with Adams in April about deploying NYPD officers to break up pro-Palestine protests on college campuses in the city. In the same call, Loeb and the other participants reportedly also talked about making political contributions to the mayor.
Loeb and James Dolan both donated the maximum $2,100 allowed by law to the mayor’s reelection campaign in July.
The trust’s new submission shows the largest expense by far being incurred by Adams is legal fees to WilmerHale, a law firm specializing in white collar criminal defense.
The firm, where Adams’ former City Hall chief counsel Brendan McGuire is a partner, was paid nearly $427,000 by the trust in the latest filing period alone to represent hm in the Turkey investigation. That comes on top of the $936,187 the trust previously paid the firm for representing Adams since the probe first burst into public view in November 2023.
The latest filing doesn’t include any details about how much the trust is paying Alex Spiro, a high-profile attorney who was retained by Adams to represent him alongside WilmerHale shortly after his indictment.
Spiro, who has represented celebrities like Elon Musk and Jay-Z, is known to charge clients as much as $2,000 per hour for his services. He has said he expects to serve as Adams’ trial counsel in the Turkey corruption case while WilmerHale continues working behind the scenes, meaning the mayor’s legal bills are all but certain to increase in coming months.
Spiro’s office has declined to say how much he’s billing Adams for his services.
Other expenses reported by Adams’ trust in the latest reporting period include $20,000 to Pitta’s law firm and just under $12,000 to Artus Group for “vetting and investigative services.”
Pitta has previously said Artus, a Connecticut private investigator firm, has been retained to screen donations to the trust to ensure they comply with the law, which bars individuals who do business with the city or are mayoral subordinates from contributing to Adams’ legal defense.
The release of the trust’s latest filing comes after Adams’ reelection campaign disclosed Tuesday it only received about $140,000 in donations in the three-month period that ended Oct. 7, his worst fundraising quarter since taking office in January 2022.
The dip in donations to Adams, who is otherwise known as a prolific fundraiser, comes as a long list of his top advisers have in recent weeks had their electronics seized and homes raided by federal investigators as part of corruption probes that are separate from the Turkey inquiry that resulted in his indictment. Many of those advisers have since resigned from his administration.
