Eric Adams sues Campaign Finance Board for denying him millions in matching funds
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Eric Adams filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the city Campaign Finance Board's decision to deny him millions of dollars in public matching funds.
Adams' lawsuit against the board, filed in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn, accuses the board of violating city, state and federal rules and seeks the release of $3.4 million that would bolster his longshot reelection bid.
'As will become evident, there's no legal basis to hold back matching funds,' the mayor's attorney, campaign chair and former chief of staff, Frank Carone, said in a statement. 'This was decided on hearsay allegations and political preference.'
The legal salvo marks a dramatic escalation in the showdown between the board and Adams. The mayor dropped out of the Democratic primary, which Andrew Cuomo is leading, after a judge tossed his federal corruption case at the behest of President Donald Trump's Department of Justice.
But his plans to run as an independent have been financially crippled by the Campaign Finance Board.
The board first denied Adams matching funds in December, citing the five-count bribery indictment against the mayor, in addition to his team's refusal to provide campaign finance regulators with requested information. The lawsuit noted the campaign has since submitted that paperwork.
The filing further argues the board adopted an illegally vague standard by saying it 'had reason to believe' Adams violated state and city laws based on the indictment without offering specifics. And now that the U.S. Department of Justice dismissed the case, the suit further posits, the board should not rely on the allegations at all.
'An indictment is not a conviction; a politically-driven indictment that has been dismissed and for which there is no corroborating evidence is worth nothing at all,' Abrams Fensterman attorney Robert Spolzino wrote in the suit. 'The CFB's reliance on the indictment as proof of anything, particularly now that it has been dismissed with prejudice, is, therefore, arbitrary, capricious, violative of lawful procedure, and erroneous as a matter of law.'
Carone, who advised Adams' 2021 mayoral campaign, was a partner at Abrams Fensterman before going into City Hall. He later returned to the firm — which is being paid by the Adams campaign — on an of counsel basis.
The board declined to comment and will revisit Adams' eligibility for matching funds in July.
The Campaign Finance Board matches qualifying donations 8-1 with taxpayer dollars to discourage big money from controlling local elections. In exchange, it caps total spending for all participating candidates. Since its initial denial of Adams' request in December, it has expanded the criteria for its decision. On April 11, for example, the board cited not only the defunct indictment, but two key documents related to its dismissal.
The first is a letter from the former U.S. Attorney prosecuting the case, who resigned in protest and called the deal between Adams and President Donald Trump's DOJ a quid pro quo. The board also referenced the dismissal decision from Judge Dale Ho, who said it 'smacked of a bargain' between Adams and the Trump administration.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday argued the indictment contained no evidence Adams committed a crime. Instead, the indictment's accusations that Adams accepted travel perks and straw donations in exchange for calling a former FDNY commissioner to inquire about the opening of the Turkish embassy were based on the actions of others affiliated with the campaign, the suit alleges.
The lawsuit also repeats Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove's contention that the case was politically motivated — though that logic is contradicted by the mass DOJ resignations in protest of the decision to toss the charges.
The suit marks the latest twist in the mayor's wayward electoral path. Adams has said the delay in dismissing his case caused him to miss the primary because he did not want to run with the charges hanging over his head. But Tuesday's lawsuit suggests his decision was also a fiscal one.
'The CFB's action has effectively made it impossible for Mayor Adams to compete in the Democratic primary election,' Spolzino wrote.
Adams' lawsuit also alleges that the board's decision disempowers the donors who expected their contributions to be matched.
'After months of cooperation, it became clear that the CFB is intent on indirectly disenfranchising thousands of everyday New Yorkers who donated to Mayor Adams because his leadership has improved their lives,' Carone said. 'The only recourse is to demonstrate the utter lack of evidence and hold the Board accountable through the judicial system.'
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