Eric Adams Should Resign

The indictment of Eric Adams, unsealed Thursday by federal prosecutors, describes a dispiriting and profound violation of the trust New York voters once placed in the mayor to lead the nation’s largest city.

This is the first time a sitting mayor of New York City has been indicted. The charges against Mr. Adams are serious, including allegations that he misappropriated more than $10 million in public funds for his 2021 campaign. The mayor will have his day in court and is entitled to make a vigorous defense, but that does not mean he must force New York City to wait for him to prove his innocence under the law. To serve the city that elected him, Mr. Adams should immediately resign and turn City Hall over to someone untainted by criminal charges and endless investigations.

According to a federal grand jury, Mr. Adams accepted more than $100,000 worth of luxury travel benefits from the Turkish government for the better part of a decade, including discount air tickets and free hotel rooms and meals, and then used city resources to hide them from public view. He solicited and received thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from Turkish sources — though foreign donations are prohibited by law — and then conspired to cover his tracks by falsifying the names of the donors. He used the straw donors to improperly receive $10 million in public matching funds from the city for his campaign, the indictment says.