White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre today shot down the idea that the federal indictment of Adams was politically motivated.
“The DOJ is handling this case independently. I’m not going to go beyond that,” Jean-Pierre said at a news conference.
The statement follows claims and suggestions that Adams’ indictment could have been a form of political retribution for his criticism of the Biden administration’s migration policies.
“I always knew that if I stood my ground for you that I would be a target, and a target I became,” Adams said in the video. “Despite our pleas, when the federal government did nothing as its broken immigration policies overloaded our shelter system with no relief, I put the people of New York before party and politics.
“I have been facing these lies for months since I began to speak out for all of you and their investigation started,” Adams continued, appearing to suggest that he was facing persecution for his pushback against the Biden administration.
After the Adams indictment was unsealed, conservative media quickly expanded on the idea today.
In a Fox News segment, co-host Lawrence Jones said: “I find the timing a little coincidental, and I don’t believe in coincidences and politics. He was a co-chair of the campaign for Biden and Harris, and all of the sudden when he starts to criticize them on their migrant crisis, he gets an investigation.”
The New York Post ran an article in the wake of the indictment’s unsealing diving into Adams’ history of criticizing the Biden administration, leaning into the idea that his prosecution was connected.
Some online influencers have also picked up on the idea. Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire called the prosecution a “political witch hunt” in a post on X shared with his more than 150,000 followers.
