Washington, d. C. Today and covering the news wherever it happens. Right now its happening on the East Coast as well. Breaking news, democratic mayor Eric Adams is expected to speak at any moment after federal officials have just unsealed indictment charges against him. He is now charged with those federal counts, five of them, including wire fraud, bribery, solicitation of contributions from a foreign source. We are told a federal prosecutor will give an Update And News conference. Dont know if theyll take any questions but certainly have a statement to read, were told. That will also happen in the next few minutes. Were on it. All over this. Eric adams is already making history at this moment as the first new York Mayor to ever be charged with a federal crime while in office. Phil holloway, former Assistant District Attorney and legal Advisor And Marc thiessen, Fox News contributor. Im harris faulkner. This is the Faulkner Focus live from d. C. And are you there focus with me. Lets start with Phil Holloway. Phil, we knew something was coming. This indictment had been talked about for about 24 hours. We saw Mayor Adams give a recorded video speech, which was released last evening. It was quick, this is decisive, and were told that the Mayors Cell Phone was seized right before the indictment was unsealed. Your thoughts. So lets start with the last thing first. Great to be with you, by the way. I think when they go back and get the cell phone. That suggests to me from an investigative standpoint they might be looking to see if there has been any efforts by the mayor to maybe influence a witness or do anything to sort of hinder their investigation. They can always add these obstruction charges. Those are very powerful charges. They are things that can be added to any existing investigation if it looks like the target of the investigation is doing anything. They got his Phone A year ago. Now if they are looking at it on the heels of unsealing an indictment i think they want to see if they can prove he is doing anything to get in their way, harris. Harris lets talk about that. They have had The Feds have had an opportunity if you will, they always have an opportunity because theyre The Feds to take our stuff. So he already gave up a phone but apparently as many people do, i do, he maybe had more than one phone. Very few people these days have land lines. So from what you are knowing with the phones now, what have they been looking at . A lot of people have fallen into the investigation in just the last few days and weeks. You know, you never can get rid of anything thats on the phone. You can delete a Text Message and delete apps and all these things. But they can forensicly go in and dump the Phone And look to see if there is anything that was done by the target of the investigation that either adds additional evidence to what theyve got or perhaps is evidence of some additional crime. By the way, when aoc was tweeting for adams to resign in the last couple of days, that should have been a big tipoff that the democrats in washington already seem to have known that this was imminent. And that is something that troubles me, harris, as much as anything. Harris all right, you brought it up. Lets go to someone who would know. This is Marc Thiessen with me on set formerly with the White House as a Speech Writer but always with us on breaking through whatever is going on. So you just heard what the attorney in our conversation, Phil Holloway said, about the possibility of politics here. What are you seeing . That is certainly the Card Adams is playing. He did the video saying theyre entirely false based on lines. I always knew if i stood my ground for all of you i would become a target. He is trying to portray himself as a modern Day Donald Trump being targeted for politics. He is less Donald Trump and more Bob Menendez. These charges are bribery, taking money from foreign sources. That is more Bob Menendez territory than it is Donald Trump territory. It is fascinating to see a democrat the only thing he hasnt said yet is witch hunt. Harris he is formerly a republican for quite a few years and 22 years on the new York City police department. He is a veteran former republican, a veteran former cop. He has a lot of things going on in the mix where politics might be in the mix for democrats. I said mix twice. We dont know. I can tell you this. We know he talks a lot about the border christ, that formed Underneath Biden and Kamala Harris and how much it has pinched every resource in his city of New York. Very true. He was elected because of the crime wave. He was the candidate in New York who talked about he was going to get tough on crime and crack down on crime. New york because of the liberal policies in New York, so many New Yorkers have left and gone to florida that they will never elect a rudy giuliani. He was about as close to get in the modern day. He hasnt delivered on that. New york is now spending 5 Billion housing, feeding, caring for illegal migrants. New Yorkers Arent happy about that. Democrats dont like having a democrat calling them out for these policies and so maybe there is politics in it. I dont know. Harris Phil Holloway is still with us and bobby. This is something new. I dont know if you can help us navigate now what happens next but certainly you can tell us what has led up to this point. They got something. They moved on that. What do you know about this case . The first thing you have to know is by the time this stuff became public a few months ago the f. B. I. Was at work a long time before that. They were looking at this for a long time before things start evidence leaking out and getting made public. When you start seeing everybody resigning around him. So many level officials resigning around them you have to wonder how many have been approached with cooperation agreements. You have to look at how many people are lined up against him. When i started seeing all the highlevel officials resigning, how many of them have had sessions with the Southern District . When you said a proffered session. They had a previous phone from the mayor of New York, Eric Adams and raiding some locations. That has been in the news as well of people around him. He replaces Police Commissioner about 10 days ago. What can you triangulate . Give us an idea how valuable the first phone from Mayor Adams would have been . They took one again. Phil holloway said they may have taken the second phone before opening the indictment because it could be a conduit for obstruction of Justice And Corrupting of witnesses by pressing them or giving them a headsup. From the first phone they can get the other high Rank Evering officials that you start seeing resigning in the after math of that. If they were caught up in some of these text and emails messages they get visited by the f. B. I. And taken to the Southern District and offered a deal. So i think the first Phone Led to those other officials. Here is Eric Adams. Your policies are antiblack. [member of Audience Shouting] this is ridiculous. The people are with us. This is not a black thing. This is a justice thing. First of all, i want to thank you for being here this morning and i want to thank the supporters of all ethnic groups that i hear, particularly the men and women of the clergy that is here that have joined me here today. And we are not surprised. We expected this. This is not surprising to us at all. The actions that have unfolded over the last ten months, the leaks, the commentary, the demonizing, this did not surprise us that we reached this day. And i have ask New Yorkers to wait to hear our defense before making any judgments. In about 30 minutes you will hear a story of the case that is in front of us, this story will come from the federal prosecutors. And i ask to wait and hear our side to this narrative. From here my attorneys will take care of the case so i can take care of the city. My daytoday will not change. I will continue to do the job for 8. 3 million New Yorkers that i was elected to do. And the 300,000 plus employees of our City Government will continue to do their jobs. Because this is what we do as New Yorkers. Its an insult to the hard working people of this city that anyone would say that they wont do their jobs while this case proceeds in the background. They are dedicated public servants and i have been one of them for many years. And they are going to continue to do their job moving this City Forward every day. Its an unfortunate day and it is a painful day, but aside of all of that its a day when well finally reveal why nor ten months i have gone through this. And i look forward to defending myself and defending the people of this city as ive done throughout my entire professional career. I want to now turn it over to the person who started me on this journey, the reverend. Amen. Beautiful. Thank you, mr. Mayor. You are our mayor and will be the time to come still will be our mayor. To all the supporters irrespective of what people say, he is still our mayor. As he has indicated, we start evidence on the journey a long time ago. I encouraged him to join the police department. He did and you know the rest of the story. So you know, mr. Mayor, eric, its one more battle we have to fight, right . Just one more battle. Thats a fact. And were not about to quit. Were not about to give up. Well be there. Well be there to the end. God bless you. God be with you. We are going to win this fight. Harris all right. So as the mayor toggles between his guests on the dais there, we are going to come back here in washington, d. C. And cover this breaking news. What is he saying now . We will respond to a few questions. Are you good, robby . I call her mother dukes. Has been the head of the naacp and just a leader that has mentored me throughout my entire journey and i want to now call out Mother Hazel dukes. [applause] good morning. My name is hazel dukes. I live in harlem. [cheers and applause] im would you be quiet . Would you shut up . Harris all right. The mayor has said he has several guests and we can only believe him. He knows he has 30 minutes to play with before The Feds lay out their case. I was surprised to hear this had been ten months that i have gone through this, i quote him. Lets bring in kerri youre urbahn. Notice the timing. He is not going to walk away before that president ial election. Talk to me about this indictment. The most significant charge that the department of justice is bringing Guess Mayor adams is a allegation he was actively soliciting foreign money and funneling it through effectively fake people here in the country. Individuals who claimed that they were just making small Dollar Donations when they were actually fronting foreign money. Then in turn, according to the indictment, turned around, submitted this to new York Citys Matching Program and got an additional 10 Million to further pad his Campaign Coffers and it is illegal for as part of this Matching Program to use Straw Donations and the like. And they say it was foreign money and its a pretty sear use charge. Harris how hard a case is that to prove . When you hear Mayor Adams saying he can do his job and fight the case what is he up against according to the indictment he started building relationships with foreign countries as Borough President. They have Text Messages and emails from his deputy that he was directing to solicit money that he would normally have to disclose and Text Messages where his staff are talking to the turkish government and saying how can we make this work . We cant disclose it like this. They have communications that they say directly implies adams knew all about this and in fact he was overseeing it. Again, harris, these are just allegations. They have to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt. But i would assume they have the evidence to support these charges. Of course Mayor Adams is saying it is false and witch hunt. It is a political hit job. We dont know whats going on behind the scenes in new York City. There is an interesting political operation, those of us in New York for a long time there are typically other things at play. But this is a pretty detailed indictment. Harris involving quite a few people. Weve seen those other investigations. Is there one in particular that stood out to you . For me it would be the new York City Police Commissioner because of the crime, particularly random violent crime that the city is dealing with under pressure from those high numbers of illegal immigrants that have come in and perpetrated the crimes allegedly. Our previous guest noted the amount of people resigning around Mayor Adams is a very bad sign typically where there is smoke there is fire. Now it seems like those who didnt resign look like they will be indicted as well, thats what reporting suggests. So it seems to be that there are a lot of people implicated or had knowledge of what was happening. The indictment makes a strong argument that adams new exactly what was going on. It wasnt just that he knew, he was part of directing it. Well see. They have to prove that mindset in court. Harris all right. I will ask you to stand by with us as you always do to help navigate this breaking news. Thank you. I want to bring back bobby, former f. B. I. Agent and Phil Holloway and Marc Thiessen. Bobby, i want to start with you. Im reading through this indictment and it says Eric Adams, the mayor of new York City, also sought these are allegations against him, and received other improper benefits from some of the same coconspirators who funneled Straw Donations to his campaigns. In particular a senior official in the turkish diplomatic establishment known as the turkish official from here on out in the indictment who facilitated many donations to adams and arranged for adams and Holy Spirit companions to receive free or discounted travel on the turkish national airline. Tell me about the details in the indictment and what the investigation looks like from your perspective of someone who has done a lot of investigation . Sure. There are three phases of that investigation. The one where you are looking for stuff that nobody knows about, you are Monitoring Phones and monitoring emails and then it goes more overt. You get subpoenas and get the Documentary Evidence and third phase is approaching people that might cooperate with the investigation. Those are the people you see resigning and having sessions about making a deal with the Southern District. The f. B. I. In turkey has been interviewing people in turkey on this same case. F. B. I. Has offices there. Im sure the agents assigned to that office have been interviewing people in turkey as well and may even have some witnesses from over there. Harris all right. Phil holloway, you are with me as well. What kind of prison time could this mayor be facing, if any . Listen, there is no parole in the federal system to speak of. So the way this indictment, if he is convicted of these charges as charged he could spend his life in a federal penitentiary. He said he would do his daytoday jobs. Thats what we expect politicians to say. Senator menendez did something similar. It is worth remembering that the governor in New York, i think, does have the power to potentially remove him. She has recently said it was too early to move on that front. But now im asking the question is it still too early or is it now possibly the time to do that . Because if you have a mayor that is facing these kind of corruption charges, including bribery and all the things weve been talking about, there is really no way in my view he can effectively manage the rising Crime Problems and all the other things with the illegal immigrants and migrant shelters and all the things plaguing new York City, i dont see how he can effectively do his job under those circumstances. I wouldnt be surprise eats to see the Governor Move on that front. We heard today the mayor just moments ago, were still monitoring the situation. He said he had several guests. He was not joking about that. He made some remarks a few minutes ago and when it is Mayor Adams again on the indictments against Mayor Adams, federal charges against him well go back to him. There is a News Conference planned from the federal government about the indictment. He mentioned it and knows it and riding the clock on that and well cover the news. Bobby, the mayor said a few minutes ago that it has been ten months of this. Ten months of what . You talked about the three phases. Thats a lot to pull together. What kind of pressure has been on this mayor and can he really balance doing the job . You would know what it will look like going forward. Yeah, he is probably going over with his attorneys a list of his former officials who might be cooperating. When we took out Mafia Bosses they would try to figure out who was against him. His legal team is trying to figure out who is the most likely people in his administration lining up against him and how they can combat that. I wouldnt doubt if you start seeing leaks denigrating some of these other officials. That is who they think may be cooperating. Harris this is chilling there. Marc thiessen, the politics of this seem to be something that you cant get around. He said i can still take care of New York while fighting these charges. Politics of that might make his ability to do his job impossible. And from what bobby and phil are saying it will be a tough case especially if there are witnesses who know him well. Very hard. I compare it to Bob Menendez. The charges are similar to Bob Menendez in terms of taking foreign money, bribery and the rest. Bob menendez didnt resign. The difference is Bob Menendez was a legislature. If he doesnt show up for work and distracted fighting criminal charges the country doesnt get in trouble. Mayor adams is an executive and serious respons