NEW York Mayor Eric Adams was indicted today on federal charges of accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign sources.

In the indicment, the US attorney’s office in Manhattan alleges that Mr Adams, a Democrat, “compounded his gains” from the illegal contributions by gambling with the city’s matching funds programme, which provides a generous match for small dollar donations.

FBI agents entered the mayor’s official residence and seized his phone early this morning, hours before the indictment was made public.

The indictment caps an extraordinary few weeks in New York, as federal investigators have homed in on members of Mr Adams’s inner circle, with a succession of raids, subpoenas and high-level resignations plunging City Hall into crisis.

The former police captain insisted on Wednesday that he would remain in office, describing any charges he may face as “entirely false, based on lies.

“I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target — and a target I became,” he said a speech recorded at his official residence, adding: “I will fight these injustices with every ounce of my strength and my spirit.”