New York Mayor Eric Adams owes millions of dollars in legal fees and has no obvious means of paying it off, but he says that’s none of his constituents’ business. 

The beleaguered mayor may have breathed a sigh of relief when a federal judge granted in part the Trump administration’s request to dismiss corruption charges against him. But freedom isn’t truly free for Adams, whose legal defense fund reported $3 million in debt to his lawyers and others involved in defending him, with much of it owed to his high-powered lawyer Alex Spiro. As The New York Times pointed out, donations to his legal defense funds have “dramatically declined, as has his political viability and popularity,” raising questions about how he’ll pay off the sizable debt.

But the mayor gave a snippy response when questioned about the debt last Thursday. After a reporter asked him about it, he said:

Unless you guys are chipping in money, why are you asking me? I have a relationship with my attorneys, and my relationship with my attorney is my relationship with my attorney. I don’t understand — um, if the desire is, you know, ‘hehe, Eric owes money,’ then I’m not gonna fulfill that. I have a relationship with my attorney. And that is not part of — I’m gonna do my job as the mayor. And how I pay off my legal fees is between Eric Adams and his attorney.

Adams is a longtime New Yorker. He should know by now that essentially telling the New York media to “mind your business” is likely to have the opposite effect. And the question of how the mayor of a major city will pay his outstanding legal fees certainly seems relevant to residents.

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As the New York Daily News noted, Adams’ debt may raise some ethical concerns, particularly given Spiro’s list of powerful clients — who include media mogul Jay-Z and billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk — and the potential that these clients’ business affairs in the city could create conflicts of interest for Adams. Just as an example, Jay-Z is part of a group looking to open a casino in Manhattan, so even though we have no evidence Spiro has sought to influence Adams on this matter and no evidence that Adams has offered some kind of assistance in exchange for debt relief, even the potential for misconduct is arguably cause for concern. (I’ve reached out to Adams’ office for comment on Jay-Z’s casino bid and other potential ethical concerns. I will update this post if I hear back.)

Last Wednesday, a spokesperson for Adams acknowledged his debt and the need for transparency, telling the Daily News the mayor is “focused on restoring public trust and ensuring that all obligations, including legal expenses, are met in a transparent and ethical manner.” That at least sounded like Adams understood the need to keep the public in the know about his debt. But a day later, the mayor was singing a completely different tune. Regardless of his finger-wagging, you can be sure this story isn’t going away.