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Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, November 1st. Here's the midday news from Alec Hamilton.

Alec Hamilton: Opening statements are today in the trial of Daniel Penny, the former Marine accused of killing Jordan Neely on a subway train last year. Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges. He claims he was acting in self-defense as a response to erratic behavior from Neely. That trial is expected to last several weeks.

The New York City Council is trying to make sure the proposed zoning plan that Mayor Adams is calling the City of Yes will also make the boroughs into a City for All. Council members are unveiling the details of their housing plan, one that calls for increased funding for a wide array of affordable housing programs and protections, among other goals. City Councilmember Pierina Sanchez represents the Bronx and chairs the Council Housing Committee. She says the City for All plan is meant as an addition to the mayor's proposed efforts.

Councilmember Pierina Sanchez: The mayor's plan is silent on affordability. It's silent on homeownership. It's silent on investing in community infrastructure. That is what the City Council's plan is about.

Alec Hamilton: Mayor Adams' zoning plan must still face a vote from the Council for approval. Mostly cloudy out there today with a high around 78 degrees. Tonight is clear with a low around 49. Cool and sunny weekend ahead with highs in the mid to upper 50s. It's WNYC.

Janae Pierre: Stay close. There's more after the break.

Alec Hamilton: Mayor Eric Adams is due back in court this Friday for the first major hearing in his federal corruption trial. Adams' attorneys are asking a judge to throw out one of the charges against him for bribery. A judge will have to decide whether the flight upgrades and other travel perks Adams received were illegal or just unsavory. Legal experts say it largely comes down to one key question. Were the gifts bribes or simply tokens of appreciation? My colleague Tiffany Hanssen spoke with WNYC reporter Samantha Max to break down these complex legal questions.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Well, let's just start with the basics. First, tell us, what is the legal definition of bribery in federal law?

Samantha Max: Adams is charged under this federal law specific to local and state officials like a New York City mayor, and it defines bribery as taking something of value in exchange for either using your political influence or at least planning to use that influence even if you don't follow through. Prosecutors are saying that Adams took these travel benefits in exchange for pressuring fire department officials to open up a new Turkish consulate before it was safe to do so.

Adams' attorneys, they say these weren't bribes, that he didn't use his influence beyond what's typical of elected officials, and the flight upgrades were just something called a gratuity. Gratuities are basically thank-you gifts that officials sometimes receive without some sort of prior arrangement about trading influence for perks. The Supreme Court actually ruled earlier this year that gratuities might not necessarily be great, but they aren't technically illegal for local officials as the federal law is written. That ruling is really at the heart of Adams' motion to dismiss his bribery charge.

Tiffany Hanssen: Now you're going to walk me through a few scenarios, and I get to decide whether it's bribery or just gratuity. I'm ready.

Samantha Max: Okay. Here is the first fictional scenario. Ms. Money has a student named Bill in her 11th-grade AP English class who's really been struggling with his assignments. Bill's parents meet with Ms. Money and say they're concerned about their son's grades because applying to colleges needs to impress the admissions officers. A week later, Bill gets his first A on a paper in Ms. Money's class, and the high marks continue for the rest of the school year.

After Bill gets an A on his report card and is accepted to a really great university, his parents give Ms. Money a $100 gift card to the nicest steakhouse in town. Is this a bribe or a gratuity?

Tiffany Hanssen: I'm going to say it's definitely quid pro quo, so it's a bride.

Samantha Max: The experts that I spoke to said this was a bit of a trick question actually. Based on just the information that I shared with you, if we don't know anything about what was discussed in this meeting between the parents and the teacher, it could technically be a gratuity. If in that meeting there was no offer of, "We're going to give you a gift," then it might be just really a thank-you gift.

Maybe the teacher went back through assignments, and as he was turning in these new assignments, she's thinking, "You know what? He's really getting better. He's putting in a lot of effort. I'm going to raise the grade." When I talked through this scenario with Attorney Michael Feldberg, who represented former New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver at his 2018 corruption trial, he told me this scenario could, as you said, move into bribe territory if more information came to light.

Attorney Michael Feldberg: Throwing in another fact, "Can you raise my kid's grade? We'll make it worth your while," that would probably make it look like a bribe.

Samantha Max: If Ms. Money is raising her student's grade because she thinks that she's going to get a gift, that makes the exchange a bribe.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. You have another one for me?

Samantha Max: Yes. A small Midwestern city needs new garbage trucks, and Mayor Gold has to pick a company for the contract. He chooses a dealership and authorizes the city to pay the company more than a million dollars for five trucks. The truck dealership is elated. This is a big deal. Several months later, the owner sends Mayor Gold a check for $13,000. The mayor says this payment is for consulting services he has provided for the company. Bribe or gratuity?

Tiffany Hanssen: All right, Sam. I'm going to go with bribe again.

Samantha Max: This one is tricky too. This scenario is actually real. It's based on a recent US Supreme Court decision. A mayor in Indiana is the one who accepted that check, and he was charged with accepting an illegal gratuity because prosecutors hadn't found evidence of some sort of exchange of influence for this gift. The US Supreme Court decision, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that basically the federal law isn't that clear on gratuities because if you think about all the people below a mayor, they might get gifts at the holiday time or something like that and have to be constantly navigating, "Is this illegal or not illegal?"

Tiffany Hanssen: All right, Sam. I think we have time for just one more. I'm ready.

Samantha Max: Okay. Councilmember Slots represents a neighborhood where a powerful real estate developer wants to open one of New York City's new casinos and also a new luxury housing and retail complex. Many long-time residents in the neighborhood do not want this, and Councilmember Slots agrees and is really vocally opposing this plan, but then the developer asks to meet with her over dinner, and he says this development will make her life a whole lot better with a little wink.

The next morning, Councilmember Slots announces her support for the redevelopment plan, and she also casts a decisive vote in the City Council to approve it. Two years later, when these luxury condos open and are complete, the developer offers Councilmember Slots the penthouse at a highly discounted price. Bribe or gratuity? Remember the wink.

Tiffany Hanssen: I'm going to go with bribe.

Samantha Max: You are right. If the developer asked Councilmember Slots to support the casino plan and offered perks in return, the Councilmember would likely be in danger of a bribery accusation, according to the experts I spoke with, but if the developer hadn't put any pressure on the Councilmember and she just changed her mind because she spoke to more residents and realized that actually the plan was more popular than she initially thought, it could be a gratuity.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right, Sam. Well, thanks so much for breaking all this down for us. We appreciate it and we had fun too.

Samantha Max: Thank you.

Tiffany Hanssen: Samantha Max covers public safety and the courts for WNYC. You can read her reporting at our news site, Gothamist.

Janae Pierre: Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Check us out for updates every weekday, three times a day, for the latest news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.

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