“This is a test for us,” said Eric Adams. “Every person of color in this city, particularly those who have any level of prominence, better understand they’re coming for my brother today. They’re coming for you tomorrow.” He said that, as Azi Paybarah reported at the time, at a fund-raising party for Clarence Norman, where the disgraced Brooklyn boss compared himself to Moses “going before Pharaoh,” meaning the judge who was sentencing him for stealing campaign cash. Two decades later, they’ve come for Eric Adams. In that span, Adams elevated himself from a gadfly cop to New York City’s history-making 110th mayor — who this week became its first one ever to be charged with a crime. Adams has been comparing himself lately to Jesus turning over the tables in the Temple. He’s been saying, in no uncertain terms, that powerful enemies including the Biden administration and the city’s permanent powers-that-be are punishing him for standing up for ordinary New Yorkers. That’s ugly, conspiratorial stuff. Adams did this to himself by playing fast and loose with the law and the public interest while daring anyone to hold the city’s second Black mayor to account. Southern District U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called that bluff with a 57-page indictment on five corruption charges detailing the alleged quids and quos, crimes and cover-ups as Adams traveled the world first-class for the price of cheap seats while using his public powers to do favors for his foreign patrons who worked with his staffers to smuggle money into his mayoral campaign and cover up their bribes. That’s petty stuff, and a serious violation of the public trust. The charges — and more may come amid continuing raids of Adams and his crew — appear crafted to withstand scrutiny on appeal as the Supreme Court keeps making more corrupt acts legal. The mayor’s political defense has been the naughty-kid spiel: I didn’t do it and it’s not a crime and why pick on me. There’s been a pile-on of calls for the mayor to resign including from the Democrats running against him, progressive icon Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and The New York Times editorial board that’s no longer endorsing candidates in local races. Those were never Adams supporters, but they’re working toward a landslide that gives institutional cover to dump the mayor who remains powerful so long as he holds the office he was elected to. There’s gossip about national Democrats who don’t want Donald Trump amplifying Adams’ talking points about the Biden administration’s immigration mess and lawfare approach pressuring weak centrist Gov. Hochul to fire the mayor if he won’t pipe down. Locally, the leftists who dominate the legislatures in both Albany and the city and have reshaped the state’s top court in their image are also treating this as an in-case-of-emergency-break-glass moment to win executive power. An old adage as Adams pushes conspiracy theories: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not after you. If the mayor is eventually pushed out, he’d become the second powerful and deeply flawed centrist Democratic executive in New York to exit mid-term and amid a swirl of investigations and charges in three years. The first, of course, was Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who may run for mayor if Adams is out. That’s an insane circle, and a wildly undemocratic, small-d, way for big-d Democrats to handle governance. Good government isn’t canceling the results of the last election, making Public Advocate Jumaane Williams the acting mayor, and kicking off a confounding special election that would be run on a different set of rules than the “regular” primary and general that would follow months later. It’s gross to see some politicians cheering on, a little prematurely, Adams’ downfall, as if this was a game. Some seem to think voters are primed to pick a leftist in good standing, as if Adams hadn’t won in 2021 with the leading progressive finishing third in that year’s Democratic primary. I’ve been writing critically in this column about Adams and the crooked friends he’s placed in positions of vast public power since before he became mayor. Adams, for his part, has privately said he won’t come on the FAQ NYC podcast if I’m there and publicly blessed NYPD leaders and the department’s official account taking unhinged swings at me. It’s a shanda that he’s put New York City in this position. But now that we’re here, New Yorkers deserve the chance to see what happens in court and render our own verdict next year on his leadership, and where the city goes from here. Siegel ([email protected]) is an editor at The City, a host of the FAQ NYC podcast and a columnist for the Daily News.