Mayor Eric Adams is maintaining a busy public schedule and declaring his innocence of federal bribery and fraud charges – a move one legal expert is warning against.

“There is no reason for a defendant, in any criminal case, to talk at this stage,” Manhattan-based defense attorney Duncan Levin said during an interview on “Mornings On 1” Tuesday.

“They're locking themselves into a defense at a very early stage. They have not seen any discovery in this case at all yet, and there's really no reason to be locking yourself into a defense at this point,” he said.

On Monday, Adams' attorneys filed motions to dismiss the bribery charges outlined in the federal indictment against him, a common initial tactic, Levin said. Adams pleaded not guilty at his arraignment at Manhattan Federal Court in Lower Manhattan on Friday.

“It's the first thing that most defense attorneys are going to do is put in a motion to dismiss at some stage in the process. There are a lot of charges against Mayor Adams. This motion dismiss addresses really only the bribery charges. There's also a whole host of campaign finance-related charges, and so this is a very small part of the case. The defense are arguing that if that bribery falls away, you're left with just a case that is a pretty routine campaign finance case,” he said.

Adams is scheduled to appear in court again on Wednesday, when Levin said he may be assigned a trial date. However, Levin believes the case against the mayor is only just beginning.

“We now know about the top, but what we don't know is the number of people that have been ensnared in this investigation, secretly cooperating with the prosecution, secretly entering guilty pleas and working with the prosecution over the past months and years, and that is absolutely what has been going on,” he said.

Levin suggested the first indictment will not be the only one against Adams.

“I think this is the tip of the iceberg, and we are about to see superseding indictments," he said. "They're still collecting evidence and information in other unrelated cases that have not yet come and been brought against the mayor.”