Criminal case against NYC mayor hangs by a thread after Justice Department orders it dropped
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NEW YORK — The criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams hung by a thread Tuesday after the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop the charges, though it remained unclear how quickly that might happen or if the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan might try to resist the directive.
In a two-page memo sent Monday, acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Emil Bove, who was previously on Donald Trump’s personal legal defense team, directed federal prosecutors to dismiss the bribery charges “as soon as is practicable.” Bove said the charges were disrupting the mayor’s ability to assist in President Trump’s crackdown on immigration and crime.
Bove said the Justice Department decided to dismiss the case “without assessing the strength of the evidence,” but for a string of political considerations, including freeing Adams to campaign for reelection as a Democrat who will support Trump’s policy objectives.
The task of carrying out the order now falls to Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Her office declined to comment and has not indicated what it plans to do next. In a letter sent last month, prosecutors in the Adams case praised the strength of the evidence, dismissing the mayor’s claim of political prosecution as an attempt “to shift the focus away from the evidence of his guilt.”
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Sassoon, a seasoned prosecutor who was appointed acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan just days after Trump took office, has limited power to oppose the order. She can be replaced at will by the Justice Department. Trump in November nominated Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to lead the office. His appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.
Adams said at a news conference on Tuesday that he was eager to “put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of this city.”
Bove, however, said in his memo that the charges could still be refiled after the November mayoral election. Dismissal of the case should be conditional, Bove said, on Adams agreeing in writing that prosecutors are legally allowed to bring the charges back if they choose.
That means the threat of a renewed prosecution will hover over Adams in all of his dealings with the Trump administration while he is mayor.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleads not guilty to taking bribes and illegal campaign contributions
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has pleaded not guilty to federal bribery charges and other counts in a case that has roiled the nation’s biggest city.
After the memo was issued, Adams faced a barrage of criticism from some allies who say he is now beholden to the Trump administration’s agenda. Adams, who was elected as a centrist Democrat, had already shifted rightward following his indictment in September. He has cultivated a warm relationship with Trump — praising his agenda, refusing to criticize him and showing a willingness to roll back some of the city’s protections for immigrants in the country illegally.
“It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the Mayor hostage,” Rev. Al Sharpton, an influential ally of Adams, said in a statement Tuesday. “I have supported the Mayor, but he has been put in an unfair position — even for him — of essentially political blackmail.”
Arlo Devlin-Brown, the former chief of public corruption at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, said the unusual conditions attached to the memo made it uncertain when the charges would be dismissed.
“I have not seen anything like this before,” he said. “For a case that’s already been charged to be reversed in the absence of some real new development in the merits of the case is highly unusual.”
The indictment against Adams alleges he accepted illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks worth more than $100,000 — including expensive flight upgrades and luxury hotel stays — while serving in his previous job as Brooklyn borough president.
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The indictment said a Turkish official who helped facilitate the trips then leaned on Adams for favors, including lobbying the Fire Department to allow a newly constructed diplomatic building to open in time for a planned visit by Turkey’s president.
Prosecutors also said they had evidence Adams personally directed campaign staffers to solicit foreign donations, then disguised those contributions to qualify for a city program that provides a generous, publicly funded match for small donations. Foreign nationals are banned from contributing to U.S. election campaigns under federal law.
Many of Adams’ Democratic opponents in the June mayoral primary castigated the Justice Department’s decision to shut down the case and accused the mayor of adopting a pro-Trump agenda out of a desire for personal preservation.
Offenhartz and Neumeister write for the Associated Press.
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