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A US federal judge on Wednesday dismissed the Department of Justice’s corruption case against New York City’s embattled mayor, Eric Adams, after weeks of scandal about the Democratic mayor bowing to pressure from the Trump administration to cooperate on immigration crackdowns while trying to get out from under the criminal charges.
Despite the judge’s decision, he said the Trump administration’s grounds for having the case dropped “smacks of a bargain”.
Pressure from Washington to dismiss the case had led to high-level resignations of prosecutors who said there was strong evidence against Adams, while the Trump administration had focused on whether charges were simply getting in the way of their political mission.
US district judge Dale Ho’s decision to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be brought again, was in line with the recommendation of a lawyer he asked to offer independent arguments. Ho argued that had he gone along with the justice department request for a dismissal without prejudice, meaning charges could be brought again later, it would make it appear that Adams was more beholden to the Trump administration than to his constituents.
Critics of the justice department and Adams said a dismissal without prejudice would leave the Democratic mayor beholden to the administration of Republican president Donald Trump in advancing its hard-right agenda.
The justice department argued that the case should be dismissed because it was distracting the mayor from helping Donald Trump’s agenda with his immigration agenda – a point that has infuriated Democrats, especially as New York is a sanctuary city, meaning by city law it limits cooperation with the authorities on immigration enforcement.
Ho said that argument violated longstanding norms of prosecutorial independence from politics. “Dismissing the case without prejudice would create the unavoidable perception that the mayor’s freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration. Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions, the judge wrote.
New Yorkers will vote in the mayoral election this November and Adams has resisted pressure to step down or announce he will no longer run for a second term. New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, decided not to ask Adams to quit office.
Adams, 64, pleaded not guilty to accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials in exchange for favors, including pressuring city fire department officials to allow Turkey to open a new Manhattan consulate despite safety concerns.
The mayor had long viewed the case as retribution for his criticism of surging migration during the administration of fellow Democrat Joe Biden, which brought the case last September. Adams found support from the Trump administration, which urged prosecutors last month to dismiss the case.
Adams shocked many in the city when he went on Fox News with Trump’s “border tsar” Tom Homan and said “I’m collaborating” with the federal government on its immigration agenda.
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Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, said the corruption case was interfering with Adams’ re-election campaign and preventing him from helping the federal government step up deportations, a top priority of Trump’s. He also said the decision had nothing to do with the merits of the case.
Critics fear Trump is undermining the justice department’s integrity and traditional independence, turning it into a White House arm subject to his political whims.
Bove took charge of Adams’ case after several senior prosecutors resigned rather than obey his order to dismiss it.
Danielle Sassoon, the interim Manhattan US attorney at the time, criticized what she viewed as a quid pro quo between Adams and her superiors.
Adams and Bove have denied any trade-off. The mayor’s lawyers initially agreed to a dismissal without prejudice but later asked Ho to dismiss the case for good, saying the publication of internal letters by Bove and Sassoon about the case meant Adams could never get a fair trial.
In light of the unusual joint dismissal request by Adams and the justice department, Ho sought an independent view from Paul Clement, a conservative who was solicitor general under George W Bush.
Clement, now in private practice, wrote on 14 March that the possibility of the case being brought again could hang “like the proverbial Sword of Damocles” over Adams.
“The prospect of reindictment could create the appearance, if not the reality, that the actions of a public official are being driven by concerns about staying in the good graces of the federal executive, rather than the best interests of his constituents,” he added.
Adams was elected mayor in November 2021. Before the indictment, he had already faced criticism because of the criminal histories of people in his inner circle, his frequent participation in the city’s nightlife scene and allegations that he did not actually live in the city, among other complaints from residents.
Neither Adams’ lawyer nor the justice department immediately responded to requests for comment.
Reuters contributed reporting
