Trump’s DOJ orders corruption case dropped against NYC mayor
The Trump administration ordered federal prosecutors to drop their corruption case against Eric Adams, marking a stunning reversal for New York City’s first sitting mayor in modern history to be charged with a federal crime.
The demand, made Monday in a memo by a high-ranking DOJ official, claimed the case against Adams was politically motivated and is preventing him from tackling immigration and violent crime.
The intervention, after months of Adams courting President Donald Trump, underscores the DOJ’s willingness to halt cases brought during the Biden administration. An end to the charges could clear an obstacle to the embattled mayor’s reelection bid, although rivals were quick to blast the move.
In a memo, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove argued the charges against Adams were tied to him criticizing the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Bove said the prosecution restricted Adams’ ability to “devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration.”
Adams has pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing, while refusing to step down. A spokesperson for the mayor didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Manhattan US Attorney’s office, which brought the case, declined to comment.
Federal prosecutors in September charged Adams, 64, with accepting illegal campaign donations and taking luxury travel upgrades in exchange for pressuring city fire officials to permit a new Turkish consulate office tower to open.
Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro, who has represented clients including Elon Musk, had pushed for a quick trial in hopes of clearing the mayor’s name in advance of the primaries in June. Adams was set to go to trial in April.
“As I said from the outset, the mayor is innocent — and he would prevail,” Spiro said in a statement on Monday. “Despite a lot of fanfare and sensational claims, ultimately there was no evidence presented that he broke any laws, ever. The witnesses that were promised never materialized. The additional charges that were threatened never came.”
Courting Trump
Adams, a Democrat, in recent months traveled to Florida to meet Trump at Mar-a-Lago and attended the Republican president’s inauguration and he has avoided criticizing him.
Adams has argued that as the mayor of the biggest US city, he has an obligation to work with the president. He vowed to cooperate with the White House to find ways to deport violent criminals and allow more cooperation between federal and local law enforcement on immigration.
“I’m going to make sure that I am not warring with the president,” Adams said a recent press briefing. “I’m working with the president.”
Adams’ critics, who questioned the mayor’s motives for his overtures to the new president, slammed the DOJ’s directive on Monday.
“The decision by Trump’s Department of Justice to drop charges against Eric Adams should outrage every single New Yorker,” said Brooklyn state Senator Zellnor Myrie, who is among those challenging Adams in the Democratic mayoral primary election in June.
Former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson, another candidate, called Adams “corrupt and an embarrassment to New York City.” Zohran Mamdani, an Assembly member from Queens who is also running, accused the mayor of running a “shameless campaign” to avoid legal accountability.
“In the midst of a right-wing billionaire assault on the working class of our city, he sold us out for another personal favor,” Mamdani said in a post on X. “Election Day can’t come soon enough.”
Remarkable Turn
The indictment of Adams, the second Black mayor in the city’s more than 400-year history, was a remarkable turn for the ex-cop and former Brooklyn borough president who beat a crowded field to win the mayor’s race, running on a law-and-order platform that pledged to make city government work better. Since his victory, though, his approval ratings in polls have sunk.
Adams, like Bove, has suggested he was politically targeted by prosecutors because of his outspoken criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of migrants at the southern border.
Damian Williams, the US attorney in Manhattan under Joe Biden, stepped down after November’s election. Trump picked former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Jay Clayton to lead the office.
SDNY is now being led on an interim basis by Danielle Sassoon, a senior prosecutor in the office who was on the team that prosecuted FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Trump, who was indicted on federal charges, has also claimed he has been unfairly targeted and expressed sympathy for Adams. The federal cases against Trump were dropped, citing a Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
“I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders,” Trump said at a charity dinner in New York last year. “We were persecuted, Eric.”
Straw Donors
Prosecutors claimed Adams benefited from the use of straw donors, who serve as conduits for money to evade campaign funding restrictions.
They also alleged the mayor took illegal campaign contributions and accepted luxury travel upgrades from Turkish officials. They also accused Adams of pressuring city Fire Department officials to let Turkey open the consulate building before it had passed inspection.
“Courtesies to politicians are not federal crimes,” Spiro, Adams’ attorney, said in a press conference responding to the initial charges. “Congressmen get upgrades. They get corner suites, they get better tables in restaurants. They get free appetizers. They have their iced tea filled up.”