Mayor Eric Adams steps out of his official automobile at Brooklyn’s Rehoboth Cathedral on Feb. 17, 2025.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
The federal choose in Mayor Eric Adams‘ corruption case scheduled a Feb. 19 hearing in which President Trump’s Justice Division should clarify its causes for transferring to drop the fees in opposition to Hizzoner final week.
Federal District Decide Dale Ho, in a Tuesday submitting, ordered that DOJ officers, Adams, and his authorized group attend the listening to, set for two p.m. on Wednesday on the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in Decrease Manhattan. He additionally ordered that Adams present his written consent to the DOJ’s movement to dismiss the fees by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Through the listening to, prime DOJ officers will clarify their reasoning for dismissing the case to Ho, after which he’ll decide whether or not or to not grant it.
“The government’s determination to abandon a prosecution is ‘entitled to great weight’ and to a ‘presumption [of] good faith[,] . . . but it is not conclusive upon the Court,’” Ho wrote in his submitting. “The parties shall be prepared to address, inter alia, the reasons for the Government’s motion, the scope and effect of Mayor Adams’s ‘consent[] in writing,’ ECF No. 122 at 1, and the procedure for resolution of the motion.”
If Ho declines to dismiss the case, the DOJ presumably would enchantment that call.
Mayor Eric Adams talking at a group violence intervention dialogue on Feb. 17, 2025.Benny Polatseck | Mayoral Pictures Workplace
The DOJ’s performing deputy lawyer common, Emil Bove, mentioned in a memo final week that its resolution to drop Adams’ expenses will not be based mostly on the details of the case or the authorized theories underlying it.
As a substitute, Bove argued the case needs to be dropped as a result of former US Legal professional Damian Williams introduced it for political causes, got here too near the 2025 mayor’s race, and distracted Adams from cooperating with Trump’s immigration crackdown.
DOJ requested for the case to be dropped with out prejudice, giving it the power to resurrect the fees at any time.
Bove’s memo, which Adams instantly claimed as vindication, set off a collection of resignations on the Justice Division involving prosecutors who refused to scuttle the case. Chief amongst them was performing US Legal professional Danielle Sassoon, who wrote a scathing letter to Bove during which she accused the mayor’s authorized group of exchanging his cooperation with Trump’s mass deportation agenda for dropping the fees in opposition to him.
Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, has fiercely denied Sassoon’s allegations.
Nonetheless, lots of New York’s elected leaders worry that Adams is now “compromised” as a result of he’s utterly beholden to Trump. That anxiousness has led to a contemporary spherical of requires him to both resign or for Gov. Kathy Hochul to take away him from workplace. It additionally spurred 4 Adams’ deputy mayors to submit their resignations on Monday.
Hochul is assembly with a number of prime metropolis elected officers, together with Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Metropolis Comptroller Brad Lander, to debate Adams’ future in Metropolis Corridor on Tuesday. The opportunity of Hochul transferring to oust Adams from workplace herself or urging metropolis leaders to convene the Committee on Mayoral Incapability, which may additionally take away the mayor, is on the desk.
Adams, for his half, has continued to insist that he did nothing fallacious and that he’s “going nowhere.”
The mayor was indicted in September on federal expenses, together with bribery and wire fraud. He’s accused of receiving luxurious journey perks and unlawful international marketing campaign donations in change for favors to the Turkish authorities.
