Mayor Eric Adams delivers remarks at Maranatha Baptist Church in Queens on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025.
Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Mayor Eric Adams went to church Sunday in Queens amid mounting strain to resign or be faraway from workplace and made one factor clear to congregants: “I am going nowhere.”
Adams paid a go to to the Sunday service at Maranatha Baptist Church in Queens Village on Feb. 16 as requires him to stop his publish — or be faraway from it by Gov. Kathy Hochul — elevated steadily prior to now week after the Trump Justice Division moved to dismiss his legal indictment “without prejudice.”
However on Sunday, Hizzoner assured the devoted that he was “not going to step down, [but] I’m going to step up.” As he has executed earlier than, he leaned in on his Christian religion, saying that God had advised him to “rise up” and combat again towards the assorted trials he has confronted since taking workplace in January 2022.
“God has fortified me, and no matter what you read in the headlines, no matter what you hear, they want to fight me; I’m going to fight for you,” Adams advised the congregation Sunday. “They danced on my grave when I was indicted. … And God said, ‘Eric, rise up.’ They’re dancing on my grave now.”
Churchgoers of Maranatha Baptist Church pray for Mayor Adams. on Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
Hizzoner advised churchgoers that they “have a man of God at City Hall” and that he would “continuously live out the purpose that He has given you at every level.”
The church look marked the beginning of what may be probably the most pivotal week in Adams’ political life. Quite a few high-ranking elected officers throughout the town have referred to as for his resignation or removing from workplace out of concern over an alleged “quid pro quo” with the Trump administration.
Emil Bove, appearing deputy lawyer basic appointed by Trump, ordered U.S. Lawyer for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Danielle Sassoon on Feb. 10 to drop the election fraud case towards Mayor Adams “without prejudice” over alleged considerations about political retribution in the course of the Biden administration and that the approaching trial could intrude with Adams’ skill to help the Trump administration in its crackdown on unlawful immigration.
Two days later, on Feb. 12, Sassoon advised U.S. Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi her unwillingness to adjust to Bove’s order, including that Adams’ attorneys supplied what she noticed as an unethical “quid pro quo”: An settlement to cooperate with the Trump regime on countering unlawful immigration in alternate for dropping the case. The following day, Sassoon resigned, as did seven different federal prosecutors who refused to execute Bove’s order.
Late on Friday, a Justice Division official filed a movement to dismiss the Adams case “without prejudice” — that means that federal prosecutors might resurrect it at any time. This left many metropolis elected officers and Adams critics fearful that the mayor is being coerced into compliance with Trump on his immigration targets.
Amid these developments, Governor Hochul — who has the authority within the Metropolis Constitution to droop and/or take away a sitting mayor from workplace on expenses — mentioned Thursday she was mulling her subsequent steps and never ruling out taking such motion towards Adams.
