A Manhattan judge on Wednesday dismissed the federal corruption charges levied against New York City Mayor Eric Adams last fall, partially granting the Trump-era Department of Justice’s request to drop the case.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho, who presided over the Democratic mayor’s case in the Southern District of New York, permanently dismissed the charges in a highly anticipated decision.
In February, the DOJ ordered federal prosecutors to stop pursuing the case and subsequently asked the judge to dismiss the case without prejudice. That would have allowed prosecutors to refile charges against Adams in the future if the DOJ wanted to do so.
Ho dismissed the indictment with prejudice, meaning the prosecution cannot be revived based on the same evidence used in the original case.
The DOJ’s move, spearheaded by former acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, sparked accusations that the Trump administration and Adams were engaged in a “quid pro quo” agreement, in which the mayor’s charges would have been dropped as a way of ensuring his cooperation with enforcing the White House’s immigration agenda. Adams denied the allegations of a quid pro quo.
In his order, Ho wrote that 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, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents.”
The Biden-appointed judge described that perception as “inevitable” and concluded that “it counsels in favor of dismissal with prejudice.”
Adams requested a dismissal with prejudice, to which the DOJ did not object.
In September, Adams was indicted on five counts of corruption related to his alleged acceptance of benefits, such as free luxury travel from Turkish officials, in exchange for pressuring city inspectors to open a new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan without a proper fire inspection. Adams pleaded not guilty.
The New York City mayor has suggested his indictment was politically motivated because of his criticisms of the Biden administration’s lax immigration policies.
President Donald Trump’s DOJ sparked a political firestorm almost two months ago after department leadership ordered the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office to drop the case. The DOJ then filed its motion to dismiss, explaining the case needed to be dropped because it would interfere with Adams’s reelection campaign this year and prevent him from carrying out his duties pertaining to “public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies.”
Bove, the court filing states, “reached that conclusion after learning, among other things, that as a result of these proceedings, Adams has been denied access to sensitive information that the Acting Deputy Attorney General believes is necessary for Adams to govern and to help protect the City.”
Several prosecutors, including the top attorney in the Southern District of New York, immediately resigned in protest of the department’s efforts to dismiss the corruption case. Acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon was the first to quit, saying she couldn’t dismiss the case due to her integrity.
In her resignation letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon wrote that Adams’s lawyers "repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed."
While she faced criticism for refusing to fall in line with the Justice Department, Sassoon was appointed to the interim position by Trump’s team. The conservative attorney previously served as a law clerk for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and contributed to the Federalist Society.
More resignations followed, this time from City Hall. Several deputy mayors departed the Adams administration, initially prompting Governor Kathy Hochul to consider removing the mayor from office. Hochul later said she would not be removing Adams. Instead, she promised to unveil new state and city bills that would increase oversight of City Hall.
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