Adams Ditches Dems, Plans to Run as Independent after Judge Dismisses Criminal Case

After six weeks of deliberation, a federal district court judge on April 2 dismissed the five count criminal indictment filed against Mayor Eric Adams last September.

On April 3, the deadline day to submit petitions to get on the ballot to run for reelection in the June 24 Democratic primary, Adams said he is instead going to avoid the primary altogether and run for reelection as an independent candidate.

The move will give him time to regroup and avoids a potentially embarrassing defeat in primary, where recent polls said he was in third place with only single digit support among likely Democratic voters. He trailed both former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had a commanding lead in his comeback bid, and Queens Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, a 33 year-old progressive who has been endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of New York.

In his ruling dismissing the case, Judge Dale Ho said he was dismissing the case “with prejudice” meaning federal prosecutors could not resurrect the case against the mayor at a later date.

“As you have heard, this case, the judge has dismissed it with prejudice, making it clear that it never can be brought back,” Adams said in a hastily called press conference at Gracie Mansion on April 2. “Let me be clear. As I’ve said all along, this case should have never been brought. And I did nothing wrong. I’m now happy that our city can finally close the book on this and focus solely on the future of our great city.”

Adams made no secret of his estrangement from the Democratic party at that press conference when he held up a book, “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth and the Battle for Our Democracy,” by deep state conspiracy believer Kash Patel. He has claimed in the book that there is a cabal of top Democratic officials who set out to destroy Trump. Patel, a podcaster who was appointed by Trump to head the FBI, boasted he plans to shut down the FBI HQ and turn it into a Deep State Museum. Adams recommended that all New Yorkers should read Patel’s book.

While Adams won’t face criminal prosecution, the fallout from the indictment filed last September is far from over. The claim leveled by many critics, and denied by Adams, is that the mayor, in exchange for the DOJ dropping the charges, will now aid the Trump administration in its crackdown on illegal and violent immigrants.

The original case said Adams had accepted expensive overseas travel via Turkish Airlines going back to his days as Brooklyn Borough President. The original indictment also charged that as the Democratic nominee for mayor in 2021, he had pushed to get a Turkish government skyscraper approved for opening even though it had outstanding fire code violations. It also said his campaign used illegal “straw donors” to send illegal foreign money donations to his election campaigns.

The Trump DOJ conceded the decision to order the Southern District of New York to drop the charges was based on Adams’s ability to help the administration deal with the immigration crackdown, and not based on the merits of the case against him. And at the time, the DOJ said it could also resume the case after the November election--in legal terms that would be dismissing the case “without prejudice.”

Judge Ho in his ruling 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.” So Ho reluctantly closed the door on that part noting that a judge could not force the DOJ to bring charges against anyone.

Even while ruling in favor of the DOJ’s decision to reverse its own prosecutors and seek dismissal, Ho was critical of the way the Trump Justice Department handled the case. “Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” Ho wrote.

But at the same time, he shot down the claim advanced by Adams that the Biden Administration brought the case because the mayor was sharply critical of the federal response to the immigration crisis in New York.

”The Southern District of New York prosecutors who worked on this case followed all appropriate Justice Department guidelines,” Ho wrote. “There is no evidence--zero--that they had any improper motives,” Ho concluded.

The shadow of the case has hobbled Adams potential re-election campaign. The campaign finance board had disallowed his request for $4 million matching funds for his re-election campaign in December due to the indictment. THE CITY, a not for profit news service, reported only last week that Adams, despite his insistence that he was “fighting” to get matching funds restored, had yet to file anything beyond a one paragraph request from an attorney in December regarding an appeal of the decision.

Adams invoked God and Jesus in his address outside Gracie Mansion on April 2 after the charges were dropped.

“So today we turn the page, we move forward together, because the real story of New York City isn’t about me or this case, it’s about you and the bright future we’re building together,” Adams said. “I want to say God bless you, New York City, and God bless what we have accomplished. Many of you know my faith.

“When all that came at me, Jesus stepped in, and he uses who he uses. And New Yorkers stop me all the time in trying to find the rationale behind this, and I found it in this book,” he said, waving a copy of the book “Government Gangsters” by new FBI director Patel. “I’m going to encourage every New Yorker to read it. Read it and understand how we can never allow this to happen to another innocent American. God bless you.”

In a poll from Quinnipiac College released last month, Adams had a job approval rating of only 20 percent.