Justice Dept. Orders Fed Prosecutors to Drop Corruption Case Against Mayor Adams

The Trump Justice Department has ordered federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to drop the five-count corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams.

The letter that Emil Bove, the acting number two in the US Justice Dept sent a letter to the recently appointed acting US attorney in the Southern District, Danielle Sassoon, said: “You are directed, as authorized by the Attorney General, to dismiss the pending charges in the United States v. Adams...as soon as practicable subject to” a number of conditions. A copy of the two page letter was first obtained by the New York Times followed by the Association Press and Reuters. The order conceded that the Justice Department is ordering the dismissal without looking at the merits of the actual five-count criminal indictment that was handed down against Trump in late September.

“The Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based, which we defer to the U.S. Attorney’s at this time,” the note to Sassoon said.

The letter pushed the notion that Adams’ opposition to the immigration policies of the Biden Administration prompted the original charges. “The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to... illegal immigration and violent crime,” stated the letter from Bove, who had been Trump’s former personal lawyer in the hush money trial.

Prosecutors at the time of the original indictment said that they had been building the case since 2021 before Adams was even sworn in as mayor and before the immigration crisis that sent over 220,000 migrants to the city over the past two years.

Adams, a Democrat who is running far behind in polls handicapping his odds in the upcoming primary, has been cozying up to President Trump for months. Last month, Adams skipped out on his previous commitments for Martin Luther King day in the city to accept a post-midnight invite to attend the Presidential inauguration in Washington D.C. on Jan. 20. He was driven by car to the event, departing NYC around 3 a.m.

He ended up watching the feed in an overflow room filled with Trump supporters.

His trip to D.C. that day came only three days after he made a personal visit to Trump’s golf course residence in Palm Beach, FL at Mar-a-Lago and met with Trump.

Adams had insisted that his federal corruption case, which was slated to go to trial in April, never came up in his meeting with Trump.

As news was breaking on the evening of Feb. 10, Adams was dining with John Catsimatidis, a former Republican candidate for mayor and owner of the right leaning WABC 770 AM radio station as well as chairman of Gristede’s and D’Agostino’s. Catsimatidis reportedly said he was the one who broke the news to Adams.

Since news of the indictment last September followed by raids and “retirements” of more than a dozen of the top aids to Adams, mayor Adams has generally refrained from speaking about the case, referring questions to his high powered criminal defense lawyer, Alex Spiro.

Spiro was ebullient over the latest move. “I said from the outset, the mayor is innocent, and he would prevail. Today he has.”

On Feb. 12, Adams finally addressed the media on the topic. “As I said from the outset, I never broke the law, and I never would. I would never put any personal benefit above my solemn responsibility as your mayor.”

He continued: “It is worth repeating the facts because many sensational and false claims have been made. So let me be clear, I never asked anyone to break the law on my behalf or on behalf of my campaign, never. And I absolutely never traded my power as an elected official for any personal benefit.”

It was getting more complicated for Adams as the president of a construction company pleaded guilty to setting up ten straw donors, where he directly reimbursed ten of his employees for kicking in money to Adams election campaign four years ago.

Erden Arkan, a Turkish American businessman and co-owner of KSK Construction, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in federal court after acknowledging he gave $1,250 checks from KSK to 10 employees who then kicked in that amount to the Adams campaign.

Technically, the Justice Department said the case could be reevaluated after the November election because it is ordered to be dismissed “without prejudice” meaning it could resume.

Adams had pleaded not guilty to the charges filed in late September that included accepting travel perks and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish business executives. He is also accused of pressuring fire department officials to waive safety violations at a multi-million dollar Turkish government high rise near the United Nations.

Adams has declined to criticize Trump even before the November election and has twice met with Tom Roman, the Trump border czar.

In recent days, his memo to city workers telling them to cooperate with ICE if they felt they were “threatened” has been sharply criticized by his Democratic opponents. On Feb. 13, Michael Mulgrew, head of the powerful United Federation of Teachers blasted Adams stance in an open letter to the mayor.

“The fact that the Justice Department is holding you hostage on your criminal case does not mean that you are free to ignore your responsibilities to the children and educators of New York City,” Mulgrew wrote.

“Since January, when you refused to answer questions about ICE agents’ ability to enter public buildings, you have created a climate of fear that New York City educators have had to deal with,” Mulgrew said.

And days after dropping the case, the Trump Administration said it clawing back over $80 million in federal aid to the city for migrant hotels. Sources told the New York Post that Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan was “not happy” as Adams was summoned to a meeting with him downtown on Feb. 13.

Ultimately, pulling the plug on the case now resides with Danielle Sassoon, who was appointed the acting US Attorney in the Southern District by the Trump Justice Department only last month, replacing Damian Williams. Technically she must still go before Judge Dale E. Ho to formally withdraw the case. And since the case is being dismissed “with prejudice” it could be revived after the November election, although most observers thought that after today’s move that it would be very doubtful the case would be revived

The note from Bove was sharply critical of Williams. “The timings of the charges and more recent public actions by the former US Attorney responsible for initiating the case have threatened the integrity of the proceedings,” Bove said in the letter ordering the case to be dropped. Williams had written an op-ed for the Times after he left office.

There are at least a half dozen candidate looking to unseat Adams in the June 24 Democratic primary and they were quick to blast the order from the Justice Department ordering the prosecution to be dropped.

”The only New Yorker breathing a sign of relief right now is Eric Adams,” said Scott Stringer, a former City Comptroller and former Manhattan borough president who is running for mayor.

Brad Lander, the current city comptroller who is looking to unseat Adams said, “The hardworking people of New York City deserve a government and leadership they can trust. Right now, they don’t have it.

Jessica Ramos, another mayoral candidate also blasted away. “Eric Adams sold out Nt ew Yorkers to buy his own freedom, but he’ll never escape the label of worst mayor in NYC history.”

State Sen. Zellnor Marie from Brooklyn said: “We already know that Eric Adams has sacrificed the safety and sanctity of our schools and public hospitals to curry favor with this fascist Administration. How many more of our rights and freedoms did the Mayor give up to save his own skin?”

Comptroller Brad Lander, who opted not to run for re-election in order to jump into the primary race against Adams, is now calling on Gov. Kathy Hochul to remove him from office.