The judge presiding over the public corruption prosecution of Mayor Adams on Thursday gave the Justice Department until next week to challenge Adams’ new bid to get it thrown out, a move that will force Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to make a case why the government wants to leave the door open to refiling those charges.
That provision of the Justice Department’s “without prejudice” dismissal bid has unleashed a political firestorm, with critics surmising it leaves the mayor beholden to Trump with the threat of being hit anew with charges dangling over his head.
The mayor on Wednesday asked Manhattan Federal Judge Dale Ho, instead, to permanently dismiss the five-count indictment against him, arguing that prosecutors who recently quit rather than obey an order from Trump’s new senior Justice Department officials to drop the case had “destroyed whatever presumption of innocence” he had left.
If Adams’ dismissal motion were to succeed, the Justice Department would theoretically have no sway over him.
Adams’ bid was brought separately to an outstanding motion from Bove, who last week asked the court to dismiss the case without prejudice.
The motion, whose terms Adams consented to, said it was not based on a belief of whether Adams was innocent or guilty but a need for him to assist the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants encumbered by his criminal case. If granted, the feds could refile the case after this year’s mayoral election, Bove said at a hearing last week, where he urged Ho to dismiss the charges immediately.
The terms of that proposal have had far-reaching effects.
Before resigning, former Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi saying the dismissal motion she was asked to carry out stemmed from what amounted to a “quid pro quo,” which would see Adams let off the hook in exchange for giving the Trump administration carte blanche to carry out mass deportations in a city home to nearly half a million undocumented immigrants.
She said she’d been prepared to hit the mayor with more charges, accusing him of trying to hide his crimes from the FBI and instructing others to do the same.
Last week, Judge Ho appointed independent counsel to advise him on the Justice Department’s dismissal motion and prepare “adversarial” arguments before he makes a decision. He brought in a third party after hearing from Bove and Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, in court, where both denied the existence of a quid pro quo and argued for the same result.
This new order potentially now pits the two sides against each other, asking the Justice Department to oppose — if it so wishes — the mayor’s effort to can the case by March 7.
If the Justice Department does not oppose Adams’ motion, it would contradict their outstanding request to Ho. However, anything is possible, especially in light of AG Bondi repeating allegations the mayor has made that he was a victim of a politicized prosecution. Last week, she told reporters the “incredibly weak case” was filed by the Justice Department under the Biden administration “to make deportation harder.”
Adams’ claims, repeated by Bondi, that the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office under its former head Damian Williams retaliated against him for criticizing Biden’s handling of the migrant crisis is belied by the fact the criminal probe into his fundraising and dealings with foreign actors began months before he became mayor.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to all charges in the case, which accuse him of trading his political power for more than a decade for lavish benefits from wealthy Turkish officials and businessmen. The indictment further accuses him of seeking illegal campaign donations from his benefactors that were funneled through U.S. citizens and maximized with New York City taxpayers’ dollars.
Spiro and Bove did not respond to requests for comment.
