Mayor Adams and New York City on Friday sued President Trump and the federal government over the $80 million clawback of funds from a city’s bank account earlier this month.
The suit, filed in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, accuses the Trump administration with violating federal law by taking the grant money and argues that the feds must give the funds back and be prevented from dipping their fingers into the city’s pockets again.
“The $80 million that FEMA approved, paid and then rescinded — after the city spent more than $7 billion in the last three years — is the bare minimum our taxpayers deserve,” Adams said in a statement. “And that’s why we’re going to work to ensure our city’s residents get every dollar they are owed.”
The Trump administration revoked the more than $80 million payment from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program on Feb. 11, according to the suit. That take-back came after Elon Musk previously threatened to claw back funds that he falsely claimed the city had spent on housing migrants in “luxury hotels.”
The feds completed the “lawless money grab with a veneer of administrative process” and then attempted to “mask” that with court filings seeking the ability to withhold FEMA funds, Muriel Goode-Trufant, the city’s top lawyer, wrote in the complaint.
Days later, the federal government sent the city a “noncompliance” letter that did not specifically address any rules broken by the city, but instead relied on unsupported claims that the Roosevelt Hotel, one of many city migrant shelters that receives federal funding, was overwhelmed with crime and gang activity, according to the suit.
The city is seeking orders that would force the feds to give the funds back, stop them from taking further funds from city bank accounts and prevent them withholding future funds through the FEMA program.
The funds were disbursed through an Automated Clearing House, or ACH, transfer, the typical way government agencies electronically move money, according to the suit.
City Hall says it has spent around $7 billion in total on migrant services.
The funding drama has played out as the mayor has come under fire over the Trump Justice Department’s order to dismiss his federal corruption case. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote in that motion that Adams needed to be relieved of his case in order to better help carry out the president’s agenda in New York City.
The White House and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, whose office first found the clawback, took credit for the lawsuit in a statement.
“After my office discovered that Elon Musk and his DOGE goon squad stole $80 million out of the city’s coffers, we successfully pressured Mayor Adams to allow the city’s lawyers to sue the federal government to get our money back,” Lander said. “The lawyers who are standing up to President Trump and Eric Adams’ collusion deserve praise and we look forward to Donald Trump returning the money he stole from New York.”
