The Department of Justice (DOJ) directed the Southern District of New York to drop charges against Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams on Monday, a decision that can help President Donald Trump in his mass deportations operation, according to multiple reports.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove called on the U.S. Attorney to dismiss all charges, a DOJ official told NBC News. They are to be dismissed without prejudice and a new U.S. Attorney will review, according to the official. A new attorney has not yet been confirmed.
A motion must be put before a judge by the attorney’s office and be approved, according to the outlet. Prosecutors serving with the Southern District of New York may refused to abide by the DOJ’s decision.
Adams was indicted in September on five federal charges connected to illegal contributions to his 2021 campaign. Trump’s DOJ wants the charges dropped in part because they have “unduly restricted” Adams’ ability to deal with the migration crisis, according to multiple reports. Adams cannot have an active security clearance during the investigation, which the DOJ says makes it extraordinarily difficult for him to coordinate with immigration officials on deportation proceedings, the reports state. (RELATED: Dem Mayor Facing Biden DOJ Indictment Says He’s ‘Looking Forward’ To ‘Partnering’ With Trump Admin)
The pending prosecution has restricted Adams’ ability to “devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that has escalated under the policies of the prior Administration,” Bove wrote in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
Bove also wrote that the decision was not meant to call into question the attorneys who brought the case against Adams but that the timing of the charges alongside “more recent actions” by Damian Williams, the attorney who once led the New York office, has “threatened the integrity of the proceedings, including by increasing prejudicial pretrial publicity that risks impacting potential witnesses and the jury pool,” the letter says, according to the AP.
DOJ lawyers met with Adams’ defense lawyers as well as the federal prosecutors bringing the charges against him to discuss the possibility that the case could be dropped, the New York Times reported Jan. 31. Senior DOJ officials had previously been in talks ahead of the meeting with federal prosecutors about dropping the case they had against Adams, the NYT reported on Jan. 29.
Mayor Eric Adams departs from NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s “State of the NYPD” Address at Cipriani 42nd Street on January 30, 2025 in New York City. The Justice Department is reportedly in talks to drop its corruption case against Mayor Adams. Adams is schedule to stand trial on federal corruption charges on April 21, 2025. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Adams is pleading not guilty to the charges brought against him. The September indictment alleges that Adams “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him” for almost ten years.
Adams was charged with one count of wire fraud, two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, one count of bribery and another count of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals,” according to the 57-page indictment.
“As ADAMS’s prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that ADAMS would become New York City’s mayor,” the indictment claims. “ADAMS agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received.”
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