Justice Department orders dismissal of charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams

On Monday, the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, alleging that the case was interfering with the mayor’s capacity to help the president’s fight on illegal immigration.

In a two-page document acquired by The Associated Press, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove informed New York prosecutors that they had been “directed to dismiss” Adams’ bribery allegations immediately.

Bove stated that the decision was not based on an evaluation of the case’s merit, but rather because it came too close to Adams’ re-election campaign and distracted him from his attempts to support the administration’s law-and-order agenda.

“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime,” Bove wrote.

The memo also ordered prosecutors in New York not to take “additional investigative steps” against the Democrat until after November’s mayoral election, though it left open the possibility that charges could be refiled after that following a review.

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The intervention and reasoning — that a powerful defendant could be too occupied with official duties to face accountability for alleged crimes — marked an extraordinary deviation from long-standing Justice Department norms.

Public officials at the highest level of government are routinely investigated by the Justice Department, including during President Donald Trump’s first term, without prosecutors advancing a claim that they should be let off the hook to attend to government service.

An attorney for Adams, Alex Spiro, said the Justice Department’s order had vindicated the mayor’s claim of innocence. “Now, thankfully, the mayor and New York can put this unfortunate and misguided prosecution behind them.”

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A spokesperson for the the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, declined to comment. The case against Adams was brought under the previous U.S. attorney for the district, Damien Williams, who stepped down before Trump became president.

The memo follows months of speculation that Trump would take steps to end the case against Adams, who was charged in September with accepting bribes of free or discounted travel and illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals seeking to buy his influence.

Adams, a Democrat elected on a centrist platform, has moved noticeably right following his indictment, rankling some within his own party.

Rather than restricting cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as Adams once promised, he has expressed a willingness to roll back the city’s so-called sanctuary policies and pledged not to publicly criticize a president whose policies he once described as “abusive.”

Trump had hinted at the possibility of a pardon in December, telling reporters that the mayor had been “treated pretty unfairly.” He had also claimed, without offering evidence, that Adams was being persecuted for criticizing former President Joe Biden’s policies on immigration.

In response, prosecutors have noted that the investigation into Adams began before he began feuding with Biden over migrant funding.

Adams flew to Florida to meet with Trump on Jan. 17. Afterward, Adams said the two men hadn’t discussed his criminal case, but implied that Trump’s agenda would be better for New York than former President Joe Biden’s.

Trump, who was convicted last year of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment, has previously expressed solidarity with Adams.

“I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ, for speaking out against open borders,” Trump said in October at a Manhattan event attended by Adams. “We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric.”

The criminal case against Adams involves allegations that he accepted illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks worth more than $100,000 — including expensive flight upgrades, luxury hotel stays and even a trip to a bathhouse — while serving in his previous job as Brooklyn Borough president.

The indictment said a Turkish official who helped facilitate the trips then leaned on Adams for favors, at one point asking him to lobby the Fire Department to allow a newly constructed, 36-story diplomatic building to open in time for a planned visit by Turkey’s president.

Prosecutors also said they had evidence of Adams personally directing campaign staffers to solicit foreign donations, then disguising those contributions in order to qualify for a city program that provides a generous, publicly-funded match for small dollar donations. Foreign nationals are banned from contributing to U.S. election campaigns under federal law.

As recently as Jan. 6, prosecutors had indicated their investigation remained active, writing in court papers that they continued to “uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams.”

The task of carrying out the order to dismiss the case will fall to Sassoon, who assumed job the day after Trump took office. Her role was intended to be temporary. Trump in November nominated Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to the post, an appointment that must be confirmed by the Senate.

Federal agents had also been investigating other senior Adams aides. Prior to the mayor’s indictment, federal authorities seized phones from a police commissioner, schools chancellor, multiple deputy mayors and the mayor’s director of Asian Affairs. Each of those officials denied wrongdoing but have since resigned.

In December, Adams’ chief adviser and closest confidant, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was indicted by a state prosecutor — the Manhattan district attorney — on charges that she and her son accepted $100,000 in bribes related to real estate construction projects.