Overview:
A federal decide dismissed the Division of Justice’s corruption case in opposition to New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams “with prejudice,” eliminating the opportunity of the Trump administration reopening it. The choice got here amid allegations that the dismissal was politically motivated to achieve Adams’ cooperation on immigration enforcement. The decide criticized the DOJ’s rationale and upheld the integrity of the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace.
By Greg B. Smith | April 2, 2025, 10:10 a.m.
A federal decide dismissed Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case Wednesday, eliminating the likelihood that the Trump Division of Justice might reopen the case but in addition squarely taking intention on the administration’s rationale for killing the case.
In dismissing the fees “with prejudice,” Manhattan Federal Decide Dale Ho rejected the Justice Division’s movement to dismiss the case “with out prejudice,” primarily based on the argument that the mayor’s indictment on bribery and marketing campaign finance fraud fees was interfering along with his capability to help the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement initiative.
“The whole lot right here smacks of a discount: dismissal of the indictment in trade for immigration coverage concessions,” the decide asserted.
Ho mentioned that dismissing the case with out prejudice would have created “the unavoidable notion that the Mayor’s freedom depends upon his capability to hold out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he may be extra beholden to the calls for of the federal authorities than to the desires of his personal constituents.”
The dismissal comes simply weeks earlier than the June 24 mayor major and a day earlier than the mayor is required to file petition signatures his marketing campaign is accumulating to get on the poll.
Final September, Manhattan federal prosecutors charged Adams with soliciting and accepting unlawful marketing campaign donations, together with some from international sources tied to the Turkish authorities, that helped him generate $10 million in public matching funds throughout his 2021 election to Metropolis Corridor. He additionally accepted greater than $120,000 in journey perks organized by the Turkish consulate, they alleged.
Adams denied wrongdoing and in February the newly arrived Trump Justice Division requested Ho to toss the case. However as a result of they left the door open to reopen it down the street, a refrain of elected officers and good authorities varieties charged that the mayor was now a hostage to the administration.
Four top deputies resigned in protest, and the mayor’s standing within the polls plummeted.
Ho took his time in ruling on the dismissal request, nonetheless, permitting third events to file so-called “buddy of the courtroom” briefs arguing each for dismissing the case with prejudice and holding a listening to to discover the character of the Justice Division’s choice. The division acknowledged that it had not examined the deserves of the case, and the performing Manhattan U.S. lawyer, Danielle Sassoon, refused to follow the order and resigned in protest.
The Justice Division’s movement to dismiss the case created an uproar that continues to resonate within the mayoral race.
The decide rejected an argument a number of third-party “mates of the courtroom” had made urging him to disclaim DOJ’s movement, arguing that the division’s causes for tossing the case have been in opposition to the general public curiosity.
He made a degree of stating that a lot of these arguments “have benefit,” agreeing with their assertions that the DOJ’s choice to hunt to dismiss the case with out assessing the deserves of the fees filed in opposition to the mayor raised severe questions on that motion’s integrity.
Ho zeroed in on the Trump administration’s declare that the mayor’s capability to cooperate with the administration’s efforts to deport undocumented people had been hamstrung by the point he needed to give attention to the indictment.
“Such an assertion is equally unsubstantiated,” he wrote, noting that shortly after the DOJ filed the movement to dismiss, Adams introduced he was planning to permit federal immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to function on Rikers Island — “an act that seems to be opposite to New York Metropolis legislation.”
“The report doesn’t present that this case has impaired Mayor Adams in his immigration enforcement efforts,” the decide wrote. “As a substitute it reveals that after the DOJ determined to hunt dismissal of his case, the Mayor took at the very least one new immigration associated motion in step with the preferences of the brand new administration.”
He additionally rejected claims that the Manhattan U.S. lawyer introduced the case for political causes. Appearing Deputy Lawyer Common Emil Bove, who filed the precise movement, had cited a January op-ed by former Manhattan U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams that criticized corruption in New York Metropolis and state authorities.
“There isn’t any proof — zero — that that they had any improper motives,” he wrote. “The report earlier than the Courtroom signifies that the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York prosecutors who labored on this case adopted all applicable Justice Division pointers.”
He additional took challenge with the DOJ’s rivalry that the timing of submitting of the fees — 9 months earlier than the first — was someway improperly interfering with the election. Ho asserted that the timing of the case “is solely in step with prior public corruption prosecutions.”
Inside an hour of Ho’s choice going public, Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, who has from the beginning attacked the case as weak, acknowledged, “The case in opposition to Eric Adams ought to have by no means been introduced within the first place — and eventually right now that case is gone without end. From Day 1, the mayor has maintained his innocence and now justice for Eric Adams and New Yorkers has prevailed.”
This text has been republished from The Metropolis. It was written by Greg B. Smith and printed on April 2, 2025 at 10:10 am. The unique article is offered right here: https://www.thecity.nyc/2025/04/02/mayor-eric-adams-corruption-case-dismissed.