DOJ Requests Mayor Eric Adams Corruption Charges Be Dropped
Written by djfrosty on February 11, 2025
Source: Newsday LLC / Getty
The Department of Justice has officially called for the federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped, sparking outrage.
On Monday evening (February 10), federal prosecutors in Manhattan received a letter from Emil Bove, the acting number 2 official at the Department of Justice directing them to drop the federal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Bove’s reasoning for calling for the dismissal of the charges was that they hindered Adams from being able to assist with the crackdown on immigrants in New York City, in addition to questioning the timing of Adams’ trial date in April being so close to the Democratic primary in June. “The Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based,” the memo read in part. There has been no word yet on the cases against other members of his cabinet arrested on similar charges.
The letter from Bove also appeared to suggest that the Justice Department made the decision believing Adams’ unsubstantiated allegations that the charges of wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions from foreign nationals, conspiracy, and bribery were brought by the Biden administration because of his disagreement with them over how to handle the influx of migrants into New York City. One notable element of the letter shows that the request to drop charges was “without prejudice,” meaning that the DOJ has the option to revisit the case in the future. The decision to dismiss now falls upon Danielle Sassoon, the acting head of the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, who could proceed with dropping the charges or decide not to. The latter choice could result in her being fired.
Adams’ critics and political opponents immediately decried the DOJ memo and called out Adams for heavily pandering to Trump to get the charges dropped. “Eric Adams sold out New Yorkers to buy his own freedom, but he’ll never escape the label of worst mayor in NYC history,” wrote Democratic State Senator Jessica Ramos, an opponent of Adams in the upcoming mayoral primary election. Public Advocate Juumane Williams released a scathing statement against Adams after the news broke, writing: Mayor Adams adopted a strategy of selling out marginalized New Yorkers and our city’s values to avoid personal and legal accountability. Well, it worked. I hope it was worth it.”