NEW YORK – New York City Mayor Eric Adams vowed to regain the public’s trust Tuesday as the Justice Department moved to halt his criminal corruption case, an extraordinary directive that officials said would free him up to assist in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
In his first public comments since federal prosecutors were ordered to drop the case, Adams said he was eager to “put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of this city.”
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He did not mention President Donald Trump by name but praised the Justice Department for its “honesty," adding that he would "never put any personal benefit above my solemn responsibility as your mayor.”
The mayor's brief address at City Hall came one day after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told federal prosecutors in Manhattan to dismiss the bribery charges “as soon as is practicable.”
In a two-page memo, Bove said the Justice Department reached the decision “without assessing the strength of the evidence.” Rather, he claimed the case was politically motivated and said the dismissal would allow Adams to “devote full attention and resources” to combating illegal immigration and violent crime.
After the memo was issued, Adams faced a barrage of criticism from some allies who say he is now beholden to the Trump administration’s agenda. Adams, who was elected as a centrist Democrat, had already shifted rightward following his indictment in September, praising Trump and expressing a willingness to roll back some of the city’s protections for undocumented migrants.
“It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the Mayor hostage,” Rev. Al Sharpton, an influential ally of Adams, said in a statement Tuesday. “I have supported the Mayor, but he has been put in an unfair position — even for him — of essentially political blackmail."
Several of the mayor's challengers in the Democratic party also suggested that he was compromised by the Justice Department's directive.
The task of carrying out the order now falls to Danielle Sassoon, a seasoned prosecutor who was appointed acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan just days after Trump took office.
Her office declined to comment and has not indicated what it plans to do next. In a letter sent last month, prosecutors in the Adams case praised the strength of the evidence, dismissing the mayor's claim of political prosecution as an attempt “to shift the focus away from the evidence of his guilt.”
Sassoon has limited power to oppose the order. She can be replaced at will by the Justice Department. Trump in November nominated Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to lead the office. His appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.
Under the terms laid out in the memo, the charges could still be refiled after the November mayoral election. Dismissal of the case should be conditional, Bove said, on Adams agreeing in writing that prosecutors are legally allowed to bring the charges back if they choose.
That means the threat of a renewed prosecution will hover over Adams in all of his dealings with the Trump administration while he is mayor.
Arlo Devlin-Brown, the former chief of public corruption at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, said the unusual conditions attached to the memo made it uncertain when the charges would be formally dismissed.
“I have not seen anything like this before,” he said. “For a case that’s already been charged to be reversed in the absence of some real new development in the merits of the case is highly unusual.”
Even with some uncertainty about what happens next, Adams struck a tone of vindication Tuesday, describing the criminal prosecution against him as an “unnecessary ordeal” that had been sensationalized in the media.
“Who I am is not in the headlines, it’s in my history,” he said. “As I said from the outset, I never broke the law and I never would.”
Federal prosecutors accused Adams of accepting illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks worth more than $100,000 — including expensive flight upgrades and luxury hotel stays — 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, including lobbying the Fire Department to allow a newly constructed diplomatic building to open in time for a planned visit by Turkey’s president.
Prosecutors also said they had evidence Adams personally directed campaign staffers to solicit foreign donations, then disguised those contributions to qualify for a city program that provides a generous, publicly funded match for small donations. Foreign nationals are banned from contributing to U.S. election campaigns under federal law.