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DOJ officially files to dismiss Mayor Adams’ corruption case after delays, resignations
By
Samantha Max
and
Liam Quigley
Published Feb 14, 2025
Modified Feb 14, 2025
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Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office
By
Samantha Max
and
Liam Quigley
Published Feb 14, 2025
Modified Feb 14, 2025
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Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C. filed a motion Friday asking a judge to dismiss corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams four days after the Justice Department ordered its prosecutors in Manhattan to do so, and after half a dozen career prosecutors quit in protest of the Trump administration directive.
A judge must now sign off on the request, filed by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and two other prosecutors. There’s a chance Judge Dale Ho, who is hearing the mayor’s corruption case, could deny the motion but legal experts say that’s unlikely.
Bove sent a letter on Monday to the lead prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. In it, he directed her to stop pursuing the case, saying the indictment was filed too close to the election, and raising concerns about its potential political motivations. Bove also said the charges were impeding the mayor’s ability to focus on illegal immigration and violent crime. With Friday’s filing, the D.C. prosecutors are taking over the case from the Manhattan office.
In the filing, prosecutors asked for the case to be dismissed without prejudice — leaving the door open for charges to be filed again at a later date. Critics responding to Bove’s letter this week noted that would put the Trump administration in a position to hold the threat of prosecution over the mayor, even as Adams signals plans for greater cooperation with Trump on immigration enforcement and other matters.
Interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon responded two days after Bove’s directive with her own letter urging the Justice Department to reconsider. She said during a meeting she attended in late January, the mayor’s attorney pressed for a “quid-pro-quo” agreement to help the federal government with its enforcement initiatives if he were no longer facing prosecution.
“It is a breathtaking and dangerous precedent to reward Adams’ opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment,” she wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by the New York Times.
Sassoon resigned Thursday afternoon, followed by several high-ranking officials at the Justice Department and one of the lead prosecutors on Adams’ case.
In a sign of the controversy swirling around the move to dismiss, Bove filed Friday an appearance in the case, an unusual step for the second-highest-ranking official in the Justice Department. He wrote all ensuing litigation in the case will be handled by DOJ headquarters, rather than prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.
Attorneys for the SDNY also withdrew from the case in a filing made at the same time. The SDNY declined comment Friday evening.
Adams has repeatedly maintained his innocence and has said there’s no quid pro quo.
A spokesperson for the mayor Friday night referred any comment to Adams’ personal attorney, who Gothamist was not able to reach immediately. But hours before the filing Adams released a statement saying he wanted to be “crystal clear with New Yorkers.”
“I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never,” he said in the statement earlier Friday.
The dismissal of the case against Adams was “necessary and appropriate,” because of appearances of impropriety and because it could interfere with the 2025 New York City mayoral election, the Washington prosecutors wrote in the Valentine’s Day filing.
Justice Department officials also said in the filing that the proceedings against Adams would interfere with his ability to govern the city, posing “unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies.”
It said that was in part because Adams had been denied “access to sensitive information that the acting deputy attorney general believes is necessary for Adams to govern and to help protect the city.”
When the mayor appeared on “Fox and Friends” with ICE director Tom Homan Friday morning, Homan said he would be back in New York City if Adams “doesn’t come through” on his promises.
“I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’” Homan said.
This is a story has been updated with more information.
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public safety
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Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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