The Justice Department will move to drop its corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, it has been announced.
On Monday, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed that the US District Court in the Southern District of New York should drop the federal case against Adams and dismiss it without prejudice.
“You are directed, as authorized by the Attorney General, to dismiss the pending charges in United States v. Adams… as soon as is practicable, subject to the following conditions,” Bove wrote in a memo, obtained by The Independent.
“The Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based, which are issues on which we defer to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at this time.”
It comes after weeks of speculation that Adams had been speaking with President Donald Trump about handling his federal criminal case. The Democratic mayor who was accused of accepting bribes and campaign contributions from foreign nationals.
It was a win for Adams, a Democrat who fervently maintained his innocence and insinuated the charges were politically motivated as a form of retaliation for criticizing former president Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
Despite being on the opposite political spectrum as Trump, Adams sought to strengthen his relationship with the president who also faced federal criminal indictments that he asserted were politically motivated.
The mayor broke from his party’s typical criticisms about Trump and praised the president’s anti-immigration agenda, believing it would benefit New York City which has seen a surge in the number of migrants. Adams previously said the city did not have the resources to support the influx and criticized the Biden administration for not providing him with federal support.
Trump later said he would consider pardoning Adams.
Adams was indicted by federal prosecutors in New York in September after a years-long investigation into alleged corruption within the mayor’s circle.
They alleged he unlawfully accepted more than $100,000 in benefits, many in the form of travel luxuries, from the Turkish government in exchange for helping expedite the Turksih consulate building in Manhattan.
Prosecutors also accused the mayor of accepting campaign donations through an illegal “straw donor” scheme and the used a public matching fund program to increase the amount.
Adams, who is running for re-election, was supposed to go to trial in April.
The move from the Justice Department is a clear indication that the president is prepared to interfer with judicial matters that he deems unfair.
Adams’ case was made all the more prevalent for Trump due to his status as the mayor of New York City which is considered a “sanctuary city” for immigrants.
Trump and his administration have begun targeted large cities such as New York to begin Trump’s promised mass deportation plan to forcibly remove millions of undocumented immigrants. The administration had asked leadership in sactuary cities to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement officers.
In January, Adams said the city would “not hesitate to partner with federal authorities to bring violent criminals to justice” when asked about immigration enforcement conducting sweeps in New York and directing the New York Police Department to work with those officials.
This appeared to solidify that Adams and Trump had become immigration allies.
Earlier this month, Adams attended Trump’s inauguration at the last minute, canceling his appearance for various Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in New York. He later appeared on far-right conservative pundit Tucker Carlson’s show.
Then on Friday, Adams’ defense lawyer, Alex Spiro, was seen meeting with Justice Department officials in Washington D.C.
