NEW YORK — The Trump Administration on Monday ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, arguing in a remarkable departure from longstanding norms that the case was interfering with the mayor’s ability to aid the President’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
In a two-page memo obtained by The Associated Press, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, the second in command at the Justice Department, told prosecutors in New York that they were “directed to dismiss” the bribery charges against Adams immediately.
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He said the order was not based on any assessment of the strength of the case, but rather because it had come too close to Adams re-election campaign and distracted from his efforts to assist in the administration’s priorities.
“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime,” Bove wrote.
The intervention and reasoning—that a powerful defendant could be too occupied with official duties to face accountability for alleged crimes—marked an extraordinary deviation from long-standing Justice Department norms, which typically afford independence to federal prosecutors.
Public officials at the highest level of government are routinely investigated by the Justice Department, including Trump while he was president, without prosecutors advancing a claim that they should be let off the hook to attend to government service.
The move followed months of speculation that Trump’s Justice Department would take steps to end the criminal case against Adams, a Democrat who was accused of accepting bribes of free or discounted travel and illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals seeking to buy his influence.
After Adams was indicted in September, he shifted his tone on Trump, rankling some in his own party for his public praise of the Republican and his hardline immigration agenda. The memo came hours after Adams directed his top officials not to publicly criticize Trump, including the President’s hardline immigration policies.
An attorney for Adams, Alex Spiro, said the Justice Department’s order had vindicated the mayor’s claim of innocence. “Now, thankfully, the mayor and New York can put this unfortunate and misguided prosecution behind them.”
A spokesperson for the Southern District of New York prosecutors who had been ordered to drop the charges, Nicholas Biase, declined to comment.
Trump had hinted at the possibility of a pardon in December, telling reporters that the mayor had been “treated pretty unfairly.” He had also claimed, without offering evidence, that Adams was being persecuted for criticizing former President Joe Biden’s policies on immigration.
After Trump’s inauguration, Adams’ lawyers had approached senior Justice Department officials, asking them to intervene and drop the case.
Adams then flew to Florida to meet with Trump on Jan. 17. Afterward, he said the two men hadn’t discussed his criminal case or the possibility of a pardon, but implied that Trump’s agenda would be better for New York than former President Joe Biden’s.
Trump, who was convicted last year of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment, has previously expressed solidarity with Adams.
“I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ, for speaking out against open borders,” Trump said in October at a Manhattan event attended by Adams. “We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric.”
The criminal case against Adams involves allegations that he accepted illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks worth more than $100,000—including expensive flight upgrades, luxury hotel stays and even a trip to a bathhouse—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, at one point asking him to lobby the Fire Department to allow a newly constructed, 36-story diplomatic building to open in time for a planned visit by Turkey’s president.
Prosecutors also said they had evidence of Adams personally directing campaign staffers to solicit foreign donations, then disguising those contributions in order to qualify for a city program that provides a generous, publicly-funded match for small dollar donations. Foreign nationals are banned from contributing to U.S. election campaigns under federal law.
Damien Williams, the former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, stepped down after Trump’s election victory. But as recently as Jan. 6, prosecutors had indicated their investigation remained active, writing in court papers that they continued to “uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams.”
The task of carrying out the order to dismiss the case will fall to the acting U.S. attorney for Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon, who assumed job the day after Trump took office. Her role was intended to be temporary. Trump in November nominated Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to the post, an appointment that must be confirmed by the Senate.
Federal agents had also been investigating other senior Adams aides. Prior to the mayor’s indictment, federal authorities seized phones from a police commissioner, schools chancellor, multiple deputy mayors and the mayor’s director of Asian Affairs. Each of those officials denied wrongdoing but have since resigned.
In December, Adams’ chief adviser and closest confidant, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, was indicted by a state prosecutor—the Manhattan district attorney—on charges that she and her son accepted $100,000 in bribes related to real estate construction projects.
—Durkin Richer and Tucker contributed from Washington.
