US government to dismiss graft case against NYC mayor

The US Justice Department filed court papers Friday to dismiss a corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, despite a barrage of resignations from prosecutors who refused to drop the charges.

Adams, who pleaded not guilty in September to charges of fraud and bribery, has denied allegations he asked for the case to be dropped in exchange for enforcing President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda.

The Justice Department motion seeks dismissal without prejudice — meaning the case could still be prosecuted in the future and would hang over Adams’s head as he runs for re-election in November.

NBC reported that acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove promised leadership positions to government lawyers who agreed to file the dismissal motion, which must still be approved by a judge.

Several prosecutors in the Southern District of New York who brought the charges resigned over the Justice Department order to drop the case.

The most recent was assistant US attorney Hagan Scotten, who said Friday only a “fool” or a “coward” would comply.

Scotten’s boss, acting US attorney Danielle Sassoon, submitted her resignation to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday while several members of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, which handles corruption cases, also quit this week after refusing to dismiss the Adams indictment.

Pressure has been mounting on the Democratic mayor to resign or for New York Governor Kathy Hochul to remove him as leader of the largest US city.

– Adams denial –
“I want 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,” Adams said.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said he knew “nothing about the individual case” but it looked to be “very political” coming ahead of Adams’s reelection bid.

The president said the prosecutors who resigned were “mostly people from the previous administration” who were “going to all be gone and dismissed.”

Sassoon, the acting US attorney, is a Republican and was appointed by Trump while his permanent nominee awaits Senate confirmation.

A graduate of Yale Law School and a member of the conservative Federalist Society, Sassoon led the 2023 prosecution of disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried.

Scotten, a decorated US Army veteran and Harvard Law School graduate, was a former clerk to conservative US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.

Department of Justice chief of staff Chad Mizelle said the decision to drop the Adams indictment is “yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts.”

“The fact that those who indicted and prosecuted the case refused to follow a direct command is further proof of the disordered and ulterior motives of the prosecutors,” Mizelle said in a statement. “Such individuals have no place at DOJ.”

– Blistering resignation –
In asking for the charges against Adams to be dropped, Bove said the prosecution was restricting the mayor’s “ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime.”

Scotten sent Bove a blistering resignation email, which was published online by multiple news outlets.

“No system of liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives,” Scotten said.

“Our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials,” he said.

“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion,” he said. “But it was never going to be me.”

Hochul, the New York governor, in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, denounced the Justice Department’s interference in the Adams case calling it “unbelievably unprecedented.”

Asked if she would remove Adams as mayor, Hochul said: “The allegations are extremely concerning and serious, but I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction.”

The Justice Department, which Trump has accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office and a number of high-ranking officials have been fired, demoted or reassigned.