NY Daily News
A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed sweeping public corruption charges against Mayor Adams “with prejudice,” blasting the Trump administration’s bid to potentially revive them while leveraging the mayor’s help in hardline immigration enforcement as a “disturbing” bargain.
While
the judgment caps a months long legal saga by letting Adams off the
hook, Manhattan Federal Judge Dale Ho’s decision was not based on the merits of the case against him
or a belief of whether he was innocent or guilty. It served as a
searing condemnation of the Justice Department’s position that it could
drop the case to secure the mayor’s cooperation on immigration matters,
which he called “disturbing in its breadth.”
“DOJ’s
immigration enforcement rationale is both unprecedented and
breathtaking in its sweep. DOJ cites no examples, and the Court is
unable to find any, of the government dismissing charges against an
elected official because doing so would enable the official to
facilitate federal policy goals,” Ho wrote in his 78-page decision.
“And DOJ’s assertion that it has ‘virtually unreviewable’
license to dismiss charges on this basis is disturbing in its breadth,
implying that public officials may receive special dispensation if they
are compliant with the incumbent administration’s policy priorities.
That suggestion is fundamentally incompatible with the basic promise of
equal justice under law.”
Less than a month after Trump
took office, Emil Bove — Trump’s former criminal defense attorney turned
top Justice Department official — on Feb. 14 asked Ho to dismiss the case without prejudice, which would have meant federal authorities could bring it again, a provision Adams agreed to.
Bove
argued that the case had national security implications by restricting
Adams’s ability to cooperate with the feds on immigration matters,
interfered with the mayor’s ability to govern, and was improperly filed
within nine months of the mayoral primary. Bove declined to comment on
Ho’s decision when reached by the Daily News on Wednesday.
Ho rejected assertions that the timing of the case was improper as
“not just thin, but pretextual,” finding it was entirely consistent with
previous public corruption prosecutions.
His ruling was in line with the findings of an independent lawyer, Paul Clement, who he appointed to advise him on the matter. The former solicitor general under President George W. Bush recommended that the judge dismiss the case for good. Clement found that the possibility
of the mayor feeling indebted to the president rather than New Yorkers
out of fear that he could be reindicted was “deeply troubling.”
“In
light of DOJ’s rationales, dismissing the case without prejudice would
create the unavoidable perception that the Mayor’s freedom depends on
his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the
administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the
federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents,” Ho
wrote.
“[After] DOJ decided to seek dismissal of his case, the Mayor took at least one new immigration-related action consistent
with the preferences of the new administration. Everything here smacks
of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration
policy concessions,” the judge later added, referencing Adams’s decision
to let ICE operate on Rikers, which he said appeared “to be contrary to
New York City law.”
In addition to the government’s motion, Ho had to consider a separate request from the embattled Democratic mayor to toss the charges permanently and arguments from former federal judges and prosecutors, which urged him to scrutinize the terms behind the dismissal deal closely and consider appointing a special prosecutor.
Ho
found that even if he were to deny the bid to dismiss the case, it
would almost “certainly” be futile, with prosecutors able to run out the
clock by delaying the trial that was set to start this month by more
than 70 days, which would lead to a dismissal.
“[A]bsent a sudden change of heart at DOJ, such a denial would produce only a staring contest,” Ho wrote.
In
a brief appearance outside his Gracie Mansion residence after Ho’s
order, Adams said he’s “happy that our city can finally close the book”
on his indictment and railed against the press and his critics for
spreading what he called “false” information about his criminal case.
Throughout
his opinion on Wednesday, Ho, a Biden appointee, noted it was not based
on the case’s merits. He entirely rejected parts of the DOJ and the
mayor’s claims that the prosecutors who were trying the case before the
Trump administration intervened had political motivations.
Both
sides also lobbed accusations at former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian
Williams, accusing him of bringing the prosecution that stemmed from an
investigation that began before Adams won the 2021 mayoral election for
personal gain. Williams declined to comment when reached by The News
Wednesday.
“[The] Southern
District of New York prosecutors who worked on this case followed all
appropriate Justice Department guidelines. There is no
evidence—zero—that they had any improper motives,” the judge wrote.
The
mayor faced scathing criticism for agreeing to the terms laid out by
the Trump administration and saw calls for his removal amid concerns he
was sacrificing New York City’s immigrant communities to save his own
skin.
Those criticisms reached a fever pitch when Adams appeared on “Fox & Friends” with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who said he’d be “up [the mayor’s] butt” if he didn’t play ball with the Trump administration as it sought to carry out deportations.
Bove
filed the dismissal bid after the interim head of the Manhattan U.S.
attorney’s office, Danielle Sassoon — a veteran prosecutor and
registered Republican whom Trump had installed in the senior role
on his first full day in office — quit rather than obey the order to
wind down the case, in which Adams faced up to 45 years in prison if
convicted.
Sassoon wrote to Trump’s new Attorney General Pam Bondi before resigning, saying she had been preparing to sign off on more charges
accusing the mayor of attempting to conceal his crimes from the FBI and
ordering others to do the same. She said the proposed arrangement
amounted to a “quid pro quo”
between Adams and the Trump administration, “indicating that Adams
would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement
priorities only if the indictment were d
“[The] Southern
District of New York prosecutors who worked on this case followed all
appropriate Justice Department guidelines. There is no
evidence—zero—that they had any improper motives,” the judge wrote.
The
mayor faced scathing criticism for agreeing to the terms laid out by
the Trump administration and saw calls for his removal amid concerns he
was sacrificing New York City’s immigrant communities to save his own
skin.
Those criticisms reached a fever pitch when Adams appeared on “Fox & Friends” with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, who said he’d be “up [the mayor’s] butt” if he didn’t play ball with the Trump administration as it sought to carry out deportations.
Bove
filed the dismissal bid after the interim head of the Manhattan U.S.
attorney’s office, Danielle Sassoon — a veteran prosecutor and
registered Republican whom Trump had installed in the senior role
on his first full day in office — quit rather than obey the order to
wind down the case, in which Adams faced up to 45 years in prison if
convicted.
Sassoon wrote to Trump’s new Attorney General Pam Bondi before resigning, saying she had been preparing to sign off on more charges
accusing the mayor of attempting to conceal his crimes from the FBI and
ordering others to do the same. She said the proposed arrangement
amounted to a “quid pro quo”
between Adams and the Trump administration, “indicating that Adams
would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement
priorities only if the indictment were dismissed
