New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks with members of the media as he arrives for an Adult Town Hall at Sunnyside Community Services Older Adult Center on Feb. 12, 2025 in the Queens borough of New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images
A federal judge ordered embattled New York Mayor Eric Adams, his attorneys, and Department of Justice prosecutors to appear in court on Wednesday to explain the DOJ’s controversial request to dismiss criminal corruption charges against Adams.
Manhattan U.S. District Judge Dale Ho’s order Tuesday suggests that he will not rubber stamp the highly unusual dismissal request, which has sparked concerns that the DOJ struck a deal with Adams to toss the case in exchange for his cooperation with President Donald Trump’s immigration orders.
Top DOJ lawyers on Friday asked Ho to toss the case after seven prosecutors — including the acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney — resigned rather than comply with an order to file that request.
Danielle Sassoon, the former acting U.S. Attorney, has said that the structure of DOJ’s dismissal request — which preserves the right to refile charges against Adams — creates “obvious ethical problems.”
She said Adams is being implicitly threatened with future prosecution if he does not comply with Trump’s demand that he and other local officials cooperate with federal authorities in enforcing immigration laws
The DOJ filed its dismissal motion a day after White House border czar Tom Homan met with Adams, who agreed to give federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents access to the city’s massive jail complex on Rikers Island.
Ho set a hearing for 2 p.m. Wednesday on the dismissal bid.
“The parties shall be prepared to address, inter alia, the reasons for the Government’s motion, the scope and effect of Mayor Adams’s “consent in writing,” Ho wrote in his order Tuesday.
Ho noted that federal criminal procedure rules allows prosecutors to dismiss a criminal case “with leave of court, and that a 2022 federal appeals court ruling says that the executive branch of government “remains the absolute judge of whether a prosecution should be initiated and presumptively the best judge of whether a pending prosecution should be terminated.”
But the same appellate ruling suggests that a dismissal request can be block if it is “clearly contrary to manifest public interest.”
The judge also ordered Adams’ lawyers by 5 p.m. Tuesday to file the mayor’s written consent to the dismissal request by the DOJ.
Four of Adams’ deputy mayors resigned over the weekend.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is set to meet Tuesday with what she has called “key leaders” to discuss “a path forward” for New York City.
Hochul’s announcement of that meeting, which reportedly will not include Adams, suggested that she is strongly considering exercising her authority to remove the mayor from office.
“In the 235 years of New York State history, these powers have never been utilized to remove a duly-elected mayor; overturning the will of the voters is a serious step that should not be taken lightly,” the governor said in the statement.
“That said, the alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored.”
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