Adams Gets a Reprieve From Trump

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at the Justice Department’s order to the U.S. attorney in Manhattan to drop charges against Eric Adams. We’ll also get details on a guilty plea by a Brooklyn man who was accused of carrying ancient Egyptian relics in suitcases he had checked on a flight to Kennedy International Airport.

Last year Eric Adams made history as the first mayor in modern New York to be indicted on criminal charges.

Now there is a footnote to that history: On Monday the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop the corruption charges against Adams.

The order came in a letter from Emil Bove III, the acting No. 2 official at the Justice Department. Adams, a Democrat running for re-election, had made repeated overtures to President Trump, who had said he would consider pardoning the mayor. Adams met with Trump near his Mar-a-Lago estate last month and attended Trump’s inauguration a few days later. He later told reporters that he would not publicly criticize the president.

It was not clear how Danielle Sassoon, the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, would respond to the directive to drop the case. A spokesman for Sassoon’s office declined to comment. Any motion to dismiss charges must be filed in court and reviewed by the judge overseeing the case.

If prosecutors in Manhattan move forward with a motion to drop the case, the judge overseeing it, Dale Ho of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, could question the decision. But under legal precedent, he has limited power to refuse the request.