Justice Dept. Is Said to Discuss Dropping Case Against Eric Adams

Senior Justice Department officials under President Trump have held discussions with federal prosecutors in Manhattan about the possibility of dropping their corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, according to five people with knowledge of the matter.

The officials have also spoken to Mr. Adams’s defense team since Mr. Trump took office, the people said. The defense team is led by Alex Spiro, who is also the personal lawyer for Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and one of the president’s closest advisers.

Mr. Adams was indicted in September on charges including bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions after an investigation that began in 2021. He has pleaded not guilty, maintained his innocence and contended that he is being prosecuted because he criticized the Biden administration.

In recent weeks, Mr. Adams, a Democrat, has curried favor with Mr. Trump, traveling to Mar-a-Lago, attending the inauguration and saying that, from now on, he will share any criticisms of the president in private. Mr. Trump has the power to pardon Mr. Adams, and in December said that the mayor had been treated “pretty unfairly” by prosecutors, and suggested he was considering issuing a pardon.

The two men, according to several people close to the mayor, have been in direct communication for weeks, speaking on the phone.

A spokesman for the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment. The office is currently being led on an interim basis by a respected prosecutor selected by the administration. A spokeswoman for Mr. Spiro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.