As the New York City mayor’s race heats up, a judge is deciding whether to drop the federal corruption charges Mayor Eric Adams faces, as the Trump administration has requested.
As the New York City mayor’s race heats up, a judge is deciding whether to drop the federal corruption charges Mayor Eric Adams faces, as the Trump administration has requested.
As the New York City mayor’s race heats up, a judge is deciding whether to drop the federal corruption charges Mayor Eric Adams faces, as the Trump administration has requested.
A lawyer for Mayor Eric Adams of New York urged a Manhattan judge on Monday to promptly rule on a pending motion from the Justice Department to dismiss federal corruption charges against the mayor.
The lawyer, Alex Spiro, cited a Thursday deadline for Mr. Adams to file required petitions to appear on the Democratic mayoral primary ballot. Since that deadline is “just days away,” he wrote, “we respectfully urge the court to issue its decision as soon as practicable.”
Mr. Spiro noted that the dismissal motion had been pending before the judge, Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court, since mid-February. He quoted the judge’s own words in a February court hearing, when Judge Ho said, “it’s not in anyone’s interest here for this to drag on.”
As recently as March 18, Judge Ho wrote that he would “attempt to rule as soon as practicable on the pending motion to dismiss.”
The charges against Mr. Adams and the Justice Department’s efforts to have them dropped have led to turmoil in City Hall and hurt Mr. Adams’s chances of winning a second term.
The mayor had pleaded not guilty to the five charges he faces, which include bribery and wire fraud, and was scheduled for trial on April 21. Under the Biden administration, the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office had pursued the case aggressively.