Eric Adams cultivated a close relationship with President Trump. Now, U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan have been told to drop the corruption case against the New York City mayor.
Eric Adams cultivated a close relationship with President Trump. Now, U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan have been told to drop the corruption case against the New York City mayor.
The Justice Department on Monday told federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop the corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, claiming his indictment last fall came too near the 2025 mayoral primary and had limited his ability to cooperate in President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“You are directed” to “dismiss” the charges, Emil Bove, the Justice Department’s acting No. 2 official, wrote in a letter to prosecutors obtained by The New York Times.
Mr. Bove also ordered the government to restore security clearances stripped from Mr. Adams following his indictment in September and wrote that there must be “no further targeting of Mayor Adams or additional investigative steps” until after the election, when the case would be re-examined.
The remarkable intervention by a Trump political appointee in a public corruption prosecution involving an official who has been in close communication with the president throws into uncertainty the future of the case against the mayor.
It also raises urgent questions about the administration of justice during Mr. Trump’s second term and casts the independence of federal prosecutors into doubt.
It is not clear how Danielle R. Sassoon, the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, will respond to the order to drop the case. A spokesman for Ms. Sassoon’s office declined to comment.