Top Justice Department Officials Meet Prosecutors in Adams Case

Justice Department lawyers in Washington met on Friday with Manhattan federal prosecutors and defense lawyers representing Mayor Eric Adams of New York City to discuss dropping the corruption case against him, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Details of the meeting, held at the Justice Department building in Washington, were not immediately available. But it came days after senior department officials had conversations with the federal prosecutors in Manhattan who brought the high-profile case — which President Trump has criticized — about dropping it at their direction.

The session was expected to determine the future of the first criminal prosecution of a sitting mayor in modern New York City history, a bribery and fraud case that is set to go to trial in April.

Senior officials from the federal prosecutors’ office in Manhattan, including the interim head of the office, Danielle R. Sassoon, were seen outside the Justice Department shortly before the meeting on Friday afternoon. Two of Mr. Adams’s lawyers, Alex Spiro and William Burck, also met with department officials.

A spokesman for the Manhattan prosecutors’ office, Nicholas Biase, declined to comment, and the defense lawyers could not immediately be reached. Mr. Spiro and Mr. Burck emerged from the building on Friday afternoon, about an hour after Mr. Spiro was seen entering it. The Manhattan prosecutors left about 30 minutes after that.

The agency’s handling of the matter represents a high-profile test of the department under the Trump White House and is likely to be seen as an indication of how extensively the president will interfere with the administration of justice during his second term.