The U.S. Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday, according to the Associated Press.
In a two-page memo, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told New York prosecutors that the order was not based on the strength of evidence in the case, but rather because it had been brought too close to Adams reelection campaign and was distracting from the mayor’s efforts to assist in the Trump administration’s law-and-order priorities, the news agency reported.
“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime,” Bove wrote, according to the report.
Although the prosecutors were instructed not to pursue further investigation against the mayor until after the November election, it remains unclear if the charges will be refiled after November.
Adams' attorney Alex Spiro said the move vindicated the mayor, who has long denied guilt.
“Now, thankfully, the mayor and New York can put this unfortunate and misguided prosecution behind them,” said Spiro, who has previously represented Trump's close ally, Elon Musk.
Adams faces five counts of corruption, including bribery, fraud and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions after an investigation that began in 2021. The mayor, who was indicted in September, has maintained innocence to all the charges.
The 57-page indictment brought against the mayor in September, details that Adams allegedly accepted illegal gifts worth over $100,000 from Turkish citizens and at least one government official.
Last month, CBS reported that Adams met the president in Florida before his inauguration. And in January, the mayor skipped planned appearances at two city Martin Luther King Day events to attend Trump's inauguration.
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the mayor indicated that he wanted his day in court, but instead sidestepped that system using the privilege and power that so few people have access to. "This is obscene," Williams said in a statement.
"It seems clear that the person we’ve had in City Hall the last several months is the real Eric Adams, and New Yorkers shouldn’t forget that," Williams said. "He owes New Yorkers what he has refused to demonstrate to date: honesty, transparency, humility, and some assurance that he can make up for his many bad decisions that got us here. But he knows what we all know – the person he really owes, a fealty that should anger and worry us all, is Donald Trump, and the worst of his policies."
State Senator Zellnor Myrie, who is running for mayor, said "today's news makes it clear that justice is dead in America."
"The decision by Trump’s Department of Justice to drop charges against Eric Adams should outrage every single New Yorker," Myrie said in a statment. "We already know that Eric Adams has sacrificed the safety and sanctity of our schools and public hospitals to curry favor with this fascist Administration. How many more of our rights and freedoms did the Mayor give up to save his own skin?"
Politico New York reported that it was Republican billionaire John Catsimatidis who broke the news to Adams on Monday night.
Catsimatidis said he was with the mayor at a party at Gallaghers Steakhouse for Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
“We went off to the corner to have a Diet Coke and talk a little. And I get the breaking news on my phone and I turned the phone and I showed it to him,” Catsimatidis said, “and you could see in his face, he had an ‘oh, crap’ moment.”
Catsimatidis is friendly with both Adams and Trump, the news agency said. Adams has said he’ll run for reelection as a Democrat, but Catsimatidis isn’t so sure, the report said. “I think he is looking for support for the Republican Party. And he may call my daughter,” he said, referring to Manhattan GOP Chair Andrea Catsimatidis.
The mayor is scheduled to make a live address at 12:00pm on Tuesday.
