A federal judge has permanently dismissed the criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, weeks after the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the corruption charges.
The move led to the resignation of Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor who accused Adams of striking a deal with the Trump administration to dismiss his case in exchange for immigration enforcement.
The Manhattan judge dismissed the case “with prejudice”, which means the Department of Justice (DOJ) cannot refile the charges against Adams based on the same evidence.
Adams was charged with conspiracy, fraud, soliciting illegal campaign contributions, and bribery. He had denied any wrongdoing.
In an indictment last September, Adams was alleged to have accepted gifts totalling more than $100,000 (£75,000) from Turkish citizens in exchange for favours.
But in February, acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove, a Trump appointee, ordered New York prosecutors to drop the case against Adams. He argued the case “restricted” the mayor’s ability to address “illegal immigration and violent crime” – a key goal of the Trump administration.
Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon and six other high-level Justice officials resigned over the order, saying there was no legal justification to dismiss Adams’ case.
Sassoon, in a letter to Bove’s boss, Attorney General Pam Bondi, alleged that the mayor’s team had offered “what amounted to a quid pro quo”, saying Adams would be able to help with administration policies “only if the indictment were dismissed”.
In a scathing 78-page ruling on Wednesday, US District Judge Dale Ho said he was unconvinced by the justice department’s logic that the case against Adams was preventing the mayor from enforcing the administration’s immigration actions.
“Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the Indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” he said.
His decision to drop the case permanently, Judge Ho said, ensured that the administration could not use the indictment as “leverage” over Adams or the city of New York.
“Dismissing the case without prejudice would create the unavoidable perception that the mayor’s freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents,” the judge wrote.
Judge Ho noted that some people would “undoubtedly” find his ruling unsatisfying, wondering why “if DOJ’s ostensible reasons for dropping this case are so troubling, the Court does not simply deny the Motion to Dismiss altogether”.
But, he repeated, the court cannot order the justice department to continue prosecuting if it has decided to drop the case.
A DOJ spokesperson called the case “an example of political weaponization and a waste of resources”. “We are focused on arresting and prosecuting terrorists while returning the Department of Justice to its core mission of keeping Americans safe,” the spokesperson told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday after the case was dismissed, Adams said the case “should have never been brought and I did nothing wrong”.
The dismissal ruling comes less than three months before the 24 June New York City mayoral race primary. Polls suggest Adams is trailing behind several other Democratic candidates.
But he told reporters that he did plan to run for re-election.
“And you know what, I’m gonna win,” he said.
