Judge Appears On Track To Let Doj Dismiss Eric Adams Case

NEW YORK — The Justice Department appears likely to get the green light to dismiss the criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams after the judge overseeing the case acknowledged at a court hearing Wednesday that he has “very little discretion” to interfere with the department’s effort.

U.S. District Judge Dale Ho took a measured and gentle approach to questioning Adams, his lawyers and a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove, about the department’s bid to drop the five-count indictment in which Adams is accused of bribery and other corruption charges.

Some legal experts and advocacy groups had urged Ho, an appointee of President Joe Biden, to forcefully push back against the Justice Department’s decision to abandon the case — or even to appoint a special prosecutor to take it over. But Ho seemed uninterested in that approach, and he suggested he had limited authority to maintain a case against the wishes of prosecutors.

Ho didn’t issue a decision Wednesday, but indicated he would do so soon. After exhaling an audible sigh toward the end of the 80-minute hearing, Ho said, “It’s not in anyone’s interest here for this to drag on.”

Bove’s order to drop the case sparked a crisis at the Justice Department after a wave of career prosecutors resigned rather than stand behind the dismissal of the charges. In their resignation letters, top prosecutors at the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan suggested that Bove was unethically dropping the case in return for the Democratic mayor’s promise to assist President Donald Trump’s policies, and that the administration would wield the threat of revisiting the charges to manipulate Adams into compliance.

In an extraordinary reflection of the internal turmoil, Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, was the only person to formally represent the Justice Department at the hearing. It is highly unusual for such a high-ranking DOJ official to represent the department in court, and to do so alone.

Todd Blanche, who is nominated to become deputy attorney general but hasn’t yet been confirmed, also attended as an observer. Until recently, both Bove and Blanche represented Trump as his criminal defense attorneys.

Though the hearing was about Adams, Bove articulated a vision for the department that precludes it from prosecuting public officials who are useful to carrying out the Trump administration’s political and policy objectives.

One of Bove’s rationales for dropping the Adams case was that the prosecution would “interfere with the defendant’s ability to govern in New York City” and thus has hurt the mayor’s ability to support Trump’s immigration agenda.

During the hearing, Ho asked Bove if that “ability to govern” rationale would prevent the department from prosecuting a police commissioner or the governor of a border state.

“Yes, absolutely,” Bove said, adding that “every case requires a fact-specific analysis” of whether a prosecution would interfere with the priorities of the federal government.

When Ho questioned Bove about his argument that the prosecution had meddled with Adams’ capabilities as mayor, Bove said his point was proven by “the fact that Mayor Adams is sitting to my left right now.”

Adams said little during the hearing, responding with brief answers to a series of questions from Ho about his understanding of what Adams was agreeing to in consenting to have the department dismiss the case and to do so “without prejudice,” meaning prosecutors could choose to refile the charges at some point.

When Ho asked whether Adams understood that the department’s agreement wouldn’t prevent them from taking additional investigative steps, Adams replied: “Yes, I understand that and I have not committed a crime and I don’t see them bringing it back. I’m not afraid of that.”