“You are directed to dismiss” the case in opposition to Adams,” Emil Bove, Trump’s former private protection lawyer who’s now his No. 2 official on the Justice Division, wrote in a letter to the Manhattan U.S. lawyer’s workplace, The NY Instances, whuch first reported the event, mentioned.
It’s unclear how the order can be acted on by interim Manhattan U.S. Legal professional Danielle Sassoon, who as lately as late final month described the case in opposition to the mayor as being primarily based on “concrete evidence.”
The costs in opposition to Adams — together with wire fraud, bribery, and soliciting unlawful marketing campaign contributions from overseas nationals — carried as much as 45 years in jail. Jury choice was set to start on April 21, simply two months earlier than June’s Democratic mayoral major.
The explosive indictment filed in September charged Adams with accepting bribes and unlawful marketing campaign contributions in change for abusing his affect as New York Metropolis’s strongest authorities official and, previous to that, as Brooklyn borough president.
Adams was accused of taking 1000’s of {dollars} price of advantages beginning in round 2014, together with first-class flights and lodge stays everywhere in the world, from overseas benefactors with ties to the Turkish authorities who sought to in the future money in on their relationship. The feds mentioned he paid again his money owed partly by pushing the FDNY to open a Midtown skyscraper housing Turkey’s consulate within the months earlier than the overall election.
President Donald Trump. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Pictures)
The dismissal transfer comes regardless of representations by the prosecuting group in current months that they’d found new felony conduct.
Final month, a Brooklyn actual property magnate related to Turkish officers admitted to orchestrating straw donations in direction of Adams’ mayoral marketing campaign on the behest of Adams in a plea deal believed to require his cooperation at trial. Final week, a former Metropolis Corridor aide to Adams indicated he’s pleading responsible to related fees.
Rumors started circulating after Trump’s election victory {that a} potential pardon might be on the desk for the mayor, who has been reluctant to criticize the president and his hardline immigration insurance policies. Trump empathized with Adams in public remarks, evaluating the mayor’s authorized woes to his personal in criticizing the DOJ beneath the Biden administration as politicized. Trump is a Republican, and Adams is a Democrat.
Then, final week, The Instances reported that Trump’s interim leaders on the DOJ, led by his lawyer from the hush cash case, Bove, had begun speaking to Adams’ authorized group and prosecutors within the Southern District of New York about dropping the case altogether. A dismissal instead of a politically delicate pardon precludes Trump from having to cope with potential blowback from the general public and permits Adams to assert the case was flawed.
Former Manhattan U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams, who introduced the bombshell case in opposition to Adams and resigned earlier than Trump took workplace, couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
This growing story can be up to date.
Initially Revealed: February 10, 2025 at 7:17 PM EST
