Mayor Adams’ bid to have his federal corruption indictment dropped is getting a authorized increase from Michael Flynn, a controversial former adviser to President Trump.
Flynn, who pleaded responsible in 2017 to mendacity to the FBI about his contacts with Russian authorities officers and was later pardoned by Trump, filed a so-called amicus transient in Adams’ case late Friday that argues the presiding decide can’t legally stand in the best way of the Trump Division of Justice’s uncommon effort to dismiss the mayor’s indictment.
Mayor Adams speaks at Metropolis Corridor on Monday, March 3, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Each day Information)
A discover posted on the docket Monday afternoon confirms Flynn submitted the amicus transient along with two conservative think-tanks he helps run. The doc can solely be formally thought of as a part of the mayor’s case if Manhattan Federal Courtroom Decide Dale Ho approves its inclusion.
First, it argues Ho didn’t have the authorized authority to nominate former U.S. Solicitor Normal Paul Clement as an impartial counsel within the mayor’s case to supply “adversarial” arguments in opposition to the Trump DOJ’s try to quash it, Harfenist stated.
Second, Harfenist stated the submitting makes the case that Ho by regulation has to rubber-stamp the DOJ’s movement to dismiss provided that each the mayor and the division are in settlement about dropping the prosecution.
“The court has no discretion to continue this case,” Harfenist stated in a cellphone interview.
In appointing Clement to supply “adversarial” arguments, Ho made clear he gained’t make a remaining ruling on whether or not the mayor’s case might be dropped till mid-March on the earliest. Some authorized advocates have known as on Ho to nominate a particular prosecutor to proceed the case, although it’s unclear whether or not he has the authority to try such a transfer.
Adams’ indictment, to which he has pleaded not responsible, alleges he took bribes and unlawful marketing campaign money, largely from Turkish authorities operatives, in change for political favors, together with serving to resolve a constructing security subject on the nation’s Manhattan consulate.
Flynn, who was Trump’s nationwide safety adviser throughout his first White Home time period, has his personal connections to Turkey.
After resigning from the White Home in February 2017, Flynn launched a lobbying agency that picked up a rich businessman with in depth ties to the Turkish authorities as a shopper. In 2019, the co-founder of Flynn’s agency, Bijan Rafiekian, was convicted of prison costs alleging he acted as an unlawful agent of the Turkish regime within the U.S.
Flynn’s bid to get entangled within the mayor’s case comes as Adams faces calls to resign or be faraway from workplace in gentle of the Trump DOJ’s transfer to drop his indictment.
In a dismissal movement, the DOJ requested Ho to drop the case in opposition to the mayor with the understanding that it could possibly be introduced again for a brand new prosecution as quickly as November.
The DOJ wrote that it expects ending the case ought to allow Adams to play a much bigger position in facilitating Trump’s insurance policies, together with his efforts to focus on undocumented New Yorkers for deportations, a extremely uncommon caveat that each allies and critics of the mayor say has made him a “hostage” to Trump’s political agenda.
Adams has additionally filed a movement to have the case dismissed outright, with no risk of the prosecution being reinstated.
