Since he took the helm of the Southern District of New York federal prosecutor’s workplace in 2021, U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams has been on the warpath in opposition to public corruption.
Most lately, Williams secured an indictment in September in opposition to Eric Adams, accusing the New York Metropolis mayor of bribery, fraud and marketing campaign finance crimes stemming from a plot to promote political affect to rich Turkish authorities officers beginning when he was Brooklyn borough president.
The bombshell case in opposition to Adams got here on the heels of Williams profitable a corruption conviction in opposition to one other highly effective Democrat, New Jersey’s ex-U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez. Along with prosecuting sitting pols, this yr, he has introduced corruption expenses in opposition to high-ranking FDNY chiefs for taking money to fast-track security inspections and a historic bribery case in opposition to NYCHA workers for dishonest residents out of higher providers.
Questions have arisen about the way forward for the workplace’s aggressive pursuit of prosecuting corruption in authorities — and the case in opposition to Adams, specifically — following Donald Trump’s election victory. The president-elect introduced Thursday that he plans to put in in Williams’ place his former chief of the Securities and Alternate Fee, Jay Clayton, whom the U.S. Senate should verify.
Trump SEC NomineePablo Martinez Monsivais/APJay Clayton testifies on Capitol Hill on March 23, 2017.
The incoming president has made no secret about his ideas on the case in opposition to Adams.
“We were persecuted, Eric,” he lately mentioned at a charity dinner attended by the mayor.
A brand new DOJ
The Republican president-elect shocked many this week, saying he’ll search to put in contentious Florida Republican Matt Gaetz as legal professional normal and his lead legal professionals from the hush-money trial, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, as numbers two and three on the Division of Justice. Trump mentioned Bove would function his performing deputy AG whereas Blanche undergoes the Senate affirmation course of.
Trump — who confronted two prison indictments filed after his chaotic first time period — has vowed revenge in opposition to his perceived enemies and to knock down the proverbial partitions erected after President Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal that established the DOJ’s independence from the White Home.
“I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ to investigate every radical out of control prosecutor in America for their illegal, racist-in-reverse, enforcement of the law,” Trump mentioned on the marketing campaign path in February.
If Trump plans to direct prosecutions from the Resolute desk, there may be little standing in his approach this time.
The July Supreme Courtroom ruling granting the president sweeping protections from prison prosecutions gave him carte blanche to take action. The choice declared him “absolutely immune” from dealing with expenses associated to his discussions with the DOJ and outlined his “exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions” of the division.
In addition to railing in opposition to his personal indictments as extensions of a political “witch hunt,” Trump has claimed, with none proof, that Williams, who didn’t want to remark for this story, focused the mayor unfairly for his criticism of the Biden administration’s dealing with of the migrant disaster.
“I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders,” Trump empathized from the dais on the nationally televised Al Smith charity dinner on Oct. 17 as Adams sat a number of tables away.
Will Trump assist Adams?
If Trump succeeds at pushing Clayton by the affirmation course of, it’s unclear whether or not he would acquiesce if requested to finish the case in opposition to the mayor or whether or not Trump would even trouble to get entangled in a case in opposition to a Democrat in a deep blue metropolis.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Every day NewsMayor Eric Adams is pictured answering questions throughout his weekly in Particular person Press Convention at Metropolis Corridor Blue Room, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2024. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Every day Information)
Whoever the brand new appointee is on the SDNY, the U.S. legal professional’s workplace would want to supply a proof to and search approval from Manhattan federal Choose Dale Ho earlier than getting a dismissal.
Arlo Devlin-Brown, chief of the Manhattan U.S. legal professional’s public corruption unit from 2014 to 2016 and an legal professional on the Covington legislation agency, mentioned a Trump nominee won’t even be confirmed earlier than Adams’ trial in April. Devlin-Brown mentioned he anticipated the brand new U.S. legal professional to assessment Adams’ case as they are going to all important instances.
“If Clayton is the U.S. attorney, he has an excellent reputation, and, in my judgment, would be unlikely to squander that in order to do political bidding that he sees as contrary to the interest of justice. I would also expect line prosecutors to leave the office before they would do something that they felt was not being done in the spirit of the fair administration of justice,” Devlin-Brown informed the Every day Information.
“If the president was inclined to have the charges against Mayor Adams dismissed, the cleanest way for him to do so would be to pardon the mayor, even before any trial starts.”
But when Trump despatched phrase that he wished the case to go away, Clayton might make that occur. He might additionally provide Adams an opportunity to plead out to a lowered cost. Adams has pleaded not responsible.
“There is a process that they would have to go through in dismissing a case after an indictment, but a judge is likely going to rubber stamp any request to drop a prosecution,” former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin mentioned. “It’s basically whatever the U.S. attorney wants to do.”
For months, the Democratic mayor has fueled criticism from members of his personal get together for refraining from criticizing Trump, with some speculating he’s doing so in hopes the incoming president will assist him together with his authorized troubles. Requested Friday whether or not he had a response to Clayton’s appointment, Adams informed reporters:
“No, I don’t.”
Metropolis Corridor underneath hearth
In addition to Adams’ indictment, Trump’s appointee might have an effect on a number of ongoing corruption investigations which have ensnared key advisers to the mayor.
Since these probes haven’t produced any prison expenses up to now, Clayton or one other Trump appointee might wind them down with out sign-off from a decide. Trump hasn’t mentioned something publicly about these probes, and it’s unclear whether or not he’d search to disrupt them as soon as again within the White Home.
The inquiries, that are unrelated to the Turkey probe that prompted Adams’ indictment, burst into public view on Sept. 4, when greater than a half dozen prime aides to the mayor — together with former NYPD Commissioner Ed Cabán, former First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright, former Colleges Chancellor David Banks, former Deputy Mayor for Public Security Phil Banks and senior Metropolis Corridor adviser Tim Pearson — had their houses raided and electronics seized by FBI brokers. All of these officers have since resigned.
The investigations are scrutinizing whether or not prime Adams administration officers engaged in affect peddling and kickbacks on metropolis contracts, together with ones awarded to purchasers of Terence Banks, a authorities relations marketing consultant who’s the youthful brother of Phil and David Banks, in response to sources.
Different Adams associates have equally been entangled in separate corruption investigations led by the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace and the Brooklyn U.S. legal professional’s workplace, together with the mayor’s chief adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, and Winnie Greco, his former Asian Affairs liaison at Metropolis Corridor. SDNY investigators additionally served Lewis-Martin with a subpoena a day after Adams was indicted.
Clayton’s monitor document
Clayton, an legal professional and adviser at high-powered company legislation agency Sullivan & Cromwell, was Trump’s chairman of the SEC from 2017 to 2020. The potential incoming “sheriff of Wall Street” has by no means labored as a prison prosecutor in his profession and sits on the boards of American Categorical and Apollo World Administration, one of many world’s largest asset administration companies. Clayton couldn’t be reached for remark.
Beneath Clayton’s management, the SEC in 2018 introduced securities fraud expenses in opposition to Elon Musk for deceptive tweets he made — earlier than he purchased Twitter and adjusted it to “X” — that triggered Tesla’s inventory value to leap and messed with the market. The ensuing settlement, which didn’t require Musk to confess wrongdoing, pressured him to step down because the chairman of Tesla for 3 years and required him and Tesla to pay a $20 million high-quality and different types of aid.
Musk wasn’t then an ally of Trump, so it’s unclear whether or not the SEC enforcement motion alerts that Clayton could be comfy pursuing Trump allies as targets.
President-elect Donald Trump arrives to talk at a gathering of the Home GOP convention, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photograph/Alex Brandon)
Trump tried to put in Clayton on the Manhattan U.S. legal professional’s workplace with out success in 2020, which led to a dramatic showdown when his former Lawyer Normal Invoice Barr sought to oust then-U.S. Lawyer Geoffrey Berman, who objected to the nomination based mostly on Clayton’s lack of prosecutorial expertise. Berman left when it was clear his deputy, Audrey Strauss, would take over.
In his memoir, Berman mentioned he felt Trump and Barr pressured him out to put in somebody who would do the White Home’s bidding.
“I knew Jay Clayton and liked him. He lived in Tribeca, near me, and I had run into him a couple times when we were each out for drinks with people from our offices. He is an extremely talented lawyer but had never been a prosecutor, which is — or should be — a prerequisite for leading SDNY,” Berman wrote.
Levin mentioned he believes Clayton’s main goal as U.S. legal professional could be to do Trump’s bidding, an evaluation he attributed to the legal professional’s lack of prosecutorial expertise.
“This is a cynical pick that shows [Trump] cares mostly about putting in loyalists who will do what he wants,” he mentioned.
Manhattan Councilwoman Gale Brewer, a Democrat who chairs the Council’s Oversight and Investigation Committee, debated Clayton on the Harvard Membership on Oct. 21 as a part of a 2024 election discussion board the place she advocated for Vice President Kamala Harris whereas he pushed for Trump. Additionally they had a two-hour dinner collectively afterward.
“From my limited experience debating him, the guy is really smart. He seems like the guy who’s a quick study,” Brewer mentioned.
On the similar time, Brewer shared issues about Clayton not having related expertise to move the premiere prosecutor’s workplace.
“In terms of a lack of skill set, it’s concerning,” she mentioned.
“He’s definitely a loyalist,” Brewer continued. “And even if he’s the type of person who could probably pick it up, he might pick up ways of prosecuting cases in ways I wouldn’t.”
