New York (AFP) – The US Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors on Monday to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, after his rapprochement with President Donald Trump. The first sitting New York mayor to be criminally indicted, Adams in September pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and bribery, and rebuffed calls for his resignation. The Democratic mayor had asserted — without evidence — that he was being punished for his criticism of former president Joe Biden’s immigration policies. In recent weeks, he ramped up contact with associates of Republican President Trump.
In a memo from the Justice Department, acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove — a former Trump lawyer — told the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York to drop the charges. “You are directed, as authorized by the Attorney General, to dismiss the pending charges in United States v. Adams,” said the memo, obtained and published by The New York Times. Bove’s memo said the timing of the charges and the investigation had “improperly interfered” with Adams’ 2025 mayoral campaign. “The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime,” Bove added.
Once touted as a future Democratic Party star, Adams was thrust into political hot water last year after multiple probes into alleged corruption. Prosecutors accused him of wire fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations, and a bribery conspiracy involving Turkish citizens and at least one Turkish official. He also allegedly accepted luxury international flights, hotel suites, and free high-end restaurant meals, including from Turkish associates, in return for favors. In one example, prosecutors say Adams pressured the city’s fire department to approve Turkey’s new high-rise consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns. The scandal has cast a pall on his reelection bid in November.
Adams’s lawyer Alex Spiro on Monday praised the Justice Department’s decision. “As I said from the outset, the mayor is innocent — and he would prevail. Today he has,” Spiro said in an email to AFP. The office of Danielle Sassoon, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, has not yet issued a public response to Bove’s memo. Trump reportedly expressed solidarity with Adams last year, saying that he was being prosecuted “for speaking out against open borders.” Adams had met with Trump in January before his inauguration and said they had “a productive conversation about New York’s needs,” adding that they “did not discuss my legal case.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union on Monday called the Justice Department’s directive “another example of the Trump administration hijacking the Justice Department for its own ends.” “The Mayor’s late and surprise embrace of Trump and his push to undermine longstanding city laws protecting immigrants is alarming,” it said, adding that Adams “is betraying our communities.”
© 2024 AFP
