At a first glance, Mayor Adams appeared to be out of the woods late Monday as President Trump’s Department of Justice instructed federal prosecutors in Manhattan to dismiss his public corruption indictment.
But the unusual dismissal order comes with strings attached that could cause continued legal headaches for Adams and put pressure on him to do more to help Trump’s administration with immigration enforcement, experts, including former federal prosecutors and judges, told the Daily News on Tuesday.
Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political strategist, said the unusual nature of the order also sends a message to Adams to get onboard with, or least not stand in the way of, any of Trump’s New York-centric policy priorities.
Beyond his threatened immigration crackdown, Trump, amid his blizzard of early moves, has threatened to kill the city’s congestion pricing plan, created uncertainty around the future of federal education funding and issued an executive order banning trans women from participating in female school sporting events. The latter runs counter to state and city policy.
“Stick with us and things will be fine. Don’t stick with us, and who knows what will happen with your criminal case,” Sheinkopf, who used to work for ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said, interpreting what he characterized as the subtext of the Adams case dismissal directive.
“It’s a message delivered to [Adams] to not cause any trouble, or else.”
Emil Bove, Trump’s ex-personal defense attorney who’s now his No. 2 at the DOJ, wrote in the Monday night order to the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office that Adams’ case should be dropped “without prejudice.”
If a case is tossed in that way, prosecutors can bring it again at a later time. Bove suggested Adams’ case could be resurrected as early as this fall, as he wrote that the next Senate-confirmed U.S. attorney, likely to be Trump-nominated corporate lawyer Jay Clayton, should launch a “review” for a potential re-prosecution of Adams after the city’s mayoral election in November.
Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon hadn’t as of Tuesday afternoon said how she’ll act on Bove’s request. If she agrees to seek a dismissal, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Dale Ho would then need to approve it.
Further safeguarding the underlying case against Adams, Bove wrote that the Justice Department isn’t taking a stance on “the strength of the evidence or the legal theories” underpinning the mayor’s proseuction, saying he’s leaving that up to the Manhattan feds.
But Bove did write the Justice Department is seeking the dismissal of Adams’ prosecution because it has been preventing the mayor from cooperating as he otherwise might be able to with Trump’s efforts to target undocumented immigrants in New York for deportation.
“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration,” Bove wrote, adding Trump’s administration is “particularly concerned about the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams’ ability to support critical, ongoing federal efforts” to deport immigrants.
Duncan Levin, an ex-federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, said he can’t recall ever before hearing of Justice Department leaders seeking a dismissal of a criminal case based on a defendant’s ability to help execute a president’s policy agenda.
“There are instance in which high-profile prosecutions have to be signed of by the attorney general, but I can’t think of a case where a new [DOJ] comes in and so blatantly injects politics into a criminal case like this,” said Levin. “It’s sad to see, it’s has no place in criminal justice.”
Shira Scheindlin, a retired senior Manhattan Federal Court judge appointed by ex-President Bill Clinton, agreed with Levin, calling Bove’s memo a “very strange intervention” that threatens the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office’s long-standing reputation for independence.
“It’s highly unusual in every way,” she said, noting Adams’ indictment has nothing to do with immigration policy.
Adams’ indictment alleges he for years took bribes and illegal campaign cash, mostly from Turkish government operatives, in exchange for political favors. He has pleaded not guilty and was until this week expected to stand trial in April, just weeks before June’s Democratic mayoral primary.
In a live-streamed speech Tuesday, Adams didn’t touch on the potential re-prosecution of his case, but praised Trump’s DOJ for “its honesty” and said “it’s time to move forward.” His lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement late Monday that the DOJ’s move amounted to an exoneration of the mayor.
“The facts of the case are clear: the mayor never used his official position for personal benefit,” Spiro said.
But the Rev. Al Sharpton — who holds significant sway in city politics — said after the mayor’s Tuesday speech that he is concerned about the terms of the dismissal order and that he’s gathering top Black elected leaders in New York this week to “determine a unified course of action.”
“If the mayor were to disagree with the president, does that mean they have the right to call a trial on him at any time? It certainly sounds like President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” Sharpton said. “That is simply not fair to the City of New York.”
Gov. Hochul, who has the power to remove Adams from office, said earlier in the day she’s not looking to do so, but told reporters she’ll be “monitoring” him in coming weeks to ensure he puts New Yorkers “first above all.”
Bove’s memo comes after Adams has spent months developing a relationship with Trump after his November election, including meeting with him privately in Florida, heading to his inauguration last month after receiving a last-minute invite and just on Monday instructing his staff to not publicly criticize the president.
Adams’ approach to Trump has prompted harsh pushback from his challengers in June’s mayoral primary.
Brooklyn state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, one of Adams’ challengers, argued Tuesday there could still be a way to ensure the continuation of the mayor’s prosecution, sending a letter to Judge Ho urging him to appoint a special prosecutor to take over the case from the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office.
If a special prosecutor isn’t installed and Bove’s dismissal terms move forward, Myrie voiced concern Adams will for the rest of his time at City Hall serve the interests of Trump.
“The DOJ’s directive is a clear effort to control Mayor Adams and deny New York City its elected governance,” he wrote to Ho.