Mayor Eric Adams proclaimed vindication earlier this week when President Trump’s Justice Department moved to dismiss the five-count criminal indictment against him — but if anything, the situation only seemed to heighten calls for the mayor’s ouster from office.
Adams has insisted he will not resign and wants to move forward, though critics have suggested that might be impossible given the revelations in former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon in a Feb. 12 letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. In that eight-page letter, Sassoon said that Adams’ attorneys had “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s [immigration] enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.”
Sassoon resigned on Thursday along with eight other Justice Department members who refused to follow Trump-appointed acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s order to dismiss the charges against Mayor Adams. Late on Friday afternoon, a member of the Public Integrity Bureau, under pressure from Bove, acquiesced and filed the dismissal motion, which presiding Judge Dale Ho must approve.
Even so, that dismissal motion comes “without prejudice,” meaning that the Justice Department could resurrect the case anytime. Critics fear that this will effectively force Mayor Adams to comply with President Trump‘s immigration crackdown or face the prospect of having the criminal indictment against him revived.
For his part, Mayor Adams insists that there is no quid pro quo and that he is not beholden to anyone but the city’s people.
“I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never,” Adams said in a Feb. 14 statement released from City Hall. “I am solely beholden to the 8.3 million New Yorkers that I represent, and I will always put this city first.”
The situation has led to increased calls from Adams’ critics that Gov. Kathy Hochul step in and remove Adams from office, as the governor is authorized to do in the City Charter. It would be an extraordinary move; no governor has ever given a New York City mayor the boot for any reason.
Yet in a Feb. 13 interview on MSNBC, Hochul did not outright refuse to consider ousting Adams, adding that she was weighing her options carefully.
“I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction like a lot of other people are saying right now,” Hochul told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Feb. 13. “I have to do what’s smart, what’s right, and I’m consulting with other leaders in government at this time.”
Meanwhile, the pressure on Hochul to act is growing, as numerous elected officials — including Bronx/Queens Congress Member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — have called upon her to send their fellow Democrat Adams packing.
“Mayor Adams is putting the City of New York and its people at risk in exchange for escaping charges,” Ocasio-Cortez posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Feb. 13. “As long as Trump wields this leverage over Adams, the city is endangered. We cannot be governed under coercion. If Adams won’t resign, he must be removed.”
Paths for removal
If Hochul moves to oust Adams from office, it may not be as clear as calling him into her office and handing him a pink slip.
According to the City Charter, “the mayor may be removed from office by the governor upon charges and after service upon him of a copy of the charges and an opportunity to be heard in his defense.” The suspension may not extend more than 30 days, meaning that Adams would be required to formally answer the governor’s charges and make a case for himself if he wants to change her mind and be restored to the office within the 30-day time frame.
Based on the case provided, Hochul may then lift Adams’ suspension if she finds he made a case sufficient to allow him to resume duties — or order him permanently removed as mayor.
There is a second path to remove a sitting New York City mayor from office, though it is unlikely to be used in Adams’ case.
The City Charter provides for the creation of an “Inability Committee” to examine whether a sitting mayor can continue to discharge their duties. The authority for the committee’s formation was created in 1987 after then-Mayor Ed Koch suffered a stroke.
The Inability Committee would include the City Council speaker, the city Comptroller, the corporation counsel, a deputy mayor—to be chosen by the mayor—and the longest-serving of the five borough presidents.
Once established, the committee must then vote — by a four out of five majority — to form a panel consisting of the 51-member City Council. The city legislature would then hold its own vote on whether the mayor is temporarily or permanently unable to discharge their duties.
The mayor could only be removed from office by a two-thirds council vote.
Yet the Inability Committee scenario is not likely to be used in Mayor Adams’ case. Weeks after he was indicted last fall, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams suggested that forming such a committee did not apply to Adams because of the historical precedent.
“I think that it’s important to note the historical perspective of an Inability Committee,” the speaker said on Oct. 10. “The word inability, I believe, was chosen because of that very fact, of the mayor being unable, physically unable, to fulfill his role. That is not what we have in this instance.”
What happens if Adams resigns or is removed from office?
If Adams resigns or is removed from office, the public advocate, Jumaane Williams, would become acting mayor of the City of New York. Williams would then be required to call a special election within 80 days to elect a new mayor to serve the remainder of Adams’ term, which expires on Dec. 31.
This scenario would not change the timeline of the November mayoral election, in which voters will decide who will be New York City’s mayor for the next four years.
No fewer than seven Democrats have officially launched bids to challenge Mayor Adams in the June primary — but polls suggest the frontrunner isn’t even officially in the race yet.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has had commanding leads in three recent polls of the Democratic primary field, with leads of 20 points or more in some cases on the rest of the field. On Saturday, he seemed to move a little closer to a decision on whether to jump into the race when he lauded an open letter from former state Comptroller Carl McCall published Saturday urging him to run for mayor now.
McCall, once a political rival to Cuomo, sought to portray the former governor as the anti-Trump — with the experience and leadership needed to combat the draconian impacts of Trump policies on New York.
“New Yorkers are smart and they know Andrew well. He has decades of formidable experience, including more than 10 years as our Governor during some of the State’s most trying times. As we all struggled through the early days of the pandemic, the contrast between Andrew’s steadfast leadership, thorough preparation and clear articulation of developments and countermeasures was in stark contrast to Donald Trump,” McCall wrote. “More than anyone else, Andrew is the leader we need and the leader we deserve.”
Moments after McCall sent out his open letter, Cuomo praised the former state comptroller’s sentiment, though the former governor did not explicitly state whether he would enter the mayor’s race.
“I thank him for his faith in me and for his advice, trust and confidence,” Cuomo said. “His sentiments are both humbling and deeply meaningful.”
