Mayor Eric Adams claimed vindication on Tuesday during a direct address to New Yorkers in response to the Justice Department’s move to drop his federal corruption charges — even though the Trump-led DOJ said its order was not based on the case’s facts.
During the mayor’s address, which ran nearly six minutes and was broadcast from behind closed doors at City Hall, he contended the decision proved that he was innocent of any wrongdoing. However, the Feb. 10 DOJ memo from acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordering Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop the charges made clear that the department “reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based.”
Adams was indicted in September on charges including bribery, wire fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign donations from Turkish nationals. He was accused of using his elected position to solicit and accept luxury travel benefits and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish nationals in exchange for favors.
Yet Adams still echoed his attorney, Alex Spiro’s, argument that the facts of the case did not stand up to scrutiny from Trump’s Justice Department. The mayor said Tuesday that this contention is supported by no witnesses ever coming out “publicly” against him, and Manhattan federal prosecutors’ threats of bringing additional charges have never materialized.
“I never asked anyone to break the law on my behalf or on behalf of my campaign, never. I never traded my power as an elected official for any personal benefit,” Adams said. “I thank the Justice Department for its honesty. Now, we can put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of our city. It’s time to move forward.”
In his remarks, Adams did not mention Trump or any details about the charges or how he believes they were disproven.
Dismissed ‘without prejudice’
The memo, written by Bove, said the Justice Department was moving to drop the case because it was politically motivated, brought too close to the 2025 Democratic mayoral primary, and interfered with Adams’ ability to carry out Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Bove is calling for the case to be dismissed “without prejudice,” which means DOJ could bring the charges back at any time — a move that many local pols say will make Adams completely beholden to Trump’s agenda.
Interim US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon and the judge in the case, Dale Ho, must sign off on DOJ’s request in order for the charges to be dropped. SDNY has refrained from commenting on the memo so far.
The memo came after months of Adams making overtures to Trump, which fueled widespread chatter that he was angling for the president to swoop in and dismiss his legal case. That speculation came to a head when Adams traveled to Florida to attend a private meeting with Trump last month and then made a last-minute trip to Washington, DC, to attend the president’s inauguration.
During his address, Adams also sought to debunk his critics’ charges that he has not been able to discharge his duties while under indictment.
“As we have been dragged through this unfortunate prosecution, I never took my eyes off of what’s important: you and your family’s future,” Adams said. “Hidden beneath all of the shocking headlines full of rumors and accusations, all the innuendos and insinuations, the real news is that the women and men of my administration have delivered for the working people of New York just like I promised we would.”
Reaction
However, many city elected officials, including Adams’ primary challengers, argue he has been abdicating his responsibility for months. Additionally, they say the DOJ’s ability to resurrect the case at any time means he will have to do Trump’s bidding or face his charges once again.
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie, who is running against Adams, charged that Adams “no longer works for New Yorkers; he works for Donald Trump.”
“The directive from the Department of Justice to dismiss the charges against Mayor Eric Adams is a dangerous degradation of the independence of our prosecutor’s office and of our courts,” Myrie said during a Tuesday morning press conference before the mayor’s speech.
City Comptroller Brad Lander, another one of Adams’ challengers, echoed Myrie’s sentiments during his own news conference.
“The result is that when the president harms or threatens New York City, the mayor will be unable to fight back because he clearly cares about staying out of prison more than he cares about the well-being of New Yorkers,” Lander said. “Whether we’re being threatened with service cuts, with loss of the money we need for our schools and hospitals, whether that’s families being destroyed, higher prices or more.”
Myrie also sent a letter to Judge Ho on Tuesday urging him to reject the DOJ’s motion to dismiss the charges and appoint a special prosecutor in the case. He said the judge can invoke Rule 48A to analyze whether the motion is in the public interest, which Myrie argued it is not.
“Our teachers, our police officers, our firefighters, our families, our students, every day New Yorkers have no mayor right now, no leader right now,” Myrie said. “We have someone that is waking up every single day not to fight for our teachers, not to fight to keep our hospitals open, not to fight for funding for our schools, but to fight for his own liberty, to save his own skin.”
