Mayor Eric Adams complained on Tuesday that reporters are covering the arrest of Palestinian activist and green card holder Mahmoud Khalil far more closely than a recent Justice Department legal filing that, he says, proves his corruption case was politically motivated.
The mayor’s comments, made during his weekly “off-topic” news conference, came in response to questions about where he stands on the Trump administration’s arrest and threats of deportation of Khalil, who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Saturday.
The Trump administration says it is punishing Khalil for his leading role in pro-Palesinian protests at Columbia University last year when he was studying as a grad student there. They claim his actions were in support of the militant group Hamas, which governs the Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip and is designated a terrorist group by the US.
Khalil’s arrest has sparked widespread outrage from elected officials and activists who charge the Trump administration is using it as a means to further crack down on immigration and free speech.
But Mayor Adams, when asked if he sees any parallels between his own federal indictment and Khalil’s detainment, instead turned the subject to what he views as inadequate and biased press coverage of the Friday DOJ filing he claims exonerates him from his corruption case. The filing, authored by Deputy Attorneys General Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, contained snippets of correspondence between former Manhattan federal prosecutors on Adams’ case intended to paint the charges as politically motivated.
“What I’m finding surprising is the level of support you’re all displaying,” Adams said to reporters asking about his stance on Khalil’s arrest.
“But I didn’t see that support for me, even after we saw the emails and text messages that there’s a potential that it’s politically motivated,” Adams added. “So if you’re about justice, don’t be inconsistent in your call for justice. Cover those text messages that shows that it was potentially politically motivated.”
Adams did not offer much more on Khalil’s case, saying that the federal government handles immigration enforcement.
“The federal government determines who will be deported from this country, not the mayor of the city of New York,” he said.
Blanche and Bove’s filing is part of their bid to get Adams’ charges tossed by US District Judge Dale Ho, who is expected to make a final decision on whether to nix the case this week. It followed a separate filing by court-appointed attorney Paul Clement that recommended dismissing the mayor’s case “with prejudice” — meaning the charges cannot be brought back.
The two top DOJ officials used pieces of private conversations between assistant US Attorneys assigned to Adams’ case to show that even though they publicly defended the charges, they were questioning the motivations of former US Attorney Damian Williams in bringing them behind closed doors. They quoted one message from former Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten, stating it was “pretty plausible” that Williams “had a political motive in bringing this case.”
However, Blanche and Bove only shared snippets of the communications because they were under seal, making the context surrounding them hard to determine.
When asked if those conversations should be released in their entirety, Adams said, “The judge got to make that decision.”
Hizzoner also claimed that no one asked for additional context when details of the investigation into him were leaked to reporters before he was indicted.
“He has to make the decision on what is going to be released and not,” Adams said. “But I do want to point out, the leaks that they were doing on me, people were not looking for full explanations…They were not doing that, they were writing the stories as thought it was factual.”
