Mayor Adams requests case dismissal as pressure mounts

Attorneys for New York City Mayor Eric Adams implored a U.S. judge to permanently dismiss corruption charges against their client in a new filing this week, claiming that prosecutorial misconduct and leaks in the case have “destroyed whatever presumption of innocence [he] had left.”

Adams was indicted last September on federal corruption and bribery charges for allegedly soliciting illegal campaign contributions and receiving of luxury travel perks on behalf of Turkish foreign nationals his last ten years in local political offices, according to Justice Department documents. 

In Wednesday’s filing, Adams’ attorney Alex Spiro argues that disclosures from former interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned instead of following DOJ orders to abandon the prosecution of the case, have compromised the mayor’s right to a fair trial. 

Before she quit, Sassoon wrote in an internal letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi that Adams should face additional charges for his attempts to cover up his crimes during a 2024 FBI probe. 

Another lead prosecutor handling the case who also resigned, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten, wrote in his resignation letter that the Department of Justice would need to find another “coward” or “fool” to ask the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning charges could be brought against Adams again. 

But Spiro called the prosecutors’ allegations “wildly inflammatory and false” in the filing, and said that their correspondences had “turbocharged the prejudice [against] Mayor Adams.”

“The most appropriate recourse is to dismiss this case now and do so with prejudice. That is true based on this latest leak alone and independent of the fact that the government itself wants nothing to do with these meritless charges and has moved to dismiss them,” Spiro wrote. 

Wednesday’s filing comes as a judge considers a controversial motion from the Department of Justice to throw out the case so that Adams can aid the Trump administration in maintaining its immigration agenda. In her letter, Sassoon said the deal amounted to a “quid pro quo” that would wipe Adams’ slate clean in exchange for giving the administration free reign in exchange for giving the administration free reign to carry out deportations in the nation’s largest sanctuary city. 

The DOJ wrote in their filing that their motion was not based on Adams’ presumed innocence or guilty, but a need for him to cooperate with the president’s crackdown on undocumented immigration. 

In their deal, the feds maintained the right to revisit Adams’ case “without prejudice” after this year’s mayoral election, sparking concerns that Adams would be beholden to Trump’s deportation agenda should be he reelected. 

Critics, fearing that Adams will sacrifice the city’s immigrant communities to save his own skin, have called for the Mayor’s removal from office. Four of his deputy mayors have resigned as of this week. Governor Kathy Hochul, facing mounting pressure to remove Adams, announced new “ethics guardrails” the would provide additional oversight to his office and curtail his powers in the event that his attorneys accept the DOJ deal. 

If a Manhattan judge dropped charges against Adams based on Wednesday’s filing, however, the Mayor could walk away from the allegations without cooperating with the agency. 

Adams has pleaded not guilty to the five counts against him, which could carry up to 45 years in prison. 

His indictment alleges that he funneled illegal campaign donations from foreign benefactors through U.S. citizen to mask their origins and maximized the payouts with taxpayer dollars through the city’s public funds matching program. In exchange for their contributions, Adams allegedly pulled strings for those benefactors — in one instance, per the indictment, he allowed a Manhattan skyscraper to open without proper fire safety inspection in time for a visit from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.