Judge in NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case sets hearing on proposed dismissal of charges

The Manhattan federal court judge overseeing the political corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams has ordered a hearing for Wednesday to determine whether the U.S. Department of Justice was justified in dropping the case.

District Court Judge Daniel Ho scheduled a court appearance at 2 p.m. so that he is “satisfied that the reasons advanced for the proposed dismissal are substantial,” he said, quoting case law, regarding the purpose of the hearing.

On Friday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and Edward Sullivan, senior litigation counsel in the Washington, D.C.-based public integrity unit, filed a motion to dismiss the five-count indictment against the mayor.

In their motion, the government lawyers said the case should be dropped because it interferes with Adams’ ability to govern the city, creating “unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies.”

Bove had previously charged that the previous head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Damian Williams, had brought the case to further his political ambitions.

Adams’ case was transferred to Washington, D.C., after the interim Manhattan U.S. attorney, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than carry out the justice department’s directive to dismiss the case without prejudice. Half a dozen prosecutors and Department of Justice officials also resigned rather than carry out Bove’s order.

In her resignation letter, Sassoon said she believed the mayor to be guilty of the crimes and the office had prepared to bring additional charges for witness tampering and destruction of evidence in the case.

Over the weekend, the organizations Common Cause and Free + Fair Litigation Group, comprising former federal prosecutors from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and a former Manhattan federal judge, asked the judge, a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, to hold an inquiry into the U.S. attorney general’s rationale, charging it was the D.C. headquarters that had politicized the case.