The Justice Department on Friday moved to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the latest move in a legal saga that has led to the resignations of at least seven federal prosecutors and plunged the department into crisis.
The filing does not immediately end the high-profile case. A federal judge must approve the decision to drop the charges.
The extraordinary mutiny from career Justice Department prosecutors was set in motion on Monday when acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered Danielle R. Sassoon, then the top prosecutor in Manhattan, to dismiss the charges. Bove argued in part that the case was interfering with Adams’ ability to help the administration tackle illegal immigration.
Sassoon, who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned Thursday after sending off a sharply worded memo to Attorney General Pam Bondi. Sassoon wrote that she believed Adams had “committed the crimes with which he was charged” and that she was extremely troubled by what had been discussed at a Jan. 31 meeting with Bove and Adams’ lawyers.
“Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed,” wrote Sassoon, a conservative who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
After Sassoon refused to dismiss the case, Justice Department officials moved it to the agency’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, which oversees all federal public corruption cases, multiple sources said.
But multiple prosecutors in the unit resigned rather than follow the directive to drop the charges. And on Friday, another top prosecutor in Manhattan also resigned, bringing the number of departures sparked by the order to seven.
The filing to dismiss the case came hours after Bove and Antoinette Bacon, an official with the Justice Department’s criminal division, held a video meeting with members of the Public Integrity Section.
One of the lawyers who ultimately signed the filing was Edward Sullivan, a senior litigation counsel with the section. Sullivan decided to sign it to protect his colleagues, a person familiar with the matter said. Bove and Bacon also signed it.
Legal experts said the Justice Department directive to dismiss the case was a highly unusual move that would make Adams beholden to the Trump administration.
Adams, a former New York police captain elected mayor in 2021, was indicted last year. He is accused of taking $100,000 worth of free plane tickets and luxury hotel stays from wealthy Turkish nationals in an almost decadelong corruption scheme.
Adams has pleaded not guilty. He has insisted that he is innocent and argued that the charges are politically motivated. And he and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, have vehemently denied there was any quid pro quo offered in the Jan. 31 meeting.
Calls for Adams to resign intensified after news of the Justice Department resignations broke Thursday.
But even amid those calls and the turmoil at the Justice Department, Adams has not shied away from the spotlight.
He appeared on “Fox & Friends” Friday morning with Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan. Adams remained defiant, saying he was not going to resign and pledging to allow federal immigration agents to operate at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex.
Homan celebrated Adams’ pledge.
“I came to New York City and I wasn’t going to leave with nothing,” he said.
But if Adams “doesn’t come through,” Homan warned, he would “be in his office, up his butt saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’”
