Judge questions New York City mayor Eric Adams in corruption charges hearing

New York City Mayor Eric Adams arrives at court on Wednesday (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

A judge questioned New York City mayor Eric Adams at the start of a hearing on Wednesday to ensure he agreed with the Justice Department’s request to drop corruption charges against him weeks before an April trial.

Judge Dale E Ho said he wanted to confirm that the mayor had agreed that the charges would be dropped with the possibility they could be reinstated at a later date.

“Yes, your honour,” Mr Adams said.

Judge Ho, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, scheduled the Wednesday afternoon hearing after three Trump administration lawyers made the dismissal request on Friday. Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor resigned after she refused an order to do so.

The judge has already indicated that the hearing probably would not settle the matter, writing in an order on Tuesday that one subject on the agenda will be a discussion of the “procedure for resolution of the motion”.

New York City mayor Eric Adams, third from left, arriving at a news conference on Tuesday (Seth Wenig/AP)

Also set for discussion are the reasons for the request to dismiss the indictment that charges the first-term Democrat with accepting more than 100,000 dollars (£79,480) in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from a Turkish official and business leaders seeking to buy Mr Adams’ influence while he was Brooklyn borough president.

Mr Adams has pleaded not guilty. He faces multiple challengers in the Democratic primary in June.

Closely watching the judicial proceedings is Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who is considering whether to remove Mr Adams from office amid concerns that he reached a deal to have the case dropped in exchange for the mayor’s political fealty to Republican President Donald Trump.

Early last week, Deputy US Attorney General Emil Bove told prosecutors in New York to drop the charges because the prosecution “has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime”.

Mr Bove said charges could be reinstated after November’s mayoral election.

Two days later, then-interim US Attorney Danielle Sassoon told Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter that dismissing the charges in return for Mr Adams’ assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws would betray Ms Bondi’s own words that she “will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behaviour, or other forms of misconduct”.

“Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams’s mayoral decision-making would be all three,” said Ms Sassoon, a Republican.

She said it amounted to a “quid pro quo” deal and disclosed that prosecutors were about to bring additional obstruction of justice charges against Mr Adams.

Mr Bove, in accepting Ms Sassoon’s resignation, accused her of “pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case”.

He informed her that two other prosecutors assigned to the case were being suspended with pay and that an investigation would determine if they would keep their jobs.

One prosecutor, Hagan Scotten resigned the following day, writing in a resignation letter that he supported Ms Sassoon’s actions. Mr Scotten told Mr Bove that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet Mr Bove’s demand to drop the charges, “but it was never going to be me”.

In all, seven prosecutors, including five high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department had resigned by Friday.

Shortly before Wednesday’s hearing, Ms Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, took to social media to defend the department’s dismissal request, citing an argument over a point of law 10 days after Mr Bove said a decision to drop charges was reached “without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based”.

In a series of posts on X, Mr Mizelle argued that in the Adams case, prosecutors’ “expansive reading” of the public corruption law was unlikely to fare well before the US Supreme Court, which has overturned the convictions of high-profile, white-collar defendants.

“The case against Mayor Adams was just one in a long history of past DOJ actions that represent grave errors of judgment,” Mr Mizelle wrote.

Ms Sassoon and her colleagues have found support for their stand from a small army of former prosecutors.

On Friday, seven former US attorneys in Manhattan, including James Comey, Geoffrey S Berman and Mary Jo White, issued a statement lauding Ms Sassoon’s “commitment to integrity and the rule of law”.

On Monday, three former US attorneys from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut submitted papers to Judge Ho suggesting that he appoint a special prosecutor if he finds the Justice Department acted improperly or that he order all evidence be made available to state and local prosecutors.

A former Watergate prosecutor filed papers separately, telling the judge to reject the government’s request and consider assigning a special counsel to explore the legal issues and ultimately consider appointing an independent special prosecutor to try the case.

Also on Monday, Justice Connection, an organisation advocating for Justice Department employees, released a letter signed by more than 900 former career prosecutors that said they have “watched with alarm” as values “foundational to a fair and justice legal system” have been tested.

On Tuesday, Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mr Adams, said in a letter to the judge that “there was no quid pro quo. Period.”.