Justice Department directs prosecutors to drop federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams

CNN
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The Department of Justice is moving to drop the federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to a memo obtained by CNN.

The memo, which was sent by acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who is a former prosecutor in New York himself, instructed the acting United States attorney for the Southern District, Danielle Sassoon, to dismiss the charges “as soon as is practicable”— subject to several conditions, including a review by the Southern District after the November 2025 mayoral election.

The Justice Department last year brought public corruption charges against Adams, a Democrat, in the first prosecution of a sitting mayor in the city’s modern history. Adams pleaded not guilty, and the case was set to go to trial this spring.

In a statement, Alex Spiro, an attorney for Adams who has also represented Trump ally Elon Musk, said in part, “As I said from the outset, the mayor is innocent — and he would prevail. Today he has.” Spiro also told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in response to the news: “He would have been acquitted in 45 minutes.”

A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment. A spokesperson for Adams’ administration declined to comment and referred CNN to the mayor’s attorney.

The memo cites two reasons for ordering the dismissal: the Justice Department’s opinion that the case has been tainted by publicity and that it is impeding with Adams’ ability to do his job as mayor.

“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior Administration,” Bove writes.

Adams, who is up for reelection this fall, was indicted in September on charges of accepting luxury travel perks and soliciting and receiving illegal campaign donations from Turkish nationals in exchange of political favors, including pressuring city agencies to take favorable action on behalf of the donors.

Adams has denied all wrongdoing. Since his indictment, he has frequently said the prosecution was politically motivated by his criticism of the Biden administration’s response to an influx of migrant arrivals in the city beginning in the spring of 2022.

“It cannot be ignored that Mayor Adams criticized the prior Administration’s immigration policies before the charges were filed,” Bove writes in the memo.

The case was scheduled to go to trial this spring, just months before the city’s Democratic primary, where Adams is facing a crowded field of challengers.

For months, Adams has fended off speculation that he would leave the race. During a recent interfaith breakfast with the city’s clergy leaders, Adams called rumors that he planned to resign “stupid.”

Several of the city’s Democratic lawmakers have increased their criticism in recent weeks, suggesting the mayor has been slow to respond to President Donald Trump’s policies — including his executive order to cut off federal funding to cities that do not cooperate with the administration’s immigration crackdown.

Speculation about a potential pardon or dismissal of the case began in October, shortly after the charges were brought.

Adams was coy in the lead-up to the presidential election, at one point declining to say Kamala Harris’ name when asked multiple times whether he would vote for the Democratic nominee.

In October, Trump appeared to express sympathy with the mayor and suggested his prosecution was the result of political retribution for his criticism of how the Biden administration handled the migrant crisis.

“We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric,” Trump told the mayor during his remarks at the Al Smith charity dinner in New York.

Adams, who was registered as a Republican in the 1990s, also attended Trump’s inauguration and visited him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month.

Bove’s memo notes the DOJ is issuing its order “without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based,” and does not mention a potential pardon for Adams.

This story has been updated with additional information.