The judge in Democrat NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ criminal case on charges of alleged bribery and corruption held a 90-minute hearing on Wednesday afternoon with Alex Spiro, Adams’ lawyer, and Emil Bove, the acting U.S. deputy attorney general, in which he asked about the reasoning behind the Justice Department filing a motion asking the court to dismiss the case. And while not much ended up being resolved, the meeting wasn’t without fireworks.
But we need to back up a little before getting to that. On Feb. 10, the Trump administration’s Justice Department (DOJ) ordered federal prosecutors to dismiss the charges brought against Adams. As my colleague Sister Toldjah noted, in a memo written by acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, he said:
“You are directed, as authorized by the Attorney General, to dismiss the pending charges in United States v. Adams…as soon as is practicable, subject to the following conditions: the defendant must agree in writing to dismissal without prejudice; the defendant must agree in writing that he is not a prevailing party under the Hyde Amendment…and the matter shall be reviewed by the confirmed U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, following the November 2025 mayoral election, based on consideration of all relevant factors,” [acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil] Bove wrote in a memo.
“The Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based, which are issues on which we defer to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at this time,” Bove continued.
Bove also added that not only would there be “no further targeting of Mayor Adams or additional investigative steps” taken against him, but that steps should be taken to immediately restore the mayor’s security clearances.
Toldjah continued with the next step in the process:
The New York Times reported that “Any motion to dismiss charges must be filed in court and reviewed by the judge overseeing the case.”
Since then, there have been two major updates; RedState’s Streiff wrote that on Feb. 13th, the acting US Attorney for SDNY, Danielle Sassoon, resigned rather than drop the case; five supervisors followed suit. Her replacement quit, too, the following day:
Sassoon’s firing left the office under the leadership of Hagan Scotten, another guy who is supposedly a conservative. He decided to go out with a bang; see Read the Resignation Letter From Hagan Scotten.
Then what prompted the judge to call the hearing Wednesday, was this on Feb. 14, also:
…[T]he filing dismissing the case against Adams was submitted.
The motion, filed in a New York court, was signed by acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove; Edward Sullivan, a veteran public corruption prosecutor; and Toni Bacon, acting chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division, after seven other Justice Department lawyers had refused and resigned in protest.
Background
New: Trump Justice Dept. Directs Prosecutors to Dismiss Federal Corruption Charges Against Eric Adams
I’m Your Huckleberry: The Showdown at the DOJ Corral Is Bigger Than the NYC Mayor’s Corruption Charges
Then on Tuesday, Democrat New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she is considering firing Adams.
During Wednesday’s hearing with Spiro and Bove, U.S. District Court Judge Dale E. Ho asked some pointed questions of both men about why he should grant the government’s motion to dismiss. Bove called out the case for what it is: political lawfare and an “abuse of prosecutorial discretion”:
Emil Bove, the acting U.S. deputy attorney general, told Ho he was concerned that proceeding with the case would interfere with national security and immigration issues.
“What is set forth here is my conclusion that this case is an abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” Bove said.
Bove cautioned that continuing to restrict Mayor Adams’ security clearance throttles the Trump administration’s ability to work with him on implementing the president’s immigration policies:
Ho’s questions focused on the legal rationale that guided the government’s motion to dismiss the case. Bove said that the indictment had cost Adams his security clearance and that to proceed with the case would prohibit Adams from speaking with the U.S. Attorney’s Office about immigration and other issues of importance to Trump.
As I mentioned, there were fireworks at one point, in an exchange between Judge Ho and Spiro:
Ho pressed Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, about suggestions made by then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon that the dismissal attempt was part of a quid pro quo deal with the Trump White House.
In a somewhat dramatic moment, Spiro told the judge that not only didn’t that happen, but “[he was] ready to raise [his] right hand now,” and swear under oath to the fact that there was no deal:
between prosecutors and Adams that he would deliver on immigration issues from the Trump administration in exchange for dismissing the charges without prejudice.
At the end of the hearing, the judge decided not to make a decision on Adams’ case Wednesday. Stay tuned.
This is a developing story. RedState will provide further updates as warranted.
