The Justice Department has requested a court to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. This move follows intense internal conflict within the department, leading to the resignation of multiple prosecutors who refused to comply with a directive to drop the case. The dismissed charges stem from allegations that Mayor Adams accepted illegal campaign contributions and extravagant perks from foreign nationals seeking to influence him.
The Justice Department formally asked a court Friday to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams , an expected move after that was fiercely opposed by the federal prosecutors in Manhattan who brought the case. Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove and lawyers from the department’s public integrity section and criminal division in Washington filed paperwork seeking to end the case. A judge still has to sign off on the request.
The formal move to end the prosecution came after days of turmoil in the Justice Department. At least seven prosecutors in New York and Washington quit rather than carry out a directive to halt the case. Among the people leaving were the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan and a veteran prosecutor who worked on the Adams case, along with the acting chief of the public integrity section. The Justice Department's three-page motion sought to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the charges could be revived in the future. An assistant U.S. attorney involved in prosecuting New York City Mayor Eric Adams became at least the seventh person to resign from the Justice Department in a standoff over the future of the corruption case, telling the department's second-in-command Friday that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet his demand to drop the charges. Prosecutor Hagan Scotten became the latest casualty in an epic showdown between Justice Department leadership in Washington and its office in New York, which has long prided itself on its independence. Scotten, along with other prosecutors in the case against Adams, was suspended with pay on Thursday by acting deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove, who launched a probe of the prosecutors that he said would determine whether they kept their jobs. Bove, who had represented Donald Trump against criminal charges before he was reelected as president in November, on Monday directed Danielle Sassoon, a Republican and the interim U.S. attorney in New York, to drop the charges against Adams. Instead, she resigned on Thursday, along with five high-ranking Justice Department officials in Washington, a day after she sent a letter to Trump's new attorney general, Pam Bondi.Bove conferred with prosecutors in the department’s public integrity section Friday and instructed them to decide among themselves who should sign on to a motion to dismiss Adams’ case. After they were told that their jobs were at risk if no one stepped forward, one agreed to do it, according to a person briefed on the discussions who insisted on anonymity to speak about a private meeting. Bondi told Fox News the motion would be filed Friday, indicating officials had found someone to do it. A judge would still have to sign off on ending the matter. Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, called the department’s decision to drop the case “yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts.” “The fact that those who indicted and prosecuted the case refused to follow a direct command is further proof of the disordered and ulterior motives of the prosecutors,' Mizelle said in an emailed statement. “Such individuals have no place at DOJ.” Scotten is an Army veteran who earned two Bronze medals serving in Iraq as a Special Forces troop commander. He graduated from Harvard Law School at the top of his class in 2010 and clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. In a resignation letter to Bove, Scotten said he was “entirely in agreement” with Sassoon's refusal to seek dismissal of charges that the mayor had accepted over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from foreign nationals looking to buy his influence while he was Brooklyn borough president campaigning to be mayor. Among reasons for seeking to have charges dropped, Bove said the mayor was needed in the Trump administration's immigration enforcement efforts and to decrease violent crime. He also said the charges were brought too close to this year's mayoral contest and could be reinstated after the election. In her letter, Sassoon accused Adams’ lawyers of offering what amounted to a “quid pro quo” on immigration when they met with Justice Department officials in Washington last month.“We offered nothing and the department asked nothing of us,' Spiro said in an email to reporters. “We were asked if the case had any bearing on national security and immigration enforcement and we truthfully answered it did.'“I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never,' the mayor said in a statemen
Corruption Justice Department Eric Adams New York City Mayor Political Scandal Prosecutors Resignations Dismissal Of Charges Campaign Finance
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