Mayor Eric Adams gives a thumbs-up as he arrives to attend a court hearing on Wednesday.
Photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images
At a church service on Sunday, two days after the Justice Department moved to throw out his corruption case, Mayor Eric Adams claimed that God had protected him, going so far as to compare himself to Lazarus rising from the dead. “People are dancing on my grave,” he told parishioners of his legal woes that seemed headed for a favorable conclusion. “God will determine my fate … I’ve got a mission to finish … I am going nowhere.”
What Adams meant by “going nowhere” probably didn’t include Manhattan Federal Court, where Judge Dale Ho called into court the mayor, his legal team, and Emil Bove, the deputy U.S. attorney general on Wednesday. For 90 minutes, they were quizzed about the department’s request to dismiss the charges in order to help Adams carry out Donald Trump’s agenda. The move was considered so blatantly corrupt by at least seven prosecutors — including Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney in Manhattan — that they resigned rather than carry it out. In court, Bove confirmed that was the reason to extend Adams mercy and that he could still be prosecuted at a later time.
“The continuation of this prosecution is interfering with both national security and immigration-enforcement initiatives being run and conducted by the executive branch,” Bove told Ho.
The mayor sauntered into a packed courtroom just before 2 p.m., hands in pockets. As he neared the well, he tapped his pastor, 94-year-old Reverend Herbert Daughtry Sr., on the shoulder and gave him a hug. Bove sat by himself at the prosecution table, with Todd Blanche, Trump’s nominee for deputy attorney general, seated in the row behind him. (The pair unsuccessfully defended Trump against criminal charges in Manhattan last year.)
Ho has to sign off on prosecutors’ motion before the case is officially over and recognized a “court has very little discretion here” — judges effectively must okay these requests — but he called the hearing because he had a few questions. “Today is in no way a commentary on the merits of this case,” he said.
Ho asked Adams about his agreeing to the prosecution’s motion to dismiss the charges “without prejudice,” which leaves the door open for prosecution on this same set of allegations. Did Adams understand that he could get charged again?
“Yes, I understand that, judge,” he said. “I have not committed a crime and I don’t see them bringing it back. I’m not afraid of that.” Ho told Adams that he could consult with his attorney, Alex Spiro, at any point.
“I appreciate that because I failed my law class,” Adams said, prompting a subtle chuckle from Blanche.
Ho asked Adams whether anyone had promised him anything in exchange for going along with prosecutors’ request.
“Not at all,” he said.
Did anyone threaten him into accepting the dismissal?
“No, your Honor.”
Bove cited Adams’s denials to insist that there was no explicit deal between the mayor and the Justice Department. “You have a record undisputed that there is no quid pro quo,” he said. “I don’t concede, and I don’t think it’s correct, that even if there was a quid pro quo, there would be any issue with this motion.”
That hardly dispelled the impression that Adams was getting leniency in exchange for carrying out Trump’s immigration agenda, such as pushing to let ICE into Rikers Island, and that the prosecution could be restarted if he didn’t cooperate. When asked whether the charges could be brought back, Bove acknowledged “they could be” and that it’s “in the department’s discretion.”
Could Adams be indicted at a later date? “It’s possible,” Bove said, again saying that would be “in the department’s discretion.”
As he did in his letter to Sassoon demanding her office drop the charges, Bove cited the president’s agenda as the reason for the request to the court. “The continuation of this prosecution is interfering with both national security and immigration-enforcement initiatives being run and conducted by the executive branch,” Bove said, claiming that this prosecution was interrupting Adams’s “ability to govern.” He also said that the prosecution was wrongfully meddling with the mayoral election taking place this year.
“I think the fact that Mayor Adams is sitting to my left right now is part of the problem. He’s not able to be out running the city and campaigning,” Bove said. “I think that is actual interference with the election.”
Ho asked whether the government’s rationale could apply to others in office: Would prosecutors consider officials’ responsibilities in assessing other cases?
“Yes, absolutely,” Bove said. “I think that it’s an obligation of federal prosecutors at the outset of a case and throughout to consider whether their work is impacting the safety of the community in a public official’s ability to protect the public, especially in such a critical time in this city with the immigration problems that we face, the violent crime problems that we face.”
“Could it apply to other chief executive-type public officials,” Ho pressed, like a governor?
“If a case, if an ongoing prosecution presents national security concerns or concerns about the president’s ability to maintain an immigration policy that he was elected to implement and enforce, then it would, absolutely,” Bove said. “The department will absolutely consider that in connection with current cases, ongoing cases, cases that are under investigation. It’s a totally appropriate consideration.”
Ho did not make a decision on the prosecutors’ dismissal request nor rule on whether other parties could file paperwork formally demanding an inquiry into the push to drop the Adams case, as some have asked the court to do.
“It’s not in anyone’s interest here for this to drag on, I understand that,” Ho said, but “I’m not going to shoot from the hip right here on the bench.”
Adams left the courthouse moments later, greeted the same way leaving as when he came in: with insults and jeers.
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