Newsman: A federal judge on Friday said he would delay New York Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption trial indefinitely before making a decision on a controversial U.S. Justice Department motion to dismiss the charges.
U.S. District Judge Dale Ho said in his ruling he would select an independent lawyer, Paul Clement, to present arguments against the prosecutors’ bid to dismiss to help him decide. He wrote that he was appointing Clement, who served as a solicitor general under former President George W. Bush, because Adams and the Justice Department are aligned in their positions and the motion to dismiss hadn’t undergone “adversarial testing.”
“An appointment is appropriate here to assist the court’s decision-making,” Ho wrote. “That is particularly so in light of the public importance of this case, which calls for careful deliberation.”
New York Mayor City Adams was charged with accepting illegal campaign contributions and free travel from Turkish officials and business leaders. Prosecutors say Adams, now running for re-election, responded with favors such as expediting safety inspections at a 36-story consulate building.
The Justice Department’s decision to drop the charges prompted multiple federal prosecutors to resign and elicited accusations that Adams agreed to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in exchange for making his legal troubles go away.
New York Governor Hochul responded by expressing concern about the direction of his administration and consulting with city leaders about the possibility of deposing her fellow Democrat.
“The alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored,” Hochul said in a statement days before Ho’s ruling.
The Justice Department asked Ho to dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning they could not be refiled.
Adams has pleaded not guilty, vehemently denying the charges he described as “sensational.”
.“I’m a victim of a very overaggressive investigation,” he told Spectrum News NY1 on Wednesday. “And I’m telling you it hurts, and I’m a victim. And now that victimization is playing out again.”
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, a former criminal lawyer for Trump, wrote that the Justice Department did not assess the evidence in the indictment. But he said the charges “restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime.”
