Justice Department Moves to Dismiss Charges Against Mayor Adams

"You are directed" to "dismiss" the charges, Emil Bove, the Justice Department's acting No. 2 official, wrote in a letter to prosecutors obtained by The New York Times.

Mr. Bove also ordered the government to restore security clearances stripped from Mr. Adams following his indictment in September and wrote that there must be "no further targeting of Mayor Adams or additional investigative steps" until after the election, when the case would be re-examined.

The remarkable intervention by a Trump political appointee in a public corruption prosecution involving an official who has been in close communication with the president throws into uncertainty the future of the case against the mayor.

It also raises urgent questions about the administration of justice during Mr. Trump's second term and casts the independence of federal prosecutors into doubt.

It is not clear how Danielle R. Sassoon, the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan, will respond to the order to drop the case. A spokesman for Ms. Sassoon's office declined to comment.

Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Mayor Adams, said in a statement: "I said from the outset, the mayor is innocent -- and he would prevail. Today he has."

"Despite a lot of fanfare and sensational claims, ultimately there was no evidence presented that he broke any laws, ever," Mr. Spiro said, adding, "Now, thankfully, the mayor and New York can put this unfortunate and misguided prosecution behind them."

Any motion to dismiss charges must be filed in court and reviewed by the judge overseeing the case.

Mr. Bove accused the former U.S. attorney in Manhattan, Damian Williams, who oversaw the investigation, of creating "appearances of impropriety" that threatened the integrity of the investigation by bringing the charges for political gain, according to the memo.

He provided no evidence for that accusation, but said that the charges were part of what he described as the Biden administration's broader pattern of weaponizing the Justice Department for partisan purposes.

In his memo, Mr. Bove also said the case had been damaged by "recent public actions" by Mr. Williams, an apparent reference to an opinion article the former prosecutor wrote last month in which he said that the city was "being led with a broken ethical compass."

Lawyers for Mr. Adams had argued to the judge in the case that Mr. Williams's article, which did not name Mr. Adams, would prejudice the jury pool and was evidence that Mr. Williams had been acting to boost his own career.

Mr. Bove, a former prosecutor in the same office that is prosecuting the mayor, said the request to dismiss the charges was not based on an assessment of the merits of the case or Mr. Adams's guilt or innocence.

"The Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based," he wrote. Instead, he said that the case had been inappropriately timed, and that the indictment would be re-evaluated after this year's mayoral election.

Seeking the dismissal of a criminal case without considering the evidence and the law underlying the prosecution is unusual.

Mr. Bove also argued that the case had "unduly restricted Mayor Adams's ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration."

Mr. Bove said that the removal of Mr. Adams's security clearance, a result of the indictment, had impeded his capacity to consult with Trump administration officials on carrying out immigration enforcement in the nation's largest city.

Mr. Adams's critics have accused him of cozying up to Mr. Trump in hopes of having his charges dismissed, and have said he might agree to greater cooperation on immigration as part of a mutually beneficial thaw with the Republican president.

The mayor has been adamant that the indictment has not distracted him from his duties to the people of New York. He routinely uses media availabilities and news releases to trumpet declines in crime and the declining population in the city's migrant shelters.

"I can do my job. My legal team is going to handle the case," the mayor said in December on Bloomberg TV's "The Close." He added: "People said it was going to be a distraction. I'm moving forward and I'm going to continue to deliver for the people of the City of New York."

The Justice Department has generally been reluctant to bring charges against elected officials close to any relevant elections, but Mr. Adams's indictment came in September, nine months before the June primary and more than a year before the general election.

Mr. Adams, a Democrat, met with Mr. Trump near his Mar-a-Lago estate last month in an unusual display of political, and perhaps personal, outreach. Days later, he attended Mr. Trump's inauguration in Washington. Mr. Adams has said that he would not publicly criticize Mr. Trump even as many other Democrats have assailed the president's agenda and his calls for mass deportations.

For his part, Mr. Trump has said that he would consider pardoning Mr. Adams, and characterized the mayor as the victim of politics. The president has likewise claimed, without providing evidence, that he was politically persecuted by the federal and state prosecutors who brought four indictments against him.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have said the investigation began in 2021, three years before Mr. Adams was charged, and well before the recent influx of migrants into New York City. Just weeks ago, the same prosecutor's office said it had uncovered "additional criminal conduct" by Mr. Adams.

The Justice Department's request will most likely be met with swift condemnation by Mr. Adams's critics and political opponents, who are almost sure to claim that the mayor escaped accountability because of the good graces of Mr. Trump, and that he prioritized his own interests over the city's.

In the indictment in September, prosecutors accused Mr. Adams of accepting luxury travel and illegal foreign campaign contributions in exchange for abusing his office, including by speeding the approval of a new Turkish Consulate in Manhattan despite safety concerns. Mr. Adams pleaded not guilty.

If prosecutors in Manhattan do move forward with a motion to drop the case, the judge overseeing it, Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan, may question the decision. But under legal precedent, he has limited power to refuse the request.