A federal judge in New York permanently dismissed the corruption and bribery charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Wednesday morning, siding with President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice.
In a lengthy order, Judge Dale E. Ho said he would dismiss the case but rejected the government’s request to dismiss the charges without prejudice – which would have allowed federal prosecutors to bring the charges again.
“In light of DOJ’s rationales, dismissing the case without prejudice would create the unavoidable perception that the Mayor’s freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents,” Ho wrote on the order.
After Trump took office in January, leaders he appointed in the DoJ requested federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York dismiss the indictment against the mayor who had signaled he would assist Trump in carrying out his mass deportation agenda and implementing other policies.
The decision arrives after weeks of back-and-forth between the government, Adams’s attorney and the federal court in New York, which initially refused to comply with the DoJ’s request to dismiss the indictment against the mayor.
Multiple prosecutors at SDNY, including the Trump-appointed acting head of the district, U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, had raised concerns that Adams and the DoJ engaged in “what amounted to a quid pro quo.”
Prosecutors under the Biden administration brought a five-count indictment against Adams in September, which included bribery charges.
The mayor had denied all allegations and claimed the indictment was brought against him because he had made comments supporting then-presidential candidate Trump’s immigration agenda.
Adams’s case was supposed to head to trial later in April.
While Ho complied with the government’s request, his lengthy order addressed and rejected several arguments the DoJ had made when asking for the dismissal.
The judge rejected the DoJ’s claim that Adams was unable to assist in Trump’s immigration agenda with the charges against him, pointing to Adams’s recent announcement permitting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to operate at Rikers Jail.
He said there was no support for the DoJ’s argument that the case was brought to interfere with the 2025 New York City mayoral primary and, if anything, “the timing of the case is entirely consistent with prior public corruption prosecutions.”
Ho also emphasized there was “no evidence – zero” that prosecutors in SDNY acted improperly or had improper motives.
Rather, Ho said he agreed to drop the charges to protect Adams from the government using the possibility of the charges as “leverage” against him in the future and because SDNY would have “no way to compel” the government to pursue the case if he refused to drop it.
Adams became the first sitting New York City mayor to be indicted in September.