President Trump’s Department of Justice late Monday ordered the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office to drop federal corruption charges against Mayor Adams, casting serious doubt over the future of the explosive case and the historic independence of the prosecutor’s office, the Daily News has confirmed.
The memo was addressed to acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, and sent from Emil Bove, Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, now serving as his interim No. 2 at the DOJ. “You are directed, as authorized by the Attorney General, to dismiss the pending charges” against Adams, the memo reads, “as soon as is practicable.”
The key reasons, according to the memo, were the possibility of political influence on the decision to indict Adams in the first place and the impact of pretrial publicity. In a startling admission, the Justice Department said the decision was not based on the merits of the case but influenced by Adams’ ability to execute policies important to the Trump Administration such as stemming the flow of illegal immigrants.
“These actions and the underlying case have also improperly interfered with Mayor Adams’ campaign in the 2025 mayoral election,” the memo reads. “The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.”
The memo outlines several conditions, including that Adams must agree in writing to the case’s dismissal without prejudice, meaning it could be revived, and that the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office will review it after this year’s mayoral election. Trump’s nominee is expected to be leading the SDNY by that time. He has nominated his former Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Jay Clayton for the role.
“There shall be no further targeting of Mayor Adams or additional investigative steps prior to that review, and you are further directed to take all steps within your power to cause Mayor Adams’ security clearances to be restored,” the memo reads, adding it in “no way” calls into question the integrity of the prosecutors handling the case.
In a statement, Adams’s attorney, Alex Spiro, framed the memo as the DOJ exonerating his client.
“The mayor is innocent — and he would prevail. Today he has,” Spiro said. “The Department of Justice has reevaluated this case and determined it should not go forward. There is good reason for that. The facts of the case are clear: the mayor never used his official position for personal benefit. Nor did he have any role in violating campaign finance laws.
“Despite a lot of fanfare and sensational claims, ultimately there was no evidence presented that he broke any laws, ever. The witnesses that were promised never materialized. The additional charges that were threatened never came. Now, thankfully, the mayor and New York can put this unfortunate and misguided prosecution behind them,” the statement continued.
The memo, however, said the decision was not based on the merits of the case. “The Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based, which are issues on which we defer to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at this time.”
The decision, the memo says, was based on two factors — the timing of the indictment and “more recent public actions” by former Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams increasing pretrial publicity “that risks impacting potential witnesses and prejudicing the jury pool.” Williams brought the case and resigned before Trump took office.
The latter appeared to refer to a Jan. 16 op-ed Williams wrote in City & State, which served as a commentary on public corruption in New York City and Albany and did not mention the mayor. In previous court filings, Adams’ defense sought to frame the article as evidence Williams acted with political motivations in bringing the case, a claim the judge presiding over the case categorically rejected. Williams declined comment Monday.
The memo to Sassoon also repeats Adams’ frequently made claim that the case could have been influenced by his previous criticisms of the Biden administration’s handling of the national migrant crisis, which it says “cannot be ignored.” Prosecutors have pointed out repeatedly that they began investigating Adams several months before he became mayor, disputing the suggestion they brought charges as retaliation.
In another part of the memo comparing Adams to Trump, Bove’s office said the possibility the SDNY charged him as retaliation for his criticism of the Biden administration “implicates concerns” made by Attorney General Pam Bondi after her recent swearing-in when she established a “weaponization” task force that includes plans to review New York officials who put Trump on trial when he was running for reelection.
Those cases similarly stemmed from investigations that started before Trump announced he was running again.
The charges against Adams, including wire fraud, bribery, and soliciting illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals, carried up to 45 years in prison. Jury selection was set to begin on April 21, just two months before June’s Democratic mayoral primary.
A spokesman for Sassoon declined to comment.
The explosive indictment filed in September charged Adams with accepting bribes and illegal campaign contributions in exchange for abusing his influence as New York City’s most powerful government official and, before that, as Brooklyn borough president.
Adams was accused of taking thousands of dollars worth of benefits starting in around 2014, including first-class flights and hotel stays all over the world, from foreign benefactors with ties to the Turkish government who sought to one day cash in on their relationship. The feds said he paid back his debts partly by pushing the FDNY to open a Midtown skyscraper housing Turkey’s consulate in the months before the general election.
The dismissal move comes despite repeated representations by the prosecuting team in recent months that they had discovered new criminal conduct.
Last month, a Brooklyn real estate magnate connected to Turkish officials admitted to orchestrating straw donations towards Adams’ mayoral campaign at the behest of Adams in a plea deal believed to require his cooperation at trial. Last week, a former City Hall aide to Adams indicated he’s pleading guilty to similar charges.
Rumors began circulating after Trump’s election victory that a potential pardon could be on the table for the mayor, who has been reluctant to criticize the president and his hardline immigration policies. Trump empathized with Adams in public remarks, comparing the mayor’s legal woes to his own in criticizing the DOJ under the Biden administration as politicized. Trump is a Republican, and Adams is a Democrat.
Trump Justice Department orders Manhattan US Attorney to dismiss corruption case against Mayor Adams
