Trump DOJ Orders Prosecutors to Drop Corruption Charges Against Eric Adams

Mayor Eric Adams walks out of 500 Pearl street with a furrowed brow in a blue suit and red tie. 

Mayor Adams — faced with five charges of bribery, fraud and soliciting donations from foreign nationals — has frequently met with Trump and ordered his commissioners to refrain from criticizing the president. 


This article originally appeared in The City.


NEW YORK - The Justice Department on Monday moved to drop the criminal charges against Mayor Eric Adams, saying that the case came too close to the primary in June and impeded his work with President Trump in cracking down on immigrants, according to a memo viewed by THE CITY.


The news was first reported by The New York Times.


The letter, sent by the acting number 2 official at the Justice Department, Emil Bove, says the Sept. 26, 2024 indictment came after Adams criticized the former president’s handling of immigration and is too close to his June 2025 primary.


The trial has also “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.” 


“It cannot be ignored that Mayor Adams criticized the prior Administration’s immigration policies before the charges were filed,” the letter says. 


Alex Spiro, the mayor’s defense attorney, celebrated the news in a statement sent to some reporters. He reportedly traveled to Washington, D.C. last week to meet with the Justice Department to try and have Adams’s case dismissed. 


“The facts of the case are clear: the mayor never used his position for personal benefit. Nor did he have any role in violating campaign finance laws,” he said.


The mayor was indicted Sept. 26 and charged with five counts of wire fraud, bribery and receiving contributions from Turkish nationals that he knew to be illegal, according to prosecutors.


As soon as news broke of a pending indictment, Adams said the charges were retribution for his criticism of former President Joe Biden’s handling of the asylum seeker crisis, even though the investigation began years earlier in 2021. 


“I always knew that if I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target — and a target I became,” he said in the pre-recorded message sent the night before his indictment was unsealed. “If I am charged, I am innocent and will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit.”


He has continued to insist he is innocent, and the charges are only retribution for his outspoken criticism of more than 100,000 asylum seekers who traveled to and were cared for by New York City. 


He met with the incoming president days before he was sworn in and traveled in the middle of the night for the inauguration in Washington, D.C. after a last-minute invitation. Critics said Adams’s refusal to speak poorly of the president was motivated by his hope to get his federal case dropped. 


Earlier Monday, he gathered his top commissioners and officials to warn them against criticizing Trump and the federal government, saying it could jeopardize the city’s federal grant money. 


This is a developing story, check back for updates.

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