The Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss its corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, the latest move in a row between the Trump administration and career US attorneys.
Seven justice department lawyers, including the top US prosecutor in Manhattan, resigned over an order to drop the case.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News on Friday that it was her understanding that the case against Adams would be “dismissed today”.
Adams was indicted last year on fraud and bribery charges. He denies any wrongdoing.
The request to drop the charges will require approval by a judge.
Earlier in the week, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove – Bondi’s second-in-command – ordered the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office to end the case.
Bove argued that the case against Adams had “restricted” the mayor’s ability to address “illegal immigration and violent crime” – two of President Donald Trump’s key priorities.
The motion to dismiss the case, signed by Bove and two justice department lawyers, said that pursuing the case “would interfere with the defendant’s ability to govern in New York City, which poses unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies”.
But several Department of Justice employees, including the top prosecutor in Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon, viewed the order to drop the case as politically motivated interference in the independent judicial system.
Sassoon resigned from her post on Thursday and was followed by six of her colleagues.
She said dropping the case would set a “breathtaking and dangerous precedent”.
The latest prosecutor to resign in protest at being ordered to drop the charges, Hagan Scotten, wrote in his resignation letter on Friday that US laws and traditions do not allow for “using prosecutorial power” to influence elected officials.
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion,” Scotten wrote in the letter addressed to Bove. “But it was never going to be me.”
In a letter accepting Sassoon’s resignation, Bove said his office would be investigating the attorney, claiming she had “lost sight of the oath that you took when you started at the Department of Justice”.
In a statement, Bondi’s chief of staff Chad Mizelle defended the decision to dismiss the charges, saying it showed “that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts”.
Mr Mizelle said that prosecutors who refuse direct orders “have no place” in the department.
Adams was indicted last year for allegedly accepting gifts totalling more than $100,000 (£75,000) from Turkish citizens in exchange for favours.
In Sassoon’s resignation letter, she also said Adams’ lawyers had met justice department officials and asked for a “quid pro quo”, saying the New York City mayor could help enforce Trump’s immigration policies if the case against him was dismissed.
But Adams denied that was the case.
“I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered – nor did anyone offer on my behalf – any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Adams, a Democrat, has accused investigators of pursuing a politically motivated case against him because of his criticism of former President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
The New York mayor has also expressed a willingness to work with Trump since he won the White House. He flew to meet Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida days before the Republican president took office.
After a meeting with US border tsar Tom Homan on Thursday, Adams said he would agree to allow Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to re-establish an office at the city’s Rikers Island jail.
Trump has denied that he had any involvement in asking prosecutors to dismiss the case against Adams.
But Bove’s letter described his instructions to drop the case as “direct orders implementing the policy of a duly elected President”.
The governor of New York state, Kathy Hochul, has the power to remove Adams from office.
While she has not said she would take such action, she also indicated she hasn’t entirely ruled it out, telling MSNBC that she was “consulting with other leaders in government at this time”.
“The allegations are extremely concerning and serious,” she said. “But I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction.”
By BBC News
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