Criminal Case Against Nyc Mayor Hangs By A Thread After Justice Department Orders It Dropped

The criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams hung by a thread on Tuesday after the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop the charges , though it remained unclear how quickly that might happen or if the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan might try to resist the directive.

In a two-page memo sent on Monday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed federal prosecutors to dismiss the bribery charges "as soon as is practicable," saying that they were disrupting the mayor's ability to assist in President Donald Trump's crackdown on immigration and crime.

Bove said the Justice Department had decided to dismiss the case "without assessing the strength of the evidence," but for a string of political considerations, including wanting to free up Adams to campaign for reelection as a Democrat who will support Trump's policy objectives.

The task of carrying out the order now falls to Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Her office declined to comment and hasn't indicated what it plans to do next. In a letter sent last month, prosecutors in the Adams case praised the strength of the evidence, dismissing his claim of political prosecution as an attempt "to shift the focus away from the evidence of his guilt."