Judge delays NY mayor's trial, rejects immediate dismissal request

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
22 Feb 2025 08:02

District Judge Dale Ho also announces that he had appointed an independent attorney to argue why the charges against Adams should not be dropped.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams departs after attending the court hearing on the Justice Department’s motion to drop criminal charges against him, at the federal court in New York City on February 19, 2025 (AFP)

A US judge indefinitely postponed on Friday New York City Mayor Eric Adams's corruption trial but declined to immediately grant the Trump Justice Department’s request to dismiss the charges.

Adams, 64, was indicted last September for allegedly accepting bribes and campaign donations from Turkish nationals seeking to influence him.

District Judge Dale Ho also announced that he had appointed an independent attorney to argue why the charges against Adams should not be dropped.

Last week, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed federal prosecutors in New York to dismiss the bribery and fraud charges against Adams—an extraordinary intervention that led to a wave of protest resignations within both the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the Justice Department in Washington.

Bove justified the move by arguing that the prosecution was hindering the Democratic mayor’s ability to fully focus on addressing illegal immigration and violent crime—an assertion he reiterated during a court hearing before Judge Ho on Wednesday.

The decision to seek dismissal has sparked allegations of a quid pro quo. Critics suggest that Adams was being pressured into enforcing Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in exchange for having the charges dropped—an accusation the mayor has denied.

Adams was initially scheduled to stand trial on April 21, but Ho vacated the court date.

The judge appointed Paul Clement, a former solicitor general under President George W. Bush, to present arguments against dismissing the indictment.

"Normally, courts are aided in their decision-making through our system of adversarial testing, which can be particularly helpful in cases presenting unusual fact patterns or in cases of great public importance," Ho stated.

In this case, "there has been no adversarial testing of the government's position," he added.

Ho directed both Clement and the Justice Department to submit legal briefs by March 7, with oral arguments scheduled for March 14.

Despite mounting pressure to resign, Adams has rejected calls to step down and has announced plans to seek re-election in November as mayor of the nation’s largest city.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has expressed deep concern over the corruption charges against Adams but has so far declined to invoke her authority to remove him from office.

The controversy deepened last week when Acting US Attorney in Manhattan Danielle Sassoon and Hagan Scotten, the lead prosecutor in the Adams case, abruptly resigned after being instructed by the Trump Justice Department to drop the charges.

In an extremely critical letter to Bove, Scotten wrote that only a "fool" or a "coward" would comply with the department’s demand.