Judge Cancels NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ Trial and Leaves Corruption Charges Intact until Mid-March
LARRY NEUMEISTER and MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press, Updated:
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge on Friday canceled the corruption trial for New York City Mayor Eric Adams (pictured above) and appointed counsel to advise the court about the Justice Department’s controversial request to drop charges against the Democrat.
Judge Dale E. Ho’s written order means he won’t decide before mid-March whether to grant the dismissal of the case against the embattled mayor of the nation’s largest city.
On Friday, Ho said he appointed Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush, to present arguments on the government’s case-drop request.The judge noted that courts are normally “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.”He said a Wednesday hearing had “no adversarial testing of the Government’s position,” and the absence made it important to appoint Clement to assist the judge in reaching a conclusion.At the hearing, Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove defended his request to drop charges, saying they came too close to Adams’ reelection campaign and would distract from the mayor’s assistance to the Trump administration’s law-and-order priorities.Adams confirmed at the hearing that he knew charges could later be reinstated — a feature of the request that has led some legal experts to speculate that the mayor can only escape trial if he helps Trump’s plans to round up New Yorkers who are in the country illegally.* New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks to members of the press at a news conference in New York, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
