New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ legal troubles may be over, after Donald Trump’s Justice Department asked federal prosecutors to drop his corruption case.
Adams was charged in September with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and receiving campaign contributions from foreign nationals.
He is also accused of defrauding NYC taxpayers of $10million through allegedly fraudulent campaign funds.
Adams pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and claimed he has done nothing wrong after becoming the first mayor in the city’s history to face criminal charges while in office.
Trump’s Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to the Southern District of New York claiming that the former US attorney for Manhattan charged Adams for his own political gain.
Bove – who used to work for SDNY – claimed that Adams, a Democrat, was a victim of Joe Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice.
He added that the timing of the charges and ‘more recent actions’ by the former U.S. attorney who led the office, Damian Williams, ‘have threatened the integrity of the proceedings, ‘including by increasing prejudicial pretrial publicity that risks impacting potential witnesses and the jury pool.’
Bove also wrote that the pending prosecution has ‘unduly restricted’ Adams´ ability to ‘devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that has escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.’
New York City Mayor Eric Adams ‘ legal troubles may be over, after Donald Trump’s Justice Department asked federal prosecutors to drop his corruption case
Trump’s Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a memo to the Southern District of New York claiming that the former US attorney for Manhattan charged Adams for his own political gain
The deputy AG did not attempt to exonerate Adams but said that the charges were made as an attempt to push the mayor out of office before he faces a Democrat Primary.
Bove claims that the charges should be re-evaluated after the 2025 election.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Mayor’s Office and the Department of Justice for comment.
The development comes after months of speculation that Trump’s Justice Department would take steps to end the criminal case against Adams, who was accused of accepting bribes of free or discounted travel and illegal campaign contributions.
Trump had hinted at the possibility of a pardon in December, telling reporters that the mayor had been ‘treated pretty unfairly.’
He had also claimed, without offering evidence, that Adams was being persecuted for criticizing former President Joe Biden’s policies on immigration.
After Trump’s inauguration, Adams’ lawyers had approached senior Justice Department officials, asking them to intervene and drop the case.
In late 2023, Adams declared he was ‘extremely comfortable’ with how he and his campaign team act, despite the home of his top fundraiser being raided by the FBI.
Agents searched the home of Brianna Suggs, a campaign consultant who has helped Adams raise $2.5million for his 2025 election
In late 2023, Adams declared he was ‘extremely comfortable’ with how he and his campaign team act, despite the home of his top fundraiser Brianna Suggs being raided by the FBI
The raid was part of an investigation into an alleged kickback scheme involving the Turkish government and a Brooklyn construction company, according to a report.
Brianna Suggs’ Brooklyn house was searched while he was on his way to meetings in Washington DC, forcing him to abruptly cancel and return to ‘deal with a matter’. The timing was deliberate, sources said.
Adams did not reference the raid directly, or address his work with Suggs, but said he would cooperate with the investigation.
He told ABC News: ‘I feel extremely comfortable about how I comply with rules and procedures.
‘I hold myself to a high standard, and I hold my campaign to a high standard, and I hold my staff at City Hall to a high standard.
‘I’m very clear that it is my responsibility to hold myself to a high standard and I will comply with any inquiry that is made and I am demanding that my team do the same.’
The NYC mayor allegedly took advantage of the city’s system of matching campaign contributions with tax dollars, and ‘fraudulently obtained as much as $2,000 in public funds for each illegal contribution’, the indictment alleged.
He was allegedly ‘relying on the concealed nature of these illegal contributions to falsely portray his campaigns as law-abiding.’
Defense attorney Alex Spiro (center) and Adams (bottom right) attend a court appearance in federal court. Judge Dale Ho (left) said a speedy trial was in the public and mayor’s interest but he did not set a trial date
‘As a result of those false certifications, Adam’s 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds’, prosecutors said on Thursday.
According to the indictment, Adams’ relationship with Turkish officials saw him accept a number of luxurious gifts, including stays in lavish Istanbul hotels.
Adams allegedly pressured the FDNY to open a Turkish government-owned high rise in Manhattan in exchange for ‘luxury travel benefits’ – despite the building failing safety inspections.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams alleged Adams ‘took corrupt official action in exchange for some of the luxury travel benefits’.
He alleged there were ‘significant time pressures’ to open the building in time for a visit from Turkey’s president, at the urging of a Turkish official.
According to prosecutors, Adams accepted an array of luxury gifts and amenities from foreign governments who hoped to buy influence with him.
This included free trips, hotel suites and airline upgrades valued at over $100,000.
For example, he allegedly accepted free business class upgrades with companions for flights from New York to France, Turkey, Sri Lanka and China in July 2017.
President-elect Donald Trump (left) said in December at Mar-a-Lago that he’d consider pardoning New York City Mayor Eric Adams (right)
Adams has grown closer to Trump in recent months and particular since the president won a second term in November.
Trump had said at a December press conference that he was considering a pardon for the mayor.
‘Yeah, I would, yeah,’ Trump said at Mar-a-Lago Monday when asked about a pardon for Adams. ‘I think he was treated pretty unfairly.’
Trump noted that he wasn’t aware of the full extent of the charges.
‘Now I haven’t seen the gravity of it all. But it seems, you know, like being upgraded on an airplane many years ago. I know probably everybody here’s been upgraded,’ the president-elect said to the 20 or so reporters standing in Mar-a-Lago’s ornate living room for his first press conference since winning the 2024 election.
‘They see you’re all stars and they say, “I want to upgrade that person from NBC, I’m going to upgrade him,”‘ Trump said ‘And that would mean you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison.’
Trump also pushed, without evidence, that Adams’ indictment was politically motivated over his strong words about illegal immigration.
‘You know it’s very interesting, when he essentially went against what was happening with the migrants coming in,’ Trump said, pointing out that Adams made some ‘pretty strong statements’ and said ‘this is not sustainable.’
President-elect Donald Trump and New York Mayor Eric Adams shared a brief exchange at UFC 309 in Madison Square Garden, New York City on Saturday night
Donald Trump and Eric Adams shook hands during their friendly exchange at Madison Square Garden in New York City, as they were flanked by several of the incoming president’s allies, including Elon Musk, at the UFC 360 event
That viewpoint is more in line with Trump’s immigration stance than most members of the Democratic Party.
‘I said, “you know what, he’ll be indicted soon.” And I said it, not as a prediction, a little bit lightheartedly but I said it, I said, “he’s going to be indicted,” and a few months later he got indicted,’ Trump said.
‘So, I would certainly look at it,’ the incoming president added.
Adams has expressed an openness to working with Trump, a fellow New York City guy, when he gets sworn-in in January.
On Thursday, Adams met with incoming Trump ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan and said afterward that they agreed New York City couldn’t be a ‘safe haven’ for immigrants who commit crimes.
‘His goal is the same goal I have,’ Adams said of Homan, one of the proponents of Trump’s controversial child separation policy during the Republican’s first term. ‘We cannot allow dangerous acts of violence in our cities across America.’
New York it technically a ‘sanctuary city,’ but Adams has pushed that local authorities should work with federal authorities to deport immigrants who commit crimes.
New York’s City Council would determine if New York changed its ‘sanctuary city’ status, though the mayor said he’s looking into executive actions he can take that would allow local law enforcement to cooperate with the feds.
So-called ‘sanctuary cities’ are jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
