Trump’s Justice Department orders New York Mayor Eric Adams charges to be withdrawn
The directive amounted to an extraordinary intervention by Justice Department officials in a high-profile criminal matter
The Justice Department on Monday directed federal prosecutors in New York to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, asserting that the case was impeding his ability to aid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
In a memo seen by Reuters to the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that the decision had nothing to do with the merits of the case, and that the Justice Department was not questioning the integrity of the prosecutors who brought it.
Instead, he wrote that the September 2024 indictment – brought by federal prosecutors during former president Joe Biden’s term – interfered with Adams’ 2025 mayoral re-election campaign, and that the case was distracting Adams from supporting the federal government on immigration.
“The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to … illegal immigration and violent crime,” wrote Bove, Trump’s former personal lawyer and a political appointee.
Trump, a Republican, has made stemming the flow of illegal immigration and stepping up deportations centrepieces of his second term in the White House.
