NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has no choice but to grant the Justice Department’s unusual and divisive request to dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case, a court-appointed lawyer said Friday. But he recommended that prosecutors be barred from ever reviving the charges so they don’t hang over Adams “like the proverbial Sword of Damocles.”
Paul Clement, who represented the federal government before the Supreme Court as President George W. Bush’s solicitor general, delivered the recommendation to Manhattan federal Judge Dale E. Ho in papers filed two weeks after Ho appointed him to provide neutral advice on the case.
In a written submission, Clement told Ho that there was “ample reason” to dismiss the prosecution without granting the Justice Department’s request to be able to refile them after this year’s mayoral election, which would leave “a prospect that hangs like the proverbial Sword of Damocles over the accused.”
“The prospect of re-indictment could create the appearance, if not the reality, that the actions of a public official are being driven by concerns about staying in the good graces of the federal executive, rather than the best interests of his constituents,” Clement wrote.
Adams spokesperson Fabien Levy said on the social platform X: “To quote @NYCMayor, ‘Yeah, duh.’”
Ho appointed Clement after Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove defended the request at a hearing. Bove argued that the charges came too close to Adams’ reelection campaign and would distract the mayor from assisting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Bove had suggested the charges could be reinstated after the election if the new permanent U.S. attorney decided it was appropriate.
In a filing late Friday signed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Bove, the government continued to maintain that the judge should allow reinstatement of the charges in the future.
They also cited text messages exchanged by prosecutors who worked on the case — a result of an investigation of the Adams prosecution team that Bove disclosed two weeks ago — and suggested that they would reference those materials if Ho conducts a hearing, saying “any additional inquiry will not reflect well” on Manhattan prosecutors.
Among the subjects addressed in the text messages, prosecutors discussed how to react to recent public statements about political corruption by former U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, who stepped down late last year.
The filing came on the same day that two prosecutors who worked on the Adams’ case — Celia Cohen and Andrew Rohrbach — were placed on leave while the internal probe of the Adams’ prosecution continued, according to a person with knowledge of the action. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly.
Messages sent to Cohen and Rohrbach for comment were not returned Friday. Two other prosecutors on the case had already been placed on leave and one has resigned.
The government also was expected to file papers soon in response to a recent request by lawyers for Adams asking that the charges be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning they could not be refiled. That request is pending.
Adams was indicted in September and accused of accepting over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and others seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He has pleaded not guilty and insisted he is innocent.
Ho has said that oral arguments, if necessary, could occur next week on the government request to dismiss the indictment.
Bove initially directed then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to request dismissal, but she refused, telling Attorney General Pam Bondi in a Feb. 12 letter as she offered to resign that she could not “agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations.”
She said the indictment was brought nine months before New York’s June Democratic mayoral primary, consistent with longstanding Justice Department policy regarding election-year sensitivities, and the threat of possibly refiling the charges amounted to “using the criminal process to control the behavior of a political figure.”
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Besides Sassoon, whose resignation was accepted by Bove the day after her letter, six prosecutors, including five high-ranking ones at the Justice Department, resigned before Bove made the dismissal request himself, along with two other Washington prosecutors.
In his recommendation to Ho, Clement observed that the Justice Department’s move to end the case “precipitated a series of resignations and unusual public disclosures concerning internal deliberations about the case and the decision to seek dismissal.”
“Suffice it to say that those materials raised material questions concerning both the initial decision to pursue the indictment and the subsequent decision to seek dismissal,” he wrote.
