NYC Mayor Eric Adams urges judge to hurry decision on corruption case dismissal bid

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Mar 31, 2025

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NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams on Monday urged the judge presiding over his public corruption case to hurry up and decide on outstanding dismissal motions before upcoming deadlines in the mayoral race.

In the new filing, lawyer Alex Spiro urged Manhattan federal Judge Dale Ho to issue his highly anticipated decision on whether to dismiss the bombshell case “promptly.”

“[With] the petition-filing deadline just days away, we respectfully urge the Court to issue its decision as soon as practicable,” Spiro wrote.

Ho is weighing arguments from the Justice Department and Adams’s lawyers to dismiss the indictment against the mayor. The indictment accuses him of abusing his political power in exchange for illegal campaign contributions and plush travel benefits from wealthy Turkish officials and businessmen. Adams denies the allegations.

Weeks after Donald Trump took office, his former defense attorney-turned-top Justice Department official, Emil Bove, asked Ho to dismiss the case without prejudice— meaning it could be filed again in the future. Bove argued that the case was interfering with Adams’s ability to assist the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation agenda in the nation’s largest sanctuary city.

Bove filed the motion after Danielle Sassoon, the former Interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, quit rather than obey an order to ask the court to drop the charges.

Sassoon, a Republican, said the deal underlying the motion amounted to an illicit quid pro quo between the mayor and the Trump administration, one that would see Adams let off the hook in exchange for giving Trump free rein to target New York City’s immigrant communities.

While the mayor has agreed to that widely-criticized arrangement, which does not speak to his guilt or innocence, he has separately asked Ho to dismiss the case with prejudice— meaning it would go away for good.

With the two sides arguing for the same cause, Ho appointed an independent lawyer to advise him on the matter, Paul Clement, who was solicitor general under President George W. Bush. Clement advised Ho to dismiss the case with prejudice, writing that it would be “deeply troubling” to sign off on a deal that could see Adams beholden to Trump and not New Yorkers.

Ho has received arguments from several outside parties, including former U.S. attorneys, former federal judges, and good government groups, urging him to closely scrutinize the terms of the deal — and some arguing he should appoint a special prosecutor.

After receiving the initial dismissal bid, Ho canceled the trial that was set to take place this month, and said Adams was not required to attend any more court hearings while he weighs complex legal questions.