U.S. District Judge Dale Ho should dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s corruption case, said former Solicitor General Paul Clement on March 7.
Clement, who served under the George W. Bush administration, advised Ho in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to grant Adams’s and the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to drop the case.
The judge had sought an outside perspective on the Trump administration’s decision to change course and drop the case.
While the DOJ was seeking the case be dropped without prejudice, keeping the possibility of reinstating corruption charges against the NYC mayor alive, Clement believed the judge should dismiss the case with prejudice.
“The prospect of reindictment 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,” he said.
DOJ filed its motion to dismiss the charges against Adams, which include accepting illegal campaign contributions, on Feb. 14. The mayor has denied any wrongdoing.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emel Bove wrote in his filing that, “Continuing these proceedings would interfere with the defendant’s ability to govern in New York City, which poses unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies.”
Bove said it was necessary in part “because of appearances of impropriety.”
He also said that the continued prosecution was interfering with Adams’s ability to properly assist the federal government in tackling illegal immigration.
Several DOJ officials chose to resign from their posts rather than comply with the order to motion for dismissal.
Danielle Sassoon, a Republican who was acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time, wrote to Bove on Feb. 12, declining to obey his order to ask the court to dismiss the charges against Adams, sighting what she saw as a quid pro quo.
“It is a breathtaking and dangerous precedent to reward Adams’s opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment,” she wrote.
Ho said on Feb. 19 he would rule on the dismissal motion at a later date.
“To properly discharge my duty, I want to proceed carefully,” Ho said, adding that he had questions about “how to handle what ... everyone would agree is a somewhat unusual situation.”
Ho asked the mayor if he was okay with the possibility of the charges being dismissed without prejudice, leaving open the possibility of being charged again.
“Yes, your honor,” the mayor said. “I have not committed a crime. I’m not afraid of that.”
