NYC Mayor Adams Cites Leaked Letter in Bid to Dismiss Charges

News
Alex Jane
February 27, 2025
10 minutes read

“Horrible,” said a high-ranking Adams administration official about the mayor’s recent troubles. | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Mayor Eric Adams is mounting a new defense in his fight to dismiss federal corruption charges, arguing that leaked internal Justice Department documents amount to prosecutorial misconduct, potentially compromising his right to a fair trial.

According to a report from CBS News on Wednesday, Adams’ legal team is pointing to the leaked resignation letter of former U.S. attorney’s office prosecutor Danielle Sassoon, which accused the Trump administration of orchestrating a quid pro quo to dismiss the charges against him. Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro, claims the leaks undermine the integrity of the case.

“The disclosure of this letter to the press was part of an extraordinary flurry of leaked internal Justice Department correspondence that included memoranda from the acting deputy attorney general to the Southern District and an unhinged resignation letter by one of the former line prosecutors on this case,” Spiro wrote.

“To be sure, the Feb. 12 letter, and the decision to leak it, were last acts of desperation in defense of a meritless case that never should have been pursued in the first place,” he added. Adams was indicted last year on multiple federal corruption charges. Prosecutors allege he accepted more than $100,000 in improper gifts and travel from individuals with ties to the Turkish government while pushing to bypass fire codes for the approval of a new Turkish consulate building in Manhattan.

Mayor Eric Adams.Bess Adler / Bloomberg via Getty Images file

However, Trump Justice Department official Emil Bove later intervened to have the charges dropped. While Bove denied any political interference, suspicions arose when his motion to dismiss argued that prosecuting Adams could hinder federal immigration enforcement in New York City. This argument was further scrutinized after Adams openly expressed willingness to collaborate with Trump on immigration arrests and visited the former president at Mar-a-Lago.

Sassoon, a conservative prosecutor with ties to the Federalist Society, resigned in protest over the dropped charges, igniting turmoil in the U.S. attorney’s office. Several other seasoned attorneys followed her lead rather than participate in Adams’ case dismissal.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Dale Ho, a Biden appointee, heard arguments on Adams’ motion to dismiss. Rather than immediately grant the request—a routine response when prosecutors seek to drop charges—Ho instead postponed the trial indefinitely and appointed an independent counsel to argue against dismissal. This unusual step suggests the judge may view the DOJ’s request as politically motivated.

With the trial on hold and an independent review now in place, Adams’ case continues to fuel controversy, raising broader concerns over the intersection of politics and federal prosecutions.