Mayor Eric Adams' counsel urges federal judge to make decision on corruption case

The defense attorney for Eric Adams on Monday urged the federal judge overseeing the mayor’s public corruption case to hurry up and rule on the Justice Department motion to dismiss the case.

Lawyer Alex Spiro, in a letter, reminded U.S. District Judge Dale Ho in Manhattan that the ongoing prosecution hangs over Adams’ campaign and inhibits his ability to gather signatures to get on the ballot.

"We respectfully write to alert the Court that Mayor Adams’s petitions for his candidacy for mayor are due Thursday, April 3, 2025," said the letter to Ho.

"We urge the Court consistent with its own comments to promptly reach a decision in this matter," Spiro reminded the judge.

Adams stands accused of soliciting bribes in the form of luxury airfare, hotel accommodations and vacations from Turkish business people and an official in exchange for municipal favors.

Federal prosecutors — in a five-count indictment — charged that Adams also sought campaign donations from foreign nationals, a federal crime, and sought to hide the source of the elections money through straw donors. He allegedly used the fake donors to garner millions of dollars in public matching campaign funds from the city’s campaign finance system.

The mayor has pleaded not guilty to the crimes and his lawyer said that under a Supreme Court interpretation of public corruption, the foreign national’s largesse should be considered gratuities, not bribes.

The accusations have sent Adams’ reelection effort into turmoil and caused a mass defection by former political supporters to other candidates.

In February, the Department of Justice took the unusual step of intervening in the case and requested the judge drop the case because they said it interfered with the mayor’s ability to support President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and his capability to fight crime in the city. The Justice Department also suggested that the case was brought by Damian Williams, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to raise his political profile ahead of a run for public office.

Emil Bove, currently a high-ranking Justice Department official who represented Trump in his hush-money trial, asked the judge to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning the charges could be filed again in the future.

Spiro, in his letter, reminded the judge that at a Feb. 19 hearing he said "it’s not in anyone’s interest here for this to drag on ... not in the government’s interest, not in Mayor Adams’, as the defendant, and it’s not in the public’s interest."

Instead of dismissing the case, however, Ho assigned a special adviser, Paul Clement, the former solicitor general under President George W. Bush, to review the court’s authority, considering the unusual circumstances of the case.

Clement concluded that the judge had little choice but to grant the motion to drop the case, but recommended that the charges be dismissed with prejudice, meaning the charges could not be filed again.

The legal adviser said that this would avoid "the distinct appearance problems inherent in a public official serving his constituents with the ever-looming prospect of reindictment by the executive on charges already laid bare in a public indictment."

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.