Eric Adams' lawyer ask judge to dismiss the mayor's corruption case, alleging "prosecutorial misconduct," court papers say

The lawyer for New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday to dismiss the public corruption case against his client because of media leaks that he said amount to "prosecutorial misconduct."

Defense attorney Alex Spiro, echoing issues he raised in previous motions, charged that the government tainted the jury pool by leaking a copy of the Feb. 12 resignation of former interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon.

"Simply put, the government’s conduct has destroyed whatever presumption of innocence Mayor Adams had left," the lawyer wrote in his brief.

On Feb. 10, acting deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove, the second in command at the Justice Department, directed Sassoon to drop the 5-count bribery, fraud and conspiracy indictment against Adams because, he said, it interfered with the mayor’s ability to fight crime and carry out President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

Adams pleaded not guilty in September to the charges, which alleged that the mayor accepted luxury travel accommodations and airfare upgrades from Turkish business people and a Turkish official in exchange for municipal favors.

The mayor complained publicly that the U.S. Justice Department indicted him in retaliation for criticizing the Biden administration’s border policies. Adams had called on the former president to help New York City with the cost stemming from the large influx of migrants.

Bove, who represented the president during his hush money trial in Manhattan last year, also said in his February directive that Damian Williams, the former U.S. Attorney in charge of the Southern District of New York, had brought the case out of political ambitions for elected office.

In her 8-page letter to U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi, a copy of which was leaked to The New York Times and other news outlets, Sassoon refused Bove’s directive to drop the case because she said, "I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations."

Additionally, Sassoon said that a new grand jury had been impaneled to hear further testimony that Adams had attempted to obstruct justice by telling witnesses to lie and had destroyed evidence.

The prosecutor also said that she witnessed Adams’ defense team offer to help the Trump administration with its deportation efforts in exchange for getting the case dropped.

"To be clear: Mayor Adams and the Justice Department never made or even discussed any deal," Spiro said in his motion.

This prompted another wave of headlines, the lawyer said, and undermined Adams’ reelection effort after politicians and public figures called for him to step down.

The defense attorney had filed several briefs before Bove’s directive, asking U.S. District Court Judge Dale Ho to hold a hearing over leaks to the media in the case, but was denied.

After Bove and other Washington, D.C.-based Justice Department officials moved to dismiss the indictment, the judge assigned a special adviser to review the motion.

Spiro wants the judge to halt that effort and dismiss the case immediately, he said.

"The leak of the Feb. 12 letter constitutes grave prosecutorial misconduct and could only have originated from within the government," Spiro said in his motion. "The leak has compromised Mayor Adams’s right to a fair trial and violated multiple clear rules governing what prosecutors can and cannot disclose to the media."