DOJ dismissal questioned by judge

A federal judge on Wednesday questioned a top Department of Justice official about the DOJ’s controversial request that he dismiss a criminal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

But Judge Dale Ho reserved deciding whether to grant that motion after a hearing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

“I am going to take everything you said under careful consideration,” Ho told acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro. “It’s not in anyone’s interest here for this to drag on, I understand that.”

“But to exercise my discretion properly, I am not going to shoot from my hip right here on the bench,” said Ho, as Adams sat in court looking on. “I want to make sure I consider everything appropriate.”

Earlier Wednesday, another top DOJ official offered a new rationale for tossing out the case.

DOJ Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle in a series of 20 tweets questioned the legal theories used by prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office to obtain an indictment against Adams last year.

“The case against Mayor Adams was just one in a long history of past DOJ actions that represent grave errors of judgement,” Mizelle wrote in the first tweet.

Mizelle’s thread was posted less than two hours before Adams, Spiro and Bove appeared before Ho for the hearing.

It came days after the acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney of Manhattan, Danielle Sassoon, and six other top prosecutors resigned rather than carry out an order by acting Deputy Attorney General Bove to file the dismissal motion.

That motion, which Bove and other prosecutors filed Friday, says Bove had concluded that continuing the case would interfere with the mayor’s ability to govern, “which poses unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies.”

The court filing also said Bove concluded the dismissal was necessary “because of the appearances of impropriety and risks of interference” with New York’s primary and mayoral elections this year.

Bove in a Feb. 10 memo to Sassoon directed her to dismiss the charges against Adams without prejudice. That meant the charges could be refiled in the future. Bove’s memo said the new U.S. Attorney would review the case after they are confirmed by the Senate, and after November’s mayoral election.

Bove said in the memo that the “Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based, which are issues on which we defer to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at this time.”

“Moreover, as I said during our recent meetings, this directive in no way calls into question the integrity and efforts of the line prosecutors responsible forthe case, or your efforts in leading those prosecutors in connection with a matter you,” Bove wrote.

But nine days after Bove’s memo, Mizelle in his tweet thread gave a detailed analysis of the strength of the case.

Mizelle’s new justification for dropping the case — that the cost of prosecuting the case is not warranted given that it has little chance of being upheld by appeals courts if Adams were to be found guilty — did not mention immigration enforcement or the appearance of political interference.

“The amount of resources it takes to bring a prosecution like this is incredible — thousands and thousands of man hours. Those resources could better be used arresting violent criminals to keep New York safe or prosecuting gang and cartel members,” wrote Mizelle.

Sassoon and others have suggested that the DOJ and Adams have engaged in a quid pro quo in which the department agrees to drop the criminal case in exchange for Adams cooperating with the enforcement of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Last week, after meeting with Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, the mayor agreed to allow federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into New York City’s massive jail complex on Rikers Island.

Sassoon and others who oppose dropping the case have noted that the Trump administration will retain leverage over Adams to gain his continued compliance with the administration’s policies by hanging the threat of reviving the criminal charges against him.

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.