The judge overseeing the federal corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams is in the spotlight after a standoff between federal prosecutors and the Justice Department over a directive to drop the charges against the mayor. The order, issued last Monday by Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, caused a cascade of resignations and days of drama as several prosecutors in Manhattan and Washington refused to comply. On Friday, Bove himself signed a formal request asking the judge to dismiss the case. U.S. District Judge Dale Ho must now decide how to respond, reports the New York Times.
The law gives judges almost no ability to refuse a government request to drop criminal charges. The Adams case may challenge those limits and that precedent. Adams was indicted in September on charges of bribery, fraud, soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions and conspiracy as part of a scheme involving the Turkish government. Federal prosecutors have defended the case and hinted at the possibility of additional charges. Judge Ho has denied repeated requests by Adams to dismiss the case. In Bove's motion, the government requested that Adams’s case be dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be brought again in the future. The decision to seek dismissal of the case had nothing to do with its strength, Bove has said. He argued that the prosecution was politically motivated and was impeding Adams’s ability to cooperate with President Trump’s immigration policies.
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