Judge adjourns trial for New York City Mayor Eric Adams but appoints counsel to advise on next steps

NEW YORK — A federal judge on Friday adjourned the corruption trial for New York City Mayor Eric Adams and appointed counsel to advise him on how to handle the Justice Department’s controversial request to drop charges against the Democrat.

The ruling by Judge Dale E. Ho will delay by at least a couple weeks when he will decide whether to grant the request to dismiss the case against the embattled mayor of the country’s largest city.

At a hearing Wednesday, Acting Deputy U.S. Atty. Gen. Emil Bove cited an executive order by President Trump outlining his criminal justice priorities as he defended the request to drop charges.

Adams confirmed at the hearing that he accepted that charges could later be reinstated, a feature of the request to dismiss charges that has led critics to suggest that the mayor would be required to carry out Trump’s plans to round up New Yorkers who are in the country illegally if he wanted to remain free from prosecution.

The request is “virtually unreviewable in this courtroom,” Bove argued at the hearing.

Adams was indicted in September and accused of accepting more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and business leaders seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He faces multiple challengers in June’s Democratic primary.

To assist him in deciding whether to dismiss the charges as Bove requested, the judge said in his order Friday that he has appointed Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general and acting U.S. attorney general, as amicus curiae to present arguments on the government’s request to throw out the charges.

Ho said he wanted all parties and Clement to address the legal standard for dismissing charges, whether a court may consider materials beyond the motion itself and under what circumstances additional procedural steps and further inquiry would be necessary.

He also said he wants to know under what circumstances dismissal can occur without the ability to reinstate charges or with the ability to reinstate charges.

He said briefs should be filed by March 7 and, if necessary, oral arguments can occur March 14.

Adams will not be required to attend future hearings, he said.

Bove’s initial request last week to then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to drop charges against Adams was rejected and she resigned.

Another prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, told Bove in a resignation letter that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet Bove’s demand, “but it was never going to be me.”

In all, seven prosecutors, including five high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department in Washington, had resigned last week before Bove made the request himself, along with two other prosecutors from Washington, to drop the case.

On Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she won’t immediately use her authority to remove Adams from office over concerns that such a move could result in “disruption and chaos” and would ultimately be undemocratic.

Neumeister writes for the Associated Press.