A federal judge declined Friday to immediately dismiss the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams but delayed the trial indefinitely.
District Court Judge Dale Ho, a Biden appointee, designated an outside attorney, top Supreme Court advocate and former Solicitor General Paul Clement, to present arguments against the government’s motion to dismiss.
“Normally, courts are aided in their decision-making through our system of adversarial testing, which can be particularly helpful in cases presenting unusual fact patterns or in cases of great public importance,” the judge wrote. “Here, the recent conference helped clarify the parties’ respective positions, but there has been no adversarial testing of the Government’s position generally or the form of its requested relief specifically.”
Ho wrote that appointing Clement was important “in light of the public importance of this case, which calls for careful deliberation.” Clement’s brief is due March 7 and oral arguments will be held if necessary on March 14, per the order.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s directive to dismiss the case prompted seven officials to resign, beginning with acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon.
Sassoon protested that dismissing the indictment would be inconsistent with her “ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts.”
Bove responded in a letter that it was not for “local federal officials such as [Sassoon], who lack access to all relevant information, to question these judgements within the Justice Department’s chain of command.” He cited limits on Adams’ ability to cooperate on immigration enforcement as part of the reason to dismiss the case.
Bove appeared alone before the judge Wednesday to defend the government’s motion to dismiss. After the hearing, he said prosecutors who are not on board with leadership’s vision for the DOJ could find “templates for resignation letters available on the websites of the New York Times and CNN.”
Adams faces bribery, campaign finance and fraud charges for lavish gifts he allegedly accepted from Turkey in exchange for favorable treatment. He was indicted on five federal charges in September.
The indictment alleges Adams “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him” for nearly a decade.
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