Mayor of New York Eric Adams promised to find the public’s trust on Tuesday while the Ministry of Justice moved to stop its case of criminal corruption, an extraordinary directive which, according to officials, would release it to help the repression of the immigration of the administration Trump.
In his first public comments since the federal prosecutors were ordered to drop the case, Adams said that he was impatient to “put this cruel episode behind us and to focus entirely on the future of this city “.
He did not mention President Donald Trump by name, but praised the Ministry of Justice for his “honesty”, adding that he would not put any personal advantage over my solemn responsibility as mayor ” .
The brief speech of the mayor at the Town Hall came a day after the vice-prosecutor General Emil Bove acted in Manhattan to reject the accusations of corruption “as soon as possible”.
In a two -page memo, Bove said that the Ministry of Justice came to the decision “without assessing the force of evidence”. Rather, he said that the case was politically motivated and said that the dismissal would allow Adams to “devote total attention and resources to the fight against illegal immigration and violent crimes.
After the publication of the memo, Adams faced a barrier of criticism from certain allies who say that he is now liable to the Trump administration agenda. Adams, who was elected centrist democrat, had already changed right following her indictment in September, praising Trump and expressing his desire to make some of the city’s protections back for migrants undocumented migrants .
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“It seems that President Trump has the mayor hostage,” said Reverend Al Sharpton, an influential ally of Adams on Tuesday. “I supported the mayor, but he was placed in an unfair position – even for him – of essentially political blackmail.”
Several of the challengers of the mayor of the Democratic Party also suggested that he had been compromised by the Directive of the Ministry of Justice.
The task of carrying out the order now falls to Danielle Sassoon, a experienced prosecutor who was appointed acting lawyer in Manhattan just days after the start of Trump.
His office refused to comment and did not indicate what he plans to do next. In a letter sent last month, prosecutors of the Adams case welcomed the strength of the evidence, rejecting the request for political proceedings of the mayor as an attempt to “divert attention from the proof of his guilt”.
Sassoon has a limited power to oppose order. It can be replaced at will by the Ministry of Justice. Trump, in November, appointed Jay Clayton, the former president of Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States, to lead the office. His appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.
Under the terms exposed in the memo, the accusations could still be refined after the elections of the November mayor. The dismissal of the case should be conditional, said Bove, on Adams accepting in writing that prosecutors are legally authorized to bring the charges if they wish.
This means that the threat of renewed prosecution will hover over Adams in all his relations with the Trump administration while he is mayor.
Arlo Devlin-Brown, the former chief of public corruption at the US prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, said that the unusual conditions attached to the memo made the accusations officially rejected.
“I haven’t seen anything like it before,” he said. “For a case that has already been responsible for being reversed in the absence of a new real development in the bottom of the case is very unusual.”
Even with a certain uncertainty about what happens next, Adams took a tone of justification on Tuesday, describing the criminal prosecution against him as an “unnecessary test” which had been sensationalized in the media.
“Who I am is not in the headlines, it’s in my story,” he said. “As I said from the start, I have never violated the law and I would never do it.”
Federal prosecutors have accused Adams of accepting illegal campaign contributions and sumptuous travel benefits worth more than $ 100,000 – including costly flight improvements and stays at the luxury hotel – while in Serving in his previous post as president of the Brooklyn district.
The indictment said that a Turkish official who helped facilitate trips was then based on Adams for favors, including lobbying of the fire service to allow a newly constructed diplomatic building to open In time for a planned visit by the president of Turkey.
Prosecutors also said they had evidence that ADAMS had personally ordered campaign staff to request foreign donations, then disguised these contributions to qualify for a city program which provides a generous match funded by the state for small gifts. Foreign nationals are prohibited from contributing to American electoral campaigns under federal law.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press