By Corinne Ramey and James Fanelli

A federal judge on Wednesday dismissed the bribery case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, ending an unprecedented case that had created a rift within the Justice Department.

U.S. District Judge Dale Ho issued the order with prejudice, meaning that prosecutors can't seek to renew the charges in the future. In his 78-page ruling, Ho said he had no power to compel the Justice Department to prosecute the case. But giving the department the ability to bring the charges again "would leave Mayor Adams under the specter of reindictment at essentially any time, and for essentially any reason," he added.

The decision also ensured that the prospect of future charges "cannot be used as leverage over Mayor Adams or the City of New York," Ho added.

The judge didn't hold back in picking apart the Justice Department's reasoning for its request -- that the case had been politically motivated, and that it hindered Adams from helping the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration.

"In light of DOJ's rationales, dismissing the case without prejudice would create the unavoidable perception that the mayor's freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration-enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents," Ho said.

A lawyer for Adams, Alex Spiro, said in a statement: "The case against Eric Adams should have never been brought in the first place -- and finally today that case is gone forever."

"This case was an example of political weaponization and a waste of resources," a Justice Department spokesman said.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan last year charged Adams, a Democrat, with bribery, fraud and campaign-finance offenses in a five-count indictment. They alleged that Adams for nearly a decade accepted more than $100,000 in benefits and travel perks. In exchange, they said, he used his official power to help his benefactors, including by paving the way for a Midtown Manhattan building to open without a fire inspection. Adams pleaded not guilty.

A top Justice Department official in February ordered Danielle Sassoon, then the acting top prosecutor in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office, to drop the charges, but without prejudice -- which would give prosecutors the option to bring them at a future date. The official, Emil Bove, wrote in a memo that the pending case restricted Adams's ability to help fight illegal immigration and violent crime. Bove also accused the then-U.S. attorney who originally brought the case, Damian Williams, of threatening "the integrity of the proceedings" by publishing an op-ed about corruption in New York after he left office.

Sassoon resigned in protest, saying she couldn't in good faith follow that directive. She accused Adams's lawyers of suggesting what amounted to a quid pro quo, offering to help President Trump's immigration-enforcement crackdown in exchange for dropping the charges. Her resignation kicked off many others, including another Adams prosecutor in Manhattan and several career prosecutors in Washington.

Both Adams's lawyers and the Justice Department denied any such deal existed. But the Justice Department's directive alarmed New York politicians and civic leaders, who warned that Adams would be compromised if the charges could be renewed at a later date.

Ho appointed an outside lawyer, Paul Clement, to weigh in on the matter. Clement recommended dismissing the charges permanently. Leaving open the possibility of reviving them would hang "like the proverbial Sword of Damocles" over the remainder of Adams's term, wrote Clement, a former solicitor general under former President George W. Bush.

Ho said in his decision that there was no evidence that prosecutors who brought the case had acted improperly. He also questioned the Justice Department's argument that the timing of the Adams indictment amounted to election interference. The mayor was charged nine months before the primary, which was consistent with prior public corruption prosecutions, Ho said.

"All of this suggests that the 'appearances of impropriety' rationale is not just thin, but pretextual," the judge said.

Ho also said that the suggestion that Adams couldn't assist with immigration enforcement was unsubstantiated. He noted that while the indictment was pending, the mayor had announced he would permit Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to enter the Rikers Island jail complex, which the judge said appeared contrary to city law.

"Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions," the judge wrote.

The ruling gave a politically weakened Adams a lifeline, allowing him to mount a re-election campaign unencumbered by charges. The mayor has spent months parrying calls for his resignation, including from allies and opponents who say the possibility the case could be revived left him beholden to Trump.

His trial had been scheduled for April, just two months before the Democratic mayoral primary. The doubt about Adams's political future prompted challenges from contenders including former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who entered the Democratic primary field last month.

A lawyer for Adams had urged the judge earlier this week to issue a decision, saying that the mayor faced a Thursday deadline to submit a petition for his candidacy in the primary.

Write to Corinne Ramey at corinne.ramey@wsj.com and James Fanelli at james.fanelli@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2025 12:00 ET (16:00 GMT)

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