New York City Mayor Eric Adams asks court to toss case against him due to prosecutorial misconduct
Written by ABC Audio ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on February 26, 2025
(NEW YORK) — The corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams should be dropped because of “an extraordinary flurry” of leaks by prosecutors, his attorney said in a new court filing Wednesday.
The attorney, Alex Spiro, accused “someone within the government” of leaking a letter written by then-acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who resigned in protest of an order to dismiss the bribery and campaign finance charges.
The letter, dated Feb. 12, said the Justice Department agreed to dismiss criminal charges as part of a quid pro quo to secure the mayor’s help with President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
“The disclosure of this letter to the press was part of an extraordinary flurry of leaked internal Justice Department correspondence that included memoranda from the Acting Deputy Attorney General to the Southern District and an unhinged resignation letter by one of the former line prosecutors on this case,” Spiro said.
The line prosecutor Spiro references is Hagan Scotten, whose resignation letter said only a “fool” or “coward” would carry out the order to drop the mayor’s case.
“In addition to violating Mayor Adams’s fundamental constitutional rights and ability to receive a fair trial, the government’s leaks violated numerous statutory and court rules, including the Justice Department’s own longstanding policies aimed at curbing prosecutorial misconduct,” Spiro said. “Simply put, the government’s conduct has destroyed whatever presumption of innocence Mayor Adams had left.”
The judge, Dale Ho, declined to immediately grant the Trump administration’s motion to dismiss the case and appointed Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general, to examine the government’s motives.
In the new motion filed first thing Wednesday morning, Adams asked the court to toss the case for a new reason — prosecutorial misconduct.
“The Court should act swiftly and dismiss this case with prejudice to prevent further irrevocable harm to Mayor Adams,” the motion said.
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