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NEW YORK —New York City Mayor Eric Adams told a federal judge Wednesday that he is innocent and doesn't fear corruption charges could be refiled if a Justice Department request to dismiss them is granted.
Judge Dale E. Ho ended the hearing by saying he wouldn't rule immediately but he was aware that "it's not in anyone's interest here for this to drag on."
During the hearing, Ho asked the mayor questions to ensure he understood that if the charges were dropped, they could later be reinstated.
"I have not committed a crime," Adams said. "I'm not afraid of that."
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove said the request to drop the corruption charges against the mayor resulted from "a straightforward exercise in prosecutorial discretion guided" by President Donald Trump's executive order on weaponization of the justice system and Attorney General Pam Bondi's memorandum outlining the same.
Bove said he believed the request to drop charges, when tied to Trump's order and Bondi's conclusions, made it "virtually unreviewable in this courtroom."
Bove said he also believed "the continuation of this prosecution is interfering with both national security and immigration enforcement initiatives being carried out by the executive branch."
Ho scheduled the hearing after three Trump administration lawyers, including Bove, made the dismissal request on Friday. Manhattan's top federal prosecutor resigned after she refused an order to do so.
An indictment charges the first-term Democrat with accepting more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from a Turkish official and business leaders seeking to buy Adams' influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. Adams has pleaded not guilty. He faces multiple challengers in the Democratic primary in June.
Closely watching the judicial proceedings is Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul, who is considering whether to remove Adams from office amid concerns that he reached a deal to have the case dropped in exchange for the mayor's political fealty to Trump.
Early last week, Bove told prosecutors in New York to drop the charges because the prosecution "has unduly restricted Mayor Adams' ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime." Bove said charges could be reinstated after November's mayoral election.
Two days later, then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon told Bondi in a letter that dismissing the charges in return for Adams' assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws would betray Bondi's own words that she "will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct."
"Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams's mayoral decision-making would be all three," said Sassoon, a Republican. She said it amounted to a "quid pro quo" deal and disclosed that prosecutors were about to bring additional obstruction of justice charges against Adams.
Bove, in accepting Sassoon's resignation, accused her of "pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case." He informed her that two other prosecutors assigned to the case were being suspended with pay and that an investigation would determine if they would keep their jobs.
One prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, quit the following day. In all, seven prosecutors, including five high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department, had resigned by Friday.