The United States Ministry of Justice asked a court on Friday to reject the accusations of corruption against the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, with a senior Washington official intervening after the federal prosecutors in Manhattan have rejected his requests to drop the ‘business and leave during the protest.
The interim deputy prosecutor Emil Bove, the second commander of the ministry, and the lawyers for the public integrity section and the criminal division filed documents asking to end the case. They argue that it was tainted by appearances of irregularity and that it will continue to interfere with the mayor’s re -election offer.
A judge must always approve the request.
The file intervened a few hours after Bove summoned an appeal with prosecutors in the public integrity section of the Ministry of Justice – which manages the cases of corruption – and gave them an hour to choose two people to sign the request In rejection, saying that those who have done so could be promoted, according to a person familiar with the issue.
After the prosecutors left the call with Bove, the consensus among the group was that they would all resign. But a veteran prosecutor left his concerns for the jobs of the youngest in the unit, said that the person, who had spoken on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of the private meeting.
An American federal prosecutor assigned to the case of corruption of the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, is now the seventh person to resign after a directive of the Ministry of Justice to abandon the case, who came from the Trump administration.
The report in dismissal of three pages brought the signature of Bove and the names of Edward Sullivan, the main advisor to the dispute of the public integrity section, and Antoinette Bacon, head of supervision of the ministry’s criminal division. Person of the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, who brought the Adams case, signed the document.
This decision occurred for five days in a confrontation between the leaders of the Ministry of Justice in Washington and its Manhattan office, which has long been proud of its independence when it has taken embezzlement of Wall Street, of political corruption and international terrorism.
At least seven prosecutors in Manhattan and Washington have left rather than carrying out the Bove directive to stop the case, including the interim lawyer of Manhattan US Danielle Sassoon and the acting chief of the section of public integrity at Washington.
The Ministry of Justice declared in its request as judge Dale E. Ho that she sought to reject the accusations of Adams to have the possibility of resting them later. Ho had not yet taken action on request Friday evening.
“I imagine that the judge will want to explore what his role is under the rules,” said Joshua Naftalis, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who is not involved in the case of Adams. “I would expect the court to ask the parties to come in person in court or to file documents, or both.”
Bove said earlier this week than Trump’s American Manhattan’s permanent lawyer, who had not yet been confirmed by the Senate, can decide to put accusations after the November elections. Adams faces a democratic primary in June, with several aligned challengers.
His trial had been on the right track to stand in the spring.
Bove concluded that the prosecution of the accusation would interfere with Adams’ ability to govern, posing “unacceptable threats to public security, national security and related federal initiatives and policies,” said the request in dismissal. Among other things, he said, the case refused to refuse access to the sensitive information necessary to help protect the city.
Adams pleaded not guilty in September for the charges he accepted more than $ 100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and sumptuous benefits of travel from foreign nationals seeking to buy his influence while he was the president of the borough Brooklyn campaigning to be mayor.
Although critical in the past, Adams has sometimes linked to Trump recently and visited her Florida Golf Club last month. The president criticized the case against Adams and said that he was open to the mayor, who was a republican recorded in the 1990s, sorry.
The mayor of New York, and the former NYPD officer, Eric Adams, were charged with five federal accusations linked to the allegations he has taken from the illegal contributions and bribes of foreign nationals in exchange for favors.
Bove sent a memo on Monday by directing Sassoon, a Republican, to drop the case. He argued that the mayor was necessary in the repression of Trump’s immigration and echoed the claims of Adams according to which the case was reprisals for his criticism of the immigration policies of the Biden administration.
Instead of complying, Sassoon resigned Thursday, as well as five senior officials from the Ministry of Justice in Washington. One day earlier, she sent a letter to Trump’s new general prosecutor, Pam Bondi, asking her to meet and reconsider the directive to abandon the case.
Sassoon suggested in his letter that Ho “seems likely to conduct a perceived investigation” explaining why the case should be rejected. She noted that in at least one case, a judge rejected such a request contrary to the public interest. “A rigorous investigation here would comply with the previous one and to practice in this district and in others,” she wrote.
Seven former American lawyers from Manhattan, including James Comey, Geoffrey S. Berman and Mary Jo White, published a declaration welcoming “Sassoon’s commitment to integrity and the rule of law”.
In his letter to Bondi, Sassoon accused Adams lawyers of offering what was equivalent to a “counter -pro -quo” – his assistance on immigration in exchange for the deletion of the case – when they met Managers of the Ministry of Justice in Washington last month.
Adams lawyer Alex Spiro said Thursday that the allegation of a counterpart was a “total lie”.
“We were asked if the case imprisoned national security and the application of immigration and we responded honestly,” Spiro told journalists.
Friday, Adams added: “I never proposed – no one offered on my behalf – no job of my authority as mayor for the end of my case.” Never. “
