A federal judge indefinitely adjourned New York City Mayor Eric Adams' criminal trial on Friday, but did not yet dismiss the federal corruption charges.
Judge Dale Ho adjourned the trial set to start in April, but is ordering both parties and an amicus curiae, or an impartial advisor, to consider whether the charges should be dismissed altogether.
As the amicus curiae, Ho appointed attorney Paul Clement to offer independent arguments on the Department of Justice's request to drop the federal charges against the New York mayor. Clement is a former U.S. Solicitor General who served during the George W. Bush administration.
Ho stated that briefs are due no later than March 7 and that oral arguments could be held on March 14 if deemed "necessary."
The judge is asking for arguments considering six specific points, including to argue what legal standards would call for dismissal of the mayor's charges.
Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the charges, which include five criminal counts of bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, to be dismissed on Feb. 10.
Adams has maintained that he is not guilty since he first pled in the case in September.
“As I said from the outset, I never broke the law, and I never would. I would never put any personal benefit above my solemn responsibility as your mayor,” Adams said after the Department of Justice announcement earlier this month.
In his court order Friday, Ho said that Adams is welcome to appear at future court dates, but that "he need not do so given the current procedural posture."
At a hearing on Wednesday, Adams testified under oath that there was no “quid pro quo” arrangement in place that motivated his dismissal by the Department of Justice.
During the Wednesday hearing, Bove argued that by continuing on with the case against Adams, the court would be preventing the mayor from fully cooperating with President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown in New York.
Bove added that the Justice Department simply sought to exercise its "prosecutorial discretion" based on Trump's executive order that seeks to end the "weaponization of prosecutorial power."
Since the Justice Department's move to clear Adams, several top New York prosecutors have resigned in protest, including interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon.
Following her resignation on Feb. 13, Sassoon accused the mayor's lawyers of offering a "quid pro quo" to Trump's administration, adding that the dismissal is setting "a breathtaking and dangerous precedent."
The day after Sassoon resigned, Hagan Scotten, a lead prosecutor on Adams' case, also submitted a letter of resignation, becoming the seventh Justice Department official to resign over the issue.
“No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives,” Scotten wrote in his resignation. “Our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that she would not remove Adams from office, at least for the time being. Instead, the governor said she would enforce new guardrails against the mayor's office in order to limit his authority.
“This is an opportunity to install safeguards that we need to have in place to give people confidence that there’s only one factor in every decision that’s made, and that’s what’s best for the people of the city,” Hochul said.
Adams said earlier this month that he is “no longer facing legal questions,” but Bove’s order said the dismissal of his case would be without prejudice, meaning charges could be refiled in the future.
