NEW YORK — A former U.S. solicitor general who was brought in to help a federal judge decide whether to accept a Justice Department request to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams is set to submit written arguments Friday.
Judge Dale E. Ho in Manhattan appointed Paul Clement, who was solicitor general under President George W. Bush, two weeks ago to present arguments on the government’s request.
Ho said the appointment was necessary so he could reach a decision “via an adversarial process” after Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove defended the request at a hearing, saying they came too close to Adams’ reelection campaign and would distract the mayor from assisting the Trump administration’s law-and-order priorities.
Bove has said the charges could be reinstated after the election if the new permanent U.S. attorney decides it is appropriate.
Lawyers for Adams subsequently asked for the charges to be dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning they could not be refiled. The judge has not yet ruled on that request.
Adams was indicted in September and accused of accepting over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and others seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He has pleaded not guilty and insisted he is innocent.
Ho said he wanted all parties and Clement to address the legal standard for dismissing charges, whether a court may consider materials beyond the motion itself and under what circumstances additional procedural steps and further inquiry was necessary.
He also said he wants to know when dismissal without the ability to reinstate charges is appropriate. After setting a Friday deadline to submit written arguments, Ho said oral arguments, if necessary, could take place a week later.
Bove initially directed then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to request dismissal, but she refused, telling Attorney General Pam Bondi in a Feb. 12 letter as she offered to resign that she could not “agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations.”
She said the indictment was brought nine months before New York’s June Democratic mayoral primary, consistent with longstanding Justice Department policy regarding election-year sensitivities, and the threat of possibly refiling the charges amounted to “using the criminal process to control the behavior of a political figure.”
Besides Sassoon, whose resignation was accepted by Bove the day after her letter, six prosecutors, including five high-ranking ones at the Justice Department, resigned before Bove made the dismissal request himself, along with two other Washington prosecutors.
