By Eireann Van Natta, Daily Caller News Foundation | February 18, 2025
A senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official defended the Trump administration’s decision to drop charges against Democratic New York Mayor Eric Adams, telling reporters Tuesday that the investigation is political weaponization.
The DOJ ordered the Southern District of New York (SDNY) to drop corruption charges against Adams in February. The DOJ official touted Trump’s executive order targeting political weaponization.
“This is really a civics lesson for the Deep State about implementing the agenda that the American people voted for,” he told reporters.
A key tenet of President Trump’s agenda is immigration enforcement, but Adams’s prosecution is interfering with the DOJ’s deportation efforts, according to the official. Adams, the DOJ has argued, is not able to have a security clearance as he battles the charges, which makes it difficult for him to assist the Trump administration in tracking and capturing illegal aliens.
In September, Adams was indicted on five federal charges pertaining to illegal contributions to his 2021 campaign, according to the indictment. The DOJ official slammed the charges against him.
“The Mayor Adams case is essentially a case about airline upgrades and then a series of campaign contributions that SDNY alleges with just very, very little evidence that the mayor was directly aware of any of it,” the official argued.
There is currently an active investigation into SDNY personnel “involved in subordination and other politically motivated activities,” according to the official.
He argued the prosecution was weaponized against Adams and pointed to Damien Williams, the former SDNY U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the mayor. Williams was a law clerk for Merrick Garland and recently joined the law firm Paul, Weiss in January, according to the official.
“And as soon as he stepped down from the U.S. Attorney’s position, he basically started a campaign website promoting his work on this ongoing prosecution against Mayor Adams,” the official added, lambasting the campaign as “wildly inappropriate.”
While a judge ruled that William’s actions did not violate rules imposed by the court, the official argued the DOJ could still take action. He compared Adams’s case to the prosecution of President Trump, highlighting political weaponization.
“I think in a lot of ways, the weaponization by SDNY against Mayor Adams looks like what happened to President Trump in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office case,” the official said.
Adams previously criticized former President Joe Biden over the administration’s immigration policies and claimed he was targeted for prosecution over his criticism.
In 2023, he warned the migrant crisis would “destroy” New York City.
Adams said at the time that he had not received support to deal with the influx of migrants. However, while he has expressed agreement with some of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, Adams has yet to make any official reforms.
The DOJ official contended that the prosecution was hamstringing the administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants, calling it a “major problem.”
“I could tell that this was a major problem for implementing the President’s agenda on immigration,” he said.
“It’s very clear, based on the mayor’s public statements, that there are some areas where I think he’s very much in line with the President’s immigration agenda, and others where he’s not,” the senior official noted.
The official also pushed back on claims that there was a “quid pro quo” with Adams, adding that the mayor is not obligated to do anything with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
However, the official said there is “nothing irregular” about defendants entering into agreements with prosecutors.
There will be a hearing Wednesday in New York over the dismissal of the case.
Eireann Van Natta is an intelligence state reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation
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