Judge Ends Eric Adams Case, but Sharply Criticizes Trump’s Justice Department

A judge on Wednesday dismissed federal corruption charges against Eric Adams, ending the first criminal case against a New York City mayor in modern history and underscoring how President Trump’s Justice Department is using prosecutorial power to advance his agenda.

In his ruling, the judge, Dale E. Ho of Federal District Court in Manhattan, refused to allow the government to keep open the option of reinstating the charges, as Mr. Trump’s Justice Department had sought. Justice Department officials had said that the prosecution was hindering Mr. Adams’s assistance with the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans.

“Everything here smacks of a bargain: Dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” the judge wrote in his 78-page decision.

Even so, his decision to let the Justice Department drop the case underscores the remarkable power that Mr. Trump’s administration has to terminate prosecutions, regardless of the rationale. The decision abruptly ended the long-running case, which had originally been set for trial this month.

It was also the culmination of a bitter clash between the federal prosecutors who indicted Mr. Adams and the Justice Department officials who worked to kill the case. That fight, in which both sides accused each other of ethical misconduct, left Mr. Adams deeply damaged as he faces a steep uphill climb for re-election this year.

Judge Ho in his opinion roundly rejected the Justice Department’s claims that the case had been brought for political reasons by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. “There is no evidence — zero — that they had any improper motives,” he wrote.