The sweeping federal corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams seemed to spell the end of his career. Then he got a sudden reprieve from President Trump — but as the terms of that support became public, an extraordinary blowback ensued.Nicholas Fandos, who covers New York politics and government for The Times, walks us through the saga.Guest: Nicholas Fandos, a reporter covering New York politics and government for The New York Times.Background reading: Here are the charges against Mayor Adams.The mayor may avoid a criminal trial. He still faces political peril.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Seth Wenig/Associated Press Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: What is the controversy involving Mayor Adams and President Trump?
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. Today, the mayor, the president, and the alleged quid pro quo that has plunged the Justice Department and now New York's political world into chaos. My colleague, Nick Fandos, walks us through the saga. It's Thursday, February 20th. Nick, nice to have you in the studio. Thank you for coming. It's always good to be back.
You come to know the famous phrase from Cindy Adams, the legendary tabloid columnist, only in New York, kids, only in New York. And that seems to apply to the events of the past week or so when our Democratic mayor, indicted on sweeping federal corruption charges that would seem to spell the end of his career, suddenly wins a reprieve from the Republican president of the United States,
But then, as the terms of this reprieve become public, it creates this extraordinary blowback that extends far beyond our fair city. That's where you pick up.
Yeah. Well, as usual, Ms. Adams, I think, is correct. But Mr. Adams, that is Mayor Eric Adams, I want to make the argument while I'm here today that his case is much bigger than New York City. Because what has happened over the last couple of weeks as the Justice Department has taken up and intervened and now moved to dismiss his case – It set off two different crises at once.
Chapter 2: How did the Justice Department become involved in Mayor Adams's case?
I think one of them is for the Justice Department, because in moving to dismiss this case, they have set off a series of resignations and really a very large-scale conflict over the kind of traditional role of the department versus what President Trump wants to do with it, to use it to advance his agenda in all kinds of different realms.
And at the same time, for Mayor Adams back here in New York City, it set off a real crisis of confidence about is the guy in charge of our city running it in the best interest of the citizens or is he now beholden to President Trump in Washington? And right now, there's a whole lot of people trying to figure out what to do about that.
I think we should take these crises one at a time, starting with the crisis that this has triggered inside the Department of Justice, where, as you said, the story has been resignation. So take us in that crisis and why this has felt like a crisis to folks inside the Department of Justice.
Yeah. Well, I think to explain that, I want to step back just slightly and remind listeners that last September, the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney in Manhattan brought federal charges on bribery and corruption against Eric Adams. And the charges essentially alleged that he was taking bribes and kickbacks from Turkey in exchange for official favors.
The nation of Turkey.
The nation of Turkey. And the indictment laid out pretty strong evidence. They had text messages, other communications, testimony from people around the mayor, making a pretty strong case that this behavior had occurred. But Eric Adams has insisted throughout that he's innocent. And last fall, he recognized something important was happening. Donald Trump was marching back to the White House.
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Chapter 3: Why are Justice Department officials resigning over the Adams case?
And given Trump's own aggrieved view of the justice system, that he was targeted for political reasons, Adams begins to kind of curry favor with Trump. Right.
And suggests that they are kindred spirits in their journey with the justice system.
That's right. And the president seems to pick up and agree on this. They meet down in Florida for lunch. Adams attends Trump's inauguration. There's a developing kind of rapport between them. And so in the first days that Trump is in office, the mayor's lawyers write to the president and ask for a pardon. They want these charges to just completely go away.
They don't get a pardon, but what they got last week was a letter from the Justice Department to prosecutors here in New York saying, it's time for you to dismiss these charges.
Basically, the mothership of the Justice Department is saying to the New York City wing of the Justice Department, this is over. Drop the case.
Right. And there's two things that's interesting about this. One is who's running that mothership right now. It's none other than one of President Trump's former personal lawyers, Emile Beauvais. And the second thing is what he pens in this letter. Rather than making this decision based on the evidence...
of the case saying, oh, we don't actually think this is worthy of such grave charges or we don't think that you can prove it. He says, no, no, no, we're not commenting on all of that. The reason for us to act is that this case is impeding Mayor Adams from helping implement the president's immigration agenda, from helping the president deport
undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes or otherwise threatening Americans. That's a pretty shocking thing to read in an official Justice Department memo because the tradition in the Justice Department is that you make decisions based on the evidence, not on... And the law. And the law, not on political evidence. Aims like that.
The other thing about this letter is that Beauvais makes clear these charges may not actually go away. They say the Justice Department is going to dismiss them without prejudice, which means they could bring them back at a later date. And the kind of easy logical conclusion is we'll bring them back if you don't help out with this explicit immigration agenda that we're saying we need your help with.
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Chapter 4: What political consequences does Mayor Adams face in New York City?
And a lot of people at the Justice Department clearly share this opinion. At the most recent count, eight people have resigned over the Adams case and this dispute. But Beauvais, he's been undeterred. He shot back a letter to Sassoon flatly denying that there was any quid pro quo. He's maintained that everything that was done here is legal.
And by the end of last week, he basically said enough is enough. He gets a bunch of lawyers from the public integrity unit onto a call and threatens them and says somebody's got to sign this thing. This is incredibly dramatic. Yeah. And so ultimately, a senior member of that department, our reporting shows, decided to put his name on it because the bleeding had to stop somewhere.
Basically, he was willing to take one for the team, figured somebody is going to sign this. But not everybody should have to leave over this fight.
So he decides to sign it not because he agrees with it, but because the bloodletting, the resignations have to stop.
That's our understanding, yes. And in the end, Emile Beauvais actually puts his name on it as well. And it's filed with a judge here in New York to try and dismiss these charges. So all these resignations, all this drama does not get in the way of what he wants. Right.
But at the same time, it has pretty significantly changed the public understanding of what's going on here and potentially the legal understanding, too. Explain that. So by going public with their resignations and writing these letters, which so eloquently basically amount to a statement of values.
These former prosecutors have set up a situation where it looks like the Trump Justice Department is the one that is kind of smashing apart norms that have governed the Justice Department under Republicans and Democrats for a very long time. And in doing that, they've also impacted the way that a judge is potentially going to see this case.
Because though the Justice Department and the mayor both agreed that the case should be dismissed, the judge is going to have a say in whether he ratifies that or not.
And he's now armed with a lot— of new and very pointed information.
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Chapter 5: How are New York Democrats responding to the Mayor's actions?
Right, from the people who built this case themselves. And as we saw Wednesday afternoon, when the judge had his first hearing on this, he takes this set of issues very seriously. Now, judges are not afforded a lot of leeway in our legal system to stand in the way of dismissals like this.
Especially when both of the constituencies in the courtroom want a case dismissed.
Exactly. But there is a very narrow lane. If he feels that this deal is subverting the public interest, he could try to intervene and stop it. And we may not know for days or weeks to come as the legal system reaches an answer on this case. But back in New York, the mayor, Eric Adams, is facing that second crisis in a very immediate way.
Because Democrats in his home city have been watching all this play out in the Justice Department. And now they have to answer a question. What do we do about a mayor who doesn't seem to be accountable to the citizens of New York City, but to Donald Trump?
We'll be right back. So, Nick, what has this second crisis, this political crisis inside the New York Democratic world, looked like over the past week or so?
It's starting to look like it was a profound misjudgment by the mayor. He thought that getting these charges dismissed was going to give him new political life, let him reassert his control over the city and get ready for reelection this year. Instead, the opposite has happened. The bottom has basically dropped out from his political support.
No!
We're talking about members of the city council who work with him to run the city.
Right now is the time for the mayor to step down.
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