Also from CBS News:
"Since his indictment, Adams has cozied up to President Trump and members of his administration, meeting with Mr. Trump in Florida before he took office and attending his inauguration in Washington, D.C. The mayor also attended the National Prayer Breakfast in the capital last week. Adams said that he did not discuss his corruption case with Mr. Trump in their Florida meeting.
Federal immigration agents have stepped up enforcement operations across the country, including in New York. But the city has largely avoided being targeted by the Trump administration, which sued Chicago and the state of Illinois over their immigration policies last week. City Hall sources recently told CBS News New York that they believed the city was spared because of the mayor's relationship with the White House.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recently said that Adams has been cooperative with DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Adams has stressed that DHS operations in the city are targeting violent criminals, and said in late January that he had directed the NYPD to assist federal law enforcement with a "targeted operation" to arrest a suspected gang member.
"As I have repeatedly said, we will not hesitate to partner with federal authorities to bring violent criminals to justice — just as we have done for years," he said in a statement on Jan. 28. "Our commitment to protecting our city's law-abiding residents, both citizens and immigrants, remains unwavering."
But his willingness to cooperate with federal authorities has raised alarms among some state lawmakers and advocacy groups, who have criticized a memo Adams issued before Mr. Trump's inauguration detailing how city officials should interact with federal immigration agents. The memo included a line that said: "[If] you reasonably feel threatened or fear for your safety, you should give the officer the information they have asked for or let them enter the site...
From CBS News
So what CBS News crime reporter Anna Schecter was talking about in the CBS News video, was what back in the day was called a "pro-quid-quo".
Another way of phrasing that would be: "I'll scratch my back, if you scratch mine. You know, platonically".
Or: "You need me to do something for you. I need you to do something for me."
So if Mayor Adams goes to trial in Manhattan, there might be 1 holdout who says: "He's my Mayor. I won't vote to convict him on anything. I don't care what the evidence is". Which has happened before. But based on what SDNY had against him:
"As a reminder, the Adams indictment, which dropped in September 2024, charges Adams with federal crimes including conspiracy, bribery, and solicitation of foreign campaign contributions. Prosecutors allege that Adams solicited and accepted two types of improper benefits from Turkish officials and nationals: (1) free or heavily discounted luxury travel, and (2) illegal foreign campaign contributions, funneled to the Adams campaign through “straw donors.” In return, Adams allegedly used his official power to shortcut the safety-inspection process on a skyscraper known as “Turkish House,” to the satisfaction of his foreign benefactors.
The evidence looked solid, if not quite overwhelming. Among many texts cited in the indictment, at one point Adams instructed a campaign staffer to accept a donation from a wealthy Turkish national (in violation of federal campaign finance law): the foreign businessman “is ready to help. I don’t want his willing to help be waisted [sic],” Adams texted.
Still, this wasn’t a smoking-gun case — few are, and most corruption cases lend themselves to some variation of “this is how politics works” and “there was no quid pro quo” defenses. I wouldn’t predict that Adams was surely cooked had he gone to trial, but the odds would’ve been stacked against him, as they always are in federal court (especially in the SDNY). Now, we’ll never know...
From Ellie Honig
As someone who is pushing 50, I'm old enough to remember when corruption was not just considered a weakness for a politician, but something that could end their political careers:
We all know about Richard Nixon.
But there's Representative Mark Foley (Republican, Florida) who had to give up his House seat because of affairs that he had with his male interns, back in 2006.
And during that same year, Representative Bill Jefferson (Democrat, Louisiana) was indicted on bribery charges and later convicted in 2009 and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
And of course the most recent case of political corruption in Congress, that being with Senator Bob Menendez (Democrat, New Jersey) who was just convicted of bribery as well.
And I'm not arguing that Donald Trump's MAGA Party has a monopoly on corruption. But since they're in power, corruption is not a problem for them. Just as long as you are on their team and play ball with them.
My question going forward is: is this really end the of corruption case against Eric Adams?
The people at SDNY aren't stupid, obviously. They follow politics about as closely as anyone because politics can always interfere into what they're doing, especially when they go after people in power.
SDNY indicted Mayor Adams back in September. They knew that Donald Trump might win the presidential election.
So my other question here: has SDNY been sharing evidence and information in the Adams case, just in case they were ordered to drop their case against the Mayor, regardless of how good their case was. Which is what exactly what happened here. They have more than enough evidence to convict the Mayor. But DOJ dropped the case against him anyway.
And the other question, if the answer is yes, that they have been sharing their evidence with let's say the Manhattan District Attorney, perhaps NY State's Attorney for New York City: (which is part of the New York Attorney General's Office) could the Manhattan DA or NYAG, bring their bribery case against Mayor Adams and just pick the case where SDNY dropped off?
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