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| Source:CBS News with a look at New York City Mayor Eric Adams. I wonder if he's still a MAGA mayor now that DOJ can no longer charge him with anything relating to his bribery offenses. |
From CBS News
"The initial request to drop the charges made note that the decision was not based on "the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based."
That triggered concerns that Adams could not effectively govern the city because he would be beholden to the Trump administration, as long as the possibility of the charges returning remained in place.
Adams and his attorneys have vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Judge Ho's decision includes words Adams' opponents are sure to focus in on: "Everything here smacks of a bargain, dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions."
In his ruling to dismiss the case with prejudice, Judge Ho took issue with the Department of Justice's request to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning he could've faced trial on the same charges again at a later time.
Judge Ho summarized the DOJ's reasoning to drop the case as based on three things: It's tainted with impropriety, detrimental to national security and immigration enforcement, and was a weak case to begin with.
"There may or may not be good reasons to drop this prosecution. But the reasons articulated by DOJ, if taken at face value, are inconsistent with a decision to leave the charges in the Indictment hanging like the proverbial Sword of Damocles over the Mayor," Judge Ho wrote. "And there are many reasons to be troubled by DOJ's proffered rationales—further supporting dismissal with prejudice."
Judge Ho also addressed why he couldn't continue to pursue the case after the DOJ moved to dismiss it...
From CBS News
From what I wrote about this case in February:
"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".
From The New Democrat
Again, we're not lawyers here at The New Democrat. But if someone pointed a gun at my head, (even if were a water gun) and I was forced to try summarize Judge's Ho decision here... actually I would try to summarize his decision, even if someone threaten me with broccoli... but I would say this:
Judge Ho doesn't want the U.S Department of Justice to have criminal leverage (meaning the ability to charge someone with a crime, if you don't do exactly what they want them too) over Mayor Adams. Which gives the Mayor the freedom to do his job and make decisions for New York City, without having to worry about if the Trump Administration doesn't like what he's doing, they could try to indict the Mayor for some other crime, even if there's no merit to their charge.
This has nothing to do the actual case against Mayor Adams or prove that he's innocent. The Judge is just accepting the reality that the U.S. Attorney is not going to bring the case here against him. So he might as well just dismiss the case and do with prejudice, so DOJ can't use it against the Mayor as leverage.
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