NYC Mayor Adams' attorney moves to dismiss case, alleges prosecutorial misconduct
The attorney for New York City Mayor Eric Adams asked a federal judge Wednesday to dismiss his corruption case, alleging prosecutorial misconduct.
Alex Spiro said former U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon's leaked resignation letter alleging what amounted to a quid pro quo between Adams and the Trump administration amounts to prosecutorial misconduct.
"The disclosure of this letter to the press was part of an extraordinary flurry of leaked internal Justice Department correspondence that included memoranda from the acting deputy attorney general to the Southern District and an unhinged resignation letter by one of the former line prosecutors on this case," Spiro wrote. "To be sure, the Feb. 12 letter, and the decision to leak it, were last acts of desperation in defense of a meritless case that never should have been pursued in the first place."
Spiro went on say the leak created "extreme prejudice" against Adams, and led to additional numerous public calls for his resignation.
"To be clear: Mayor Adams and the Justice Department never made or even discussed any deal," Spiro wrote.
Spiro wants the judge to dismiss the case with prejudice -- meaning dismiss it in a way so that Adams can't be reindicted on the same charges at a later date. Spiro's motion to dismiss comes as Judge Dale Ho considers a motion by prosecutors to dismiss the case without prejudice, meaning that the government could once again seek to reindict Adams after the upcoming mayoral election.
Ho has appointed an outside attorney to look into the government's motion to dismiss and present arguments by March 7.
"Simply put, the government conduct has destroyed whatever presumption of innocence Mayor Adams had left," Spiro wrote.
