Mayor Eric Adams plans to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration next week after the feds secretly clawed back more than $80 million in migrant funding from New York City’s coffers, according to a letter obtained by The Post.
Counsel for the Adams administration issued a letter to city Comptroller Brad Lander Friday stating that the city’s Law Department is looking to take legal action by Feb. 21 to recoup the $80.5 million Federal Emergency Management Agency payments taken by the feds on Tuesday.
“The Law Department is currently drafting litigation papers with respect to this matter,” the letter, penned by corporation counsel Mureil Goode-Trufant, said.
“We intend to initiate legal action by February 21, 2025. As the Law Department is representing the City of New York in this matter, there is no need for an authorization for the Comptroller’s Office to engage external legal counsel.”
The letter was sent just hours after Lander demanded the Adams administration either file a lawsuit or grant him permission to hire his own attorneys to bring a case against Trump and Department of Government Efficiency honcho Elon Musk.
“Given the gravity of the situation, we cannot afford to waste any more time,” Lander, who is running against Adams in the June Democratic mayoral primary, said in a statement Friday.
“If the Mayor would prefer to spend his days advancing President Trump’s agenda instead of fighting for New Yorkers, then the Law Department must allow me to do so.”
The sudden withdrawal of FEMA funds from New York City’s accounts unfolded on Tuesday – without Adams’ knowledge – and was discovered the next morning by Lander, who accused Trump and the richest man alive of “highway robbery.”
Musk claimed this week that DOGE “discovered” a $59 million FEMA payment to the Big Apple was being wasted on “luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants.”
Trump later echoed that remark as he defended the seizure, contending that “massive fraud” was taking place.
New York City applied for and was awarded two separate grants of $58.6 million and $21.9 million under the Biden administration as city officials scrambled for federal help to pay for the costs shouldered for sheltering migrants who flowed over the US-Mexico border, according to city and federal officials.
City Hall officials gently rebutted Musk’s claim, pointing out only $19 million would be used to reimburse past expenses for housing migrants in hotels – and that it came from money approved by Congress.
The payments were made under the Shelter and Services Program that Congress appropriated $650 million toward in 2024 to help pay back local governments, including New York City, for the massive cost of the migrant crisis, which is now $7 billion.
The FEMA money, funded by US Customs and Border Protection, offered $12.50 a night reimbursement for each hotel room, city officials said, adding most of the 150-odd hotels used by the city to house migrants aren’t luxury accommodations.
The rest of the money would go toward security, food and other services for migrants, officials said.
Until Friday, it remained unclear if Adams would take legal action against Trump.
The Department of Justice ordered prosecutors to drop their federal corruption case against the mayor, in a move Hizzoner’s allies feared would make him a “hostage” to the new president.
