House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Thursday that the Trump administration is moving to drop the criminal charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams in order to exercise control over the embattled politician.
“What is clear is that the White House made a decision to dismiss the criminal charges pending against Mayor Adams without prejudice,” Jeffries told reporters in the Capitol.
“Translation: It is the intention of the Trump administration to keep the current mayor on a short leash.”
Jeffries, a Brooklyn native, has been largely silent throughout the controversy surrounding Adams, a former Brooklyn borough president who is facing federal charges of bribery and violating campaign finance laws. When asked, he would largely defer to voters.
But after Trump’s Justice Department urged federal prosecutors in Manhattan to dismiss the charges, Jeffries jumped into the debate, saying he’s hearing alarm bells from both his constituents and fellow lawmakers in New York about Adams’s fitness to serve.
“Those are all legitimately held concerns that have been articulated by members of the congressional delegation,” Jeffries said. “Most importantly, there are people in the communities that I represent back in Brooklyn who are deeply alarmed at the unfolding events connected to [Adams].”
Adams has been under fire from members of his own party since even before the federal indictments arrived last September, as some lawmakers — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) — had urged his resignation amid news reports of alleged corruption.
Adams, who is seeking another term as New York’s mayor, has denied any wrongdoing. But he raised plenty of eyebrows when he broke with his party to defend Trump before November’s presidential election, and has since courted the Republican president, even weighing the possibility of jumping parties.
The maneuvers have led to accusations that Adams was cozying up to Trump — who has a long history of rewarding loyalty and downplaying the gravity of government corruption — in order to secure immunity from the charges pending against him.
The moves appeared to pay dividends earlier this week, when the second-ranking official in Trump’s Justice Department directed Manhattan prosecutors to dismiss the charges against Adams, which they characterized as politically motivated.
“It cannot be ignored that Mayor Adams criticized the prior Administration’s immigration policies before the charges were filed,” wrote Emil Bove, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general.
Jeffries on Thursday said Adams’s standing among Democrats will hinge not on the DOJ’s overtures on his behalf, but on what the mayor does in response.
“How the mayor responds to the White House’s intentions is going to determine a lot about the political future of the current mayor of the city of New York,” Jeffries said.
