New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams called on Mayor Eric Adams (D) to resign from his office, becoming the latest local official to raise concerns about his ability to govern after the Justice Department (DOJ) moved to drop corruption charges against him.
The speaker, who has no relation to the embattled official, said in a statement on Monday that the mayor should prioritize the city and its residents in stepping aside. She argued that the resignations of four deputy mayors in protest made clear that Adams lost the trust of his staff, colleagues and constituents.
“This administration no longer has the ability to effectively govern with Eric Adams as mayor,” Speaker Adams said. “These resignations are the culmination of the mayor’s actions and decisions that have led to months of instability and now compromise the City’s sovereignty, threaten chaos, and risk harm to our families.”
The firestorm surrounding the mayor comes after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed prosecutors to drop the case, which had accused Adams of accepting and seeking bribes for years from wealthy businesspeople and a Turkish government official. The indictment states that this went back to 2014 and continued up through his current time as mayor.
Bove didn’t address the strength of the case but argued that it interfered with Adams’s ability to run for reelection in 2025 and “unduly restricted” his ability to address illegal immigration and violent crime. The DOJ order also notably requested the charges be dismissed without prejudice, suggesting they could be refiled at a later date.
That, along with the mayor’s increasing ties to President Trump ahead of the move, led critics to argue that a quid pro quo occurred in which the Big Apple mayor would advocate for the administration’s immigration priorities in exchange for leniency.
Danielle Sassoon, the former acting U.S. attorney for Manhattan who was overseeing the case, argued that Adams’s attorneys “repeatedly” sought that arrangement and denounced Bove’s order in a letter announcing her resignation rather than moving to drop the case. Several other prosecutors also resigned instead of requesting the case be dropped before eventually finding a prosecutor who would sign off.
The mayor and his attorney have denied that any such quid pro quo occurred, with Adams calling it “silly.”
But pressure has greatly increased on him since the move, with some calling for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) to remove Adams from office, which would be an unprecedented move. She is meeting with “key leaders” on Tuesday to discuss a “path forward” on Adams and for the city.
Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado (D) has called for Adams’s resignation, while City Comptroller Brad Lander (D) called on Adams to prove he can effectively govern. Lander is running in the Democratic primary against the mayor this year.
The mayor and the city council leader have had a tense relationship for years, with Adams backing an opponent in her speakership race in 2022.
“We have endured enough scandal, selfishness and embarrassment, all of which distract from the leadership that New Yorkers deserve,” she said. “This is the opposite of public service. Our city needs a leader totally committed to protecting New Yorkers and improving their lives.”
