NEW YORK — A former prosecutor from the Watergate era has called upon the federal judge overseeing the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams to appoint a special counsel to evaluate the Justice Department’s recent request to drop the charges against him.
Attorney Nathaniel Akerman urged Judge Dale E. Ho in a letter submitted to Manhattan federal court that his involvement is key, as he believes the public interest is not currently being represented following the Justice Department’s request made by three attorneys last Friday.
Akerman strongly advocated against the dismissal, citing the need for the court to investigate how the Justice Department arrived at its conclusion. He suggested that Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, who initially called for the prosecution’s dismissal, should face the court to clarify his reasoning.
Moreover, Akerman proposed that the judge appoint an independent special prosecutor to continue pursuing the case while having access to grand jury materials and relevant evidence. He submitted this letter while representing Common Cause, an organization focused on maintaining integrity in U.S. elections.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to allegations that during his time as Brooklyn borough president, he received over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions along with extravagant travel perks from a Turkish official and influential business leaders attempting to gain his favor.
Akerman’s plea for intervention follows a troubling public dispute between Bove, the Justice Department’s second-in-command, and top prosecutors in New York, namely interim U.S. Attorney for Manhattan Danielle Sassoon and assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten, who was directly involved in the Adams case.
Sassoon’s resignation on Thursday, alongside five other senior Justice Department officials, marked a significant moment. Scotten also stepped down the following day, emphasizing that Sassoon had appropriately opposed the demand for the charges to be dropped, which could be reconsidered post-elections.
In his letter, Akerman reiterated Sassoon’s statement that the Justice Department seemingly acquiesced to a “quid pro quo” request from Adams’ legal team, wherein Adams would assist with immigration matters in exchange for dismissing the indictment. She characterized this behavior as a “breathtaking and dangerous precedent.”
Akerman claimed substantial evidence from Justice Department documents indicates that dropping the indictment is not in the public’s best interest and is part of a corrupt agreement between Mayor Adams and the Trump administration. He alleged that Adams had agreed to support the administration’s immigration enforcement initiatives in response to the dismissal request.
In response, Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro, dismissed the allegations of a quid pro quo as “total lies.” Bove, when proposing to drop the charges, mentioned that the mayor’s involvement was crucial for Trump’s immigration policy and that removing the legal burdens could allow Adams to campaign effectively for re-election against multiple challengers without the weight of pending charges.
