Mayor Eric Adams thanked the Justice Department for ordering the federal criminal case against him dropped, calling the prosecution quote “misguided.” But many are questioning whether his recent meeting with President Trump had anything to do with the move. Others are asking whether prosecutors in NYC could launch their own investigation into bribery or campaign finance allegations. NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst and Chris Glorioso report.
Mayor Eric Adams may have dodged a legal bullet when the Trump Justice Department announced plans to pause his criminal prosecution. But the decision in Washington, D.C., does not block local NYC district attorneys from seeking their own corruption charges, if they so wished.
“I think there are theories a local prosecutor could clearly pursue based on what is in the public record,” said Daniel Horwitz, a former Manhattan prosecutor who now specializes in white collar defense and government/regulatory investigations. “I think that any prosecutor, any serious prosecutor worth their salt, is going to give this matter a serious look.”
Horwitz pointed out the Manhattan district attorney’s office has already obtained an unrelated bribery indictment against Ingrid Lewis-Martin, a former top aide to Mayor Adams who has denied wrongdoing.
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“Clearly the Manhattan district attorney’s office is actively involved in their own investigations of the Adams Administration,” Horwitz said. So for that reason alone, of course the Manhattan DA’s office is watching this case.”
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SIGN UP Representatives for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez both declined comment when the I-Team asked if they would consider seeking state charges against Mayor Adams, based on the federal indictment which was ordered dismissed.
The idea of modeling a state criminal case on a federal one would not be unprecedented.
In 2024, Bragg obtained a conviction in the hush money trial of Donald Trump, after federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York declined to pursue that very case. Much of the evidence in that trial was already baked into the case against Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, who pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance crimes.
New York City prosecutors would also have a built-in advantage when trying to replicate elements of the federal case against Mayor Adams. That’s because the NYC Department Investigation partnered with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in obtaining the original federal indictment against the mayor. When the charges were unsealed in September, DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber suggested her team had access to key evidence the Adams violated not only federal corruption laws, but local laws too.
“Our unique access to city records and expertise in matters of city government make us a critical partner in the fight to root out corruption,” Strauber said at the time. “This kind of corruption has real costs to the city and to the public.”
Shira Scheindlin, a retired federal judge who once served as general counsel to the DOI, said city investigators there could theoretically generate a criminal case against Adams that would exist beyond the reach of the DOJ.
“The City Department of Investigation certainly can meet with the Manhattan DA and work with the Manhattan DA. That’s a city agency,” Scheindlin said.
A representative for DOI Commissioner Strauber declined comment when asked about the prospects of reviving the case against Mayor Adams on a local level.
Even with the help of DOI, building a local case against Mayor Adams would, no doubt, have unique challenges.
For one, the Department of Justice memo calls for dismissing the case against Adams "without prejudice," meaning the federal charges could be brought at a later date. Because of that, much of the key evidence backing those charges – like cellphone records and witness statements – would not likely be shared freely with local prosecutors.
A law enforcement source with knowledge of the matter told the I-Team it would be exceedingly difficult to prove state bribery or campaign finance crimes without access to that federal evidence.
Additionally, individuals who might have been inclined to cooperate with prosecutors may no longer opt to do that.
Last month, Turkish businessman Erden Arkan pleaded guilty to committing campaign crimes which benefited Adams when he was a candidate for mayor. It’s not clear if Arkan ever intended to cooperate with federal prosecutors, but now that he has taken a federal plea deal, state prosecutors may be unable to charge him because of double jeopardy protections.
Adams has repeatedly denied he sought illegal contributions or travel perks in return for official favors. He did not take questions from reporters on Tuesday, but urged his critics to "put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of this city."
Jeremy Saland, a white collar and criminal defense attorney who used to serve as a Manhattan prosecutor, said local investigators could build their own case against Adams from scratch – essentially retracing the steps of FBI public corruption investigators and even re-interviewing key people in the Adams inner circle.
“If people have been identified and we know who they are — we meaning law enforcement — we can potentially ask those same questions and pursue those same people,” Saland said.
He added that a decision to dismiss the federal indictment without consideration of the underlying merits of the case would raise serious questions about whether political considerations have overshadowed sound prosecutorial judgement.
“There are so many competing factors and so many things you have to take into consideration, but if you fail as a prosecutor to examine this case holistically, then you’re failing justice," said Saland.
