Tangle - The dropped charges against Eric Adams

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

On Monday, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed the Southern District of New York to dismiss without prejudice all charges in its corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. In its dismissal, the Department of Justice reasoned that the case was politically motivated by the Biden administration and interfered with the mayor’s ability to combat the city’s migrant crisis. Adams, 64, is currently serving a four-year term as mayor and is running for reelection, with the Democratic mayoral primary scheduled for June.Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to ReadTangle.com to sign up!You can read today's podcast⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠, our “Under the Radar” story ⁠here and today’s “Have a nice day” story ⁠here⁠.Take the survey: What do you think of the DOJ dismissing the Adams case? Let us know!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Dewey Thomas. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with FIZ. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. From executive producer, Isaac Saul, this is Tangle. Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. And welcome to the Tangle Podcast, a place where you get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking and a little bit of our take. I'm your host, Will Kavak, and today we're going to be talking about the Department of Justice's request that the charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams be dismissed. We'll do a little bit of a refresher on what Adams is charged with dating back to his indictment in

September of 2024. We'll talk a little bit about their rationale for this request and some of the political considerations that may have been at play. Before we jump in though, I want to flag a quick update on our newsletter and podcast bundling. We're going to be extending the sale on this new offering to the end of the day today. That's Thursday, meaning you can get the $99 annual membership bundle for $89 a year for the life of your membership. For existing members, we've resolved an issue

that prevented you from easily switching plans. So if you want to upgrade to our newsletter podcast bundle for the sale price, you can easily do so by clicking a link that we'll put in the show notes for today's episode. It's also at the top of today's newsletter if you receive that in your email. Another note, tomorrow our outgoing associate editor, Sophia Downs, is writing a Friday edition about how the roles of family, community, and government and private life have changed throughout US history. And I've read it. It's an incredibly thought provoking piece. We're really excited to share it with you. And it's also a nice change of pace from the

kind of constant drumbeat of news we've been getting in the past few weeks. We think you really enjoy it. And if you're interested in checking it out, be sure that you are a premium podcast subscriber and look for it tomorrow afternoon. All right. I'm going to pass it over to John for our quick hits and today's main topic, and then I'll be back for my take. Thanks Will and welcome everybody. Here are your quick hits for today. First up, President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss

the war in Ukraine. Trump said they discussed a possible ceasefire agreement and suggested that Putin wants the war to end. Separately, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Trump administration does not support Ukraine's membership in NATO as part of a possible peace plan with Russia, adding that a return to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence, with Senator Mitch McConnell as the sole Republican vote against the nomination.

The Consumer Price Index, which measures the change in prices for common goods and services, rose 0.5% month over month and 3% annually in January. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested the report will likely delay further interest rate cuts for the time being. Number 4. A federal judge restored President Trump's deferred resignation program for federal workers, which offers federal employees full pay through September if they resign. The judge ruled that the unions that challenged the program lacked standing to sue.

Separately, eight inspectors general sued to reverse President Trump's decision to fire them in January, alleging the decision was not carried out lawfully. And number five, Senator Tina Smith, the Democrat from Minnesota, announced she will not seek 26. Trump's Justice Department ordering all charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, including allegations that he took bribes from other countries, to be dropped. Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emilve, ordering prosecutors here in New York to drop the bribery, fraud, and corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. On Monday, Acting Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bove, directed the Southern District of New York to dismiss without prejudice all charges in the corruption case against New

York Mayor Eric Adams. In its dismissal, the Justice Department reasoned that the case was politically motivated by the Biden administration and interfered with the mayor's ability to combat the city's migrant crisis. Adams, 64, is currently serving a four-year term as mayor and running for re-election with the Democratic mayoral primary scheduled for June. Last September, Mayor Adams was indicted in a corruption investigation and charged with five counts of bribery, conspiracy, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. The mayor has been the subject of other criminal investigations, but the recent indictment made Adams the first mayor of New York City to be charged with a federal crime while still

in office. Adams denies the allegations and pleaded not guilty to all charges. In its case, the Southern District accused Adams of accepting over $123,000 worth of undisclosed luxury travel benefits, making false disclosure statements to the New York City Campaign Finance Board, and directing staffers to solicit donations from foreign businessmen. In return for these gifts and accommodations, the indictment alleged that Adams leveraged his position to do favors for foreign donors, including pressuring the New York Fire Department to approve the opening of a 36-story Turkish consular building without a fire inspection. Mayor Adams faced up to 45 years in prison. In his memo to the Southern District,

both cited Adams' criticism of President Biden's immigration policies and his upcoming election as reasons for dismissal. The timing of the charges and the more recent public actions by the former U.S. attorney responsible for initiating the case have threatened the integrity of the proceedings, including by increasingly prejudicial pretrial publicity that risks impacting potential witnesses and the jury pool," Boeve wrote, adding that the decision was reached without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based, which are issues on which we defer to the U.S. Attorney's Office at this time.

Since the DOJ has ordered the charges dropped without prejudice, Adams can still be charged in the future. Furthermore, the Southern District has yet to officially drop the charges. A formal dismissal request must be submitted by prosecutors overseen by Acting Southern District of New York attorney Daniel Sassoon and reviewed by a judge. Sassoon has not commented on the order. In an address following Boeve's request for the dismissal, Adams reaffirmed his innocence. As I said from the outset, I never broke the law and I never would. I absolutely never

traded my power as an elected official for any personal benefit. Today, we'll share perspectives on the dismissal from the right and the left, then Tangle editor Will Kabeck will give his take. We'll be right back after this quick break. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at phys.ca. Alright, first up, let's start with what the right is saying. The right is mixed on the dismissal with some arguing that the decision empowers voters. Others say that the Trump DOJ is now politicizing the legal system. Still, others suggest that elected officials should not be prosecuted until they are out of office.

The New York Post editorial board said dropping the charges will allow for a healthier race for New York City mayor. Whatever you think of the Justice Department's order for prosecutors to drop charges against Mayor Eric Adams, it clearly paves the way for a feisty mayoral race. New Yorkers should be grateful for that. Adams will now have a shot of making his case for reelection without the distraction of a criminal prosecution and trial dogging him. Voters themselves will decide the best man or woman for the job," the board wrote. That's a refreshing switch from Justice's years-long record of weaponization

with fueled speculations that the charges against Adams were politically motivated. Recall how Justice tied President Donald Trump's hands during his first term with the completely bogus Russia gate probe and how under President Joe Biden, it launched charges against him just as he ran for reelection in 2024, the board said. Voters now have a freer choice of candidates rather than one tainted by arbitrary

or weaponized decisions from Washington. In National Review, Andrew C. McCarthy called the DOJ's decision explicitly political. Politicized law enforcement is always wrong, and it is not more attractive when it insulates a politician from what appears to be righteous law enforcement than when it targets a politician with what appears to be discriminatory law enforcement," McCarthy wrote. Attorney General Pam Bondi, acting through acting deputy AG Emil Boeuf, is poised to abandon the case against Adams on explicitly political grounds, which are hilariously claimed to be part of the new DOJ's crusade against politicized prosecutorial decision-making.

Boeuf concedes that Maine Justice has not assessed the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which it is based. It is thus impossible for Bondi and Bove to have made a responsible evaluation of whether the case is a political vendetta or to have concluded that Adams was targeted as the memo asserts," McCarthy said. The Trump administration claims that the prosecution was interfering with Mayor Adams' ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the Biden administration. Put aside that this is just political messaging masquerading as Justice Department legal deliberations. The claim is laughable. It has been refuted by Adams himself, who insists that his lawyers have focused on the

case while he is focused on governing the city. In reason, Josh Blackmon argued for continued immunity while in office. There was a time when an indicted elected official would immediately resign in shame. The stigma of holding office in the face of a criminal indictment was too great. Today, that stigma is long gone, Blackmon wrote. Recently indicted politicians have argued, fairly or unfairly, that the indictments are partisan witch hunts, and at least to some degree, these politicians have maintained some popular support. Their supporters agree that politics went into their prosecutions.

Indeed, President Biden said as much about the prosecution of his son Hunter. Who is the ultimate arbiter of these sort of crimes? I would wager it is not the jury. Rather, it is the voters. I would propose a 28th constitutional amendment that would overrule Trump versus United States, at least in part, but would extend immunity far more broadly. In short, federal and state elected officials can be indicted while in office, but cannot be tried for those indicted offenses until after they are no longer in that elected office,"

Blackman said. I think lawfare has wounded our criminal justice system in ways that are difficult to quantify. When a politician is indicted, the automatic assumption is that politics played a role in the process. Under this amendment, the power of lawfare would be blunted. -♪ -♪ All right, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying.

The left criticizes the dismissal, noting that the DOJ did not even attempt to justify its decision. Some worry that Adams will now prioritize Trump's interests over his constituents. Others say the dismissal is linked to Trump's personal view of prosecuting politicians. In New York Magazine, Ellie Honig explored the ominous legal logic of dropping the Eric Adams case. New DOJ honcho, Emil Boeuf, a friend and former colleague of mine at the Southern District of New York, instructed the SDNY in a disjointed letter to dump the case based on a madcap blend of conspiracy theories, claims of political persecution, and good old-fashioned illogic, Honig said. I wouldn't predict that Adams was surely cooked had he gone into the trial, but the odds

would have been stacked against him, as they always are in federal court, especially in the SDNY. Now we'll never know. Bowe's letter instructing SDNY prosecutors to drop the case is a piece of work. He starts by noting that the Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based. Might want to consider those tidbits in the future. The letter cites no evidence to support its claim of the SDNY's political motivation. Why prove it when you can just allege it in conclusory fashion, Honig wrote. Dismissal of the case against Adams is an obvious injustice.

Maybe he'd have beaten it. Maybe not. But let a jury decide that. Of broader concern, the letter from the DOJ shows a disturbing willingness, eagerness even, to distort the truth. In Vital City, Elizabeth Glazer wrote about the norm-breaking implications of the dismissal. What's going on is personal, not business, political, not legal, and particularly suited to the personalities and whims of the two players, a president who would be king and a mayor who has, from the beginning, played at governing when he was, in fact, just bartering,

Glazer said. This dismissal is part of a diabolical bargain that holds the mayor and thus New Yorkers as hostages to the president and his whims. The mayor may be an enthusiastic hostage, trading his independence and policymaking for his freedom from prosecution, but New Yorkers are the chumps who will have to live with and pay the price for the mayor's cynical trade. Look at what the Justice Department's direction to dismiss the case without prejudice means. The case is essentially suspended and the United States Attorney can reactivate it at any time, or as the memo makes clear, at any

time that is politically convenient to the President, Glazer wrote. This may be what brass knuckle politics are fairly about, mobilizing power to get your way, but it is emphatically not what federal prosecutions are about. They are supposed to leave politics at the door and be based on the law and evidence alone. In Slate, Shirin Ali said this outcome carries a sense of deja vu. Adams is officially off the hook. Months of pandering to Donald Trump, defending him against accusations of fascism, jetting down to Florida to dine with the president and quietly showing up to Trump's inauguration, finally paid off, Ali wrote.

This directive came straight from Emil Boeve, who was Trump's personal defense attorney. Boeve defended Trump in the hush money trial, which ended in Trump becoming a convicted felon. One of Boeve's signature legal strategies, along with basically every lawyer Trump hired, was to claim his client could not be tried in a court of law while he was campaigning for president because that would amount to election interference. Trump and his inner circle are accustomed

to simply ignoring that which is inconvenient for their agenda. Even as he faced four criminal indictments and was found liable for sexual abuse, defamation, and business fraud, Trump insisted he was innocent at every turn and denounced every shred of evidence as fake news or a tool of political vengeance, Ali said. Extending that strategy to Adams has now provided the New York City mayor with a new lease

on life as he's running for reelection. All right, let's head over to Will for his take. All right, that is it for what the right and left are saying, which brings us to my take. Reminder, this is editor Will Kavak and I wrote today's my take. I won't belabor the point. I'm disappointed by the DOJ's decision. As we discussed in our coverage of Adams' indictment back in September, the allegations against the mayor were serious and the available evidence merited prosecution. Adams was accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in luxury travel and

lodging benefits in return for political favors to foreign donors, soliciting illegal campaign donations and attempting to cover it all up. You can read the indictment yourself to get a sense of the case's strength, but again, I thought that the evidence presented merited a prosecution. Of course, Adams retains the presumption of innocence, and despite the compelling evidence, the case was not a slam dunk on every charge. For example, while accepting flight upgrades and free hotel stays from the Turkish government, then helping them fast track their consular building feels like textbook corruption, that

act is not necessarily criminal based on past Supreme Court rulings. In McDonald vs. United States, the court found that bribery must involve a formal exercise of government power, and it's not clear that Adams pressuring the New York City Fire Department to skip its fire inspection constituted an official act under this standard. Separately in Snyder v. United States, the court established a distinction between bribes and gratuities. Adams accepting travel perks may not meet the definition of a bribe under this precedent. Regardless of what may have happened in the trial though, prosecutors presented sufficient evidence to justify bringing the case. Something acting Deputy Attorney General,

Emil Beauvais seemed to acknowledge. In his memo, Beauvais only offered the timing of the indictment to support his assertion that the Biden Justice Department was politically motivated. Another note is the claim that Adams has been unable to effectively serve as mayor while under indictment is undermined by the mayor's own explicit and repeated statements that the case has not impacted his ability to do his job. Bovet then essentially torpedoed

his own arguments credibility when he wrote, quote, the Justice Department has reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based." In other words, the DOJ did not even attempt to determine the strength of the case before moving to dismiss it. Now, even though the DOJ's justification was unconvincing to me, several conservative writers did challenge my initial reaction

that the dismissal was uniformly bad. I think these are the two strongest arguments in favor of dismissing the case. Number one, prosecutors excessively charged Adams for acts that did not rise to the level of criminal. As James Burnham and Yaakov Roth argued in the Wall Street Journal, quote, the indictment spends many paragraphs discussing benefits received, many of them travel and entertainment, but it is light on official actions promised in return. While no one disputes that Adams received these benefits, this argument says that the evidence he acted illegally

in return for them is scant. However, I think that's more of a reason to acquit Adams on some charges than to drop the entire case. Whether the benefits motivated his actions is what our courts are explicitly designed to determine. Number two, prosecuting Adams while he runs for reelection denies voters the ability to choose their elected representatives. I'm sympathetic to this view, and I think prosecutors

should have to meet a high bar for bringing charges against elected officials. But again, in this case, they have. Neither Bovet nor anyone else in the Justice Department has yet to present evidence that the case was improperly handled. In fact, Bovet stressed that he was not questioning, quote, the integrity and efforts of the line prosecutors responsible for the case. Now, unless you argue that politicians should simply never be prosecuted while in office, it's hard to see how voters are harmed by legitimate investigations of legitimate actions. Even if your primary worry is a weaponized DOJ under Biden, I think this dismissal actually gives more reason

to be concerned. As many commentators have noted, Bové requested the case be dismissed, quote, without prejudice, meaning Adams can be reindicted on the same charges at a later date. That could mean Adams is subject to prosecution when he leaves office, or it can be seen as a threat by the Trump administration to Adams. In other words,

the DOJ can resume the case at any time if you do something that we don't like. I read Boves memo justifying his choice more as the latter. He writes, quote, we are particularly concerned about the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams's ability to support critical ongoing federal efforts to protect the American people from the disastrous effects of unlawful mass migration and resettlement as described in executive order 14165. End quote. Add to this that border czar Tom Homan is meeting with Adams today on Thursday and is expected

to ask him to authorize the NYPD to assist in federal deportation efforts, and I think worries about Adams' subservience to the president become justified. Now, Adams, of course, can still be prosecuted if he loses the Democratic mayoral primary in June or the general election in November. One of the two seems likely based on current polling. But it's hard not to see dropping the case now as an abuse of power by the Justice Department. The Trump administration is in a sprint

to enact its immigration agenda, and New York City is a focal point of that effort. Having a deferential mayor in place for even just a few months could be all they need to achieve their immediate goals. Whether or not the case resumes once Adams leaves office is secondary to the message being sent by the DOJ right now. We're comfortable subverting the justice system to advance our political agenda.

We can't render final judgment on this decision while the case remains open, but I'm confident in saying that the Justice Department's inadequate rationale for dropping these charges raises the specter of the exact kind of politicized decision-making in the justice system that President Trump ran against. We'll be right back after this quick break. exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. With the FIZ loyalty program,

you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with FIZ. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fiz.ca. Alright, that is it for my take, which brings us to today's reader question. Today's question comes from Luke in Brooklyn, New York, appropriate for today's main topic. And Luke asks, what I am genuinely curious about is how you consume news sources and if there is even a realistic path forward for regular people like me to trust news when

there's almost always financial influence at play behind the scenes. Hunter Caspersen, our editorial fellow, responds, I totally understand feeling pessimistic about the state of journalism, but I do believe there is a path forward. We're in the eye of the storm right now. Our society is currently adapting to meet the information needs and challenges that have resulted from the rise of social media, deregulation of journalism, and hyper polarization of news outlets. But solutions to these challenges are already being built. After all, you're here listening to Tangle, a publication created specifically to help rebuild trust in journalism, supported by listeners and readers who share

similar concerns. Being intentional about finding platforms that present multiple perspectives is a great place to start. Here are a few things to consider when evaluating the bias of reporting or trustworthiness of a news outlet. One, do they interview subjects from both sides of a story? Two, do they include heavy emotional language in their articles? Three, are they data-driven? Four, are they calling out false claims

and running fact checks on both parties or just one? Five, are they open and transparent about their corrections? Another thing to remember is to differentiate between news and opinion. The former is typically held to higher standards of fact checking and editorial review. Television news in particular is often closer to entertainment than traditional journalism.

So you should always consider the context of what you're consuming. Ask yourself, is this an article from an outlet's news desk or one of its opinion writers? Is this news program conveying facts or a commentator's interpretation of events? Being aware of these differences helps to clarify that the industry as a whole is not the sum of its loudest parts. Lastly, the wider the range of perspectives and media you consume, the easier it becomes to develop a critical eye for reporting practices and motivations, which helps distinguish fact from framing techniques. Alright, that is it for today's Reader Question.

So I'll pass it back over to John for the rest of the podcast and talk to all of you soon. Have a great day. Thanks, Will. Here's your under the radar story for today, Will. Here's your Under the Radar story for today, folks. This week, France and India hosted a global summit on artificial intelligence in Paris, France, bringing together countries from around the world to discuss their vision for the burgeoning technology. Vice President JD Vance attended the summit, his first foreign trip since taking office,

and delivered an address advocating for pro-growth AI policies. Later, the United States and United Kingdom declined to sign on to an agreement joined by 60 other countries that calls for an open, inclusive, and ethical approach to AI development. The UK government highlighted concerns about national security and global governance in its comments on the decision, while Vance said excessive regulation of the technology would kill a transformative industry just as it's taking off. The BBC has this story and there's a link in today's episode description. All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of New York City Mayoral staff and agency

heads who were indicted or convicted by state or federal prosecutors between 1990 and 2021 for ethical misconduct is three. The number of New York City Mayoral staff and agency heads who have been indicted or convicted during Mayor Eric Adams' term for ethical misconduct is three. The percentage of New York City voters who said they opposed the Justice Department dismissing Mayor Adams' corruption case is 49%, according to a February 2025 PIX11 news poll. The percentage of New York City voters who said they support the case being dropped is 27%. The percentage of New York City voters who said they would support Adams in the Democratic mayoral primary is 10%. The percentage of New York City voters who said they would

support former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary is 33%. Adams-Net favorability with New York City voters is minus 46%, according to a Manhattan Institute poll conducted in January 2025. And Adams-Net job approval with New York City voters is minus 29%. And last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story. Filled with grief from the fires in her hometown in Southern California, artist Maya Bratkis posted on Reddit offering to draw people's lost homes for free. The project has now developed into the Lost Homes Project, where Bratkis aims to memorialize what was lost in the community

by creating as many drawings as possible, sourcing donations to support the fire victims, and eventually compiling the drawings and their related stories into a book. It's been such a gift to be able to bring a bit of light to people in such a dark time, Brackett said. Nice News has this story, which you can find in a link in today's episode description. Alright everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support our work, you can go to readtangle.com where we are

currently running a promotion on a bundled package. You can get both our newsletter and podcast for 20% off for the life of your membership. This is the last day that we are running this promotion. If you haven't signed up yet, or if you're currently just a newsletter subscriber or just a podcast subscriber, you can write us at staff at readtangle.com and let us know you want to switch over to a Bundle membership. For podcast and Bundle members, we have our Friday edition coming out for you tomorrow. And for everyone, we have a very, very special podcast for Valentine's Day.

Isaac and his wife Phoebe sat down to carry on the tradition of their Valentine's Day podcast and we're gonna be releasing that for all of your enjoyment for paid members and free members. Ari will be here for the Sunday podcast and I will return on Monday. For the entire Tangle Crew, this is John Law signing off. Have an absolutely wonderful weekend, y'all. Peace.

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