Today, Explained - Quid pro bros

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

First, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and President Donald Trump struck up an unlikely friendship. Then, the Trump administration ordered prosecutors to sidestep DOJ norms and drop corruption charges against Adams so that he could focus on cracking down on immigration. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn and Devan Schwartz, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members New York City Mayor Eric Adams as he arrived for a court hearing earlier this month. Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has always been an odd guy. As a state senator, he made a video explaining how to search your kid's room for contraband. You can look in a jewelry box, a jewelry box of this nature, maybe a simple jewelry box, but if you look through it closely, you don't know what your child may be hiding. Fair. You should always, when your child bring in his popular knapsack with many different locations, look through it to see what exactly is your child carrying in addition to a book. Something simple as a crack pipe, a used crack

pipe. Could he have found it on the street? That's quite possible. Wait, what? As mayor, there was the urban rat summit, there was the baptism, his, at Rikers Island, and then there was the alleged corruption, the wire fraud, bribery, the indictment. And then came the order from the Department of Justice that all those charges had to be dropped. Ahead on Today Explained. With a smoke, there's possible fire. Okay, business leaders, are you here to play or are you playing to win? If you're in it to win, meet your next MVP. NetSuite by Oracle.

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Katie Honan is a senior reporter at the nonprofit news site, The City. Katie also hosts the FAQ NYC podcast. Yesterday, minutes before Katie dashed into a press conference with Eric Adams, we reached her in the rotunda of City Hall to ask her about the life and times of New York's mayor. Eric Adams is like a real New York story. He's a former police officer. He often talks about his path to the NYPD. As a 15-year-old, I was arrested and beat by police officers, but also learned how to turn my pain into purpose.

I became a police officer, NYPD reformer. And he was a very activist police officer, challenging a lot of the racism within the department for members like himself as a black police officer. And then he became a state senator representing neighborhoods in central Brooklyn, and then the borough president of Brooklyn. So when he ran for mayor in 2021, it was on a public safety message that really, especially towards the later months of the election season, really resonated.

The next mayor of New York will confront an economy battered by the pandemic, as well as rising rates of gun violence and homicide that have made public safety the top issue for many voters. And as the city nears a full reopening, a lot of people are worried that surging gun violence could make it more difficult to attract visitors. This is a critical time for New York. We're facing a pandemic of crime, inequality, and injustice.

And that is how he became the city's 110th mayor of New York City. Before we get to the events of the past couple of weeks, what's his reputation as mayor been? What do New Yorkers think of him? It's funny, when I speak to the friends of mine who don't pay attention to politics, I think because the mayor himself talks about his

personality and his own word, which is swagger. When a mayor has swagger, the city has swagger. He has his own message about who he is. You know, we all have stories about ourselves that we share. His, however, was very easily debunked. You know, His big thing is, I'm a vegan mayor. When you're eating the soul of a living being, you are also internalizing all the trauma when that animal is killed. A few months into his tenure in 2022, he's going out to dinner and the waiter is saying, yo, he ordered the fish, you know, which is not vegan.

So there was that. I just want to clarify something. How often do you eat fish? Do you eat any other animal products? I eat a plant-based-centered life. Some people want to call me vegan. Vegans eat Oreos and they drink Coca-Cola. I don't.

And I think even his partying, it became a negative because people are like, why are you not like out doing your job? Why are you out at clubs with French Montana, a rapper? Why are you out at these private clubs? French Montana in your friend group is not a good sign. Mansour Montana. He has such a large personality.

His clothing, everything's embroidered. It says Mayor Adams, in case you didn't know who he was, on his hat, on his jacket. His phrase is get stuff done. There's GSD everywhere. So that's what we see of the colorful character of Mayor Adams. This is New York.

It's a privilege to live in New York. And the leadership should have that swagger. That's what has been missing in this city. When do things start to go south for him legally? Well, we found out that the investigation into him started in 2021 when he was still a borough president, but we saw it publicly. I would say it was the fall of 2023 when his top fundraisers home was raided by the feds. That morning the mayor was on his way to Washington DC to meet with the Biden administration to talk about the asylum secret crisis

which is it continues to be it's sort of winding down now but it was for years a large issue in the city financially and just in terms of organizing in terms of what the mayor had to focus on a lot of it was taken up by the asylum seeker crisis. This issue will destroy New York City. Destroy New York City. We're getting 10,000 migrants a month. So the mayor flies to DC and then immediately returns. And all we knew initially was that he had to return

for a quote, a matter. So that was when we realized there might be an investigation into the mayor. And then we saw trickles of this until September, 2024. A Bronx neighborhood swarming with FBI agents earlier today, records show the address involved is owned by a top aide to Mayor Adams. We have just learned that FBI agents seized New York City Mayor Eric Adams' phones

and an iPad earlier this week. Now this is part of the... The FBI raiding the homes of at least five people in Mayor Eric Adams' administration, including two of his deputy mayors, the school's chancellor, and even reportedly the NYPD commissioner. And then in late September, the mayor himself was indicted on five counts, including bribery and wire fraud. What are the details there?

Bribery and wire fraud. What was going on, allegedly? The mayor allegedly, in short, was helping out the Turkish government. The Turkish government. The Turkish government expediting a building that they have in Midtown, getting the fire permit expedited. You know, these things, it's New York City, it's a big city and things take a lot of time. expediting a building that they have in Midtown, getting the fire permit expedited. You know, these things, it's New York City, it's a big city and things take a lot of time.

We also alleged that the mayor sought and accepted well over $100,000 in luxury travel benefits. These benefits included free international business class flights and opulent hotel rooms in foreign cities. In addition to that, there were supposed to be a superseding indictment, additional charges filed but we don't know if we're ever going to see those. Okay and once he's charged, what does he say? My fellow New Yorkers, it is now my... The mayor immediately recorded a video and he said I have done nothing wrong. This is a political attack. And he said, I have done nothing wrong. This is a political attack.

I'm being targeted. His phrase was, I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target and a target I became. Because he says that he was targeted by the Biden administration because he was critical of their lack of help financially in New York City for the asylum secret crisis. I'll point out that the investigation predates the asylum secret crisis, and you can repeat that to the mayor as much as you want,

but he's never gonna listen to it. He insists that he is a pure victim of a political persecution, and he's continued to say it. And this is a kind of a note that's been picked up by a lot of particularly right-wing outlets across the country. He was one of the ones that spoke out against Biden. And if you speak out against Biden, you get punished. Menendez spoke out, got punished. Adams spoke out, got punished. Trump

got more than punished. Mayor Adams is a Democrat. Yes. Okay, but he claims he was targeted by the Biden administration and then President Trump is elected. And that leads us to where we are today. What happened? I'll point out Eric Adams was, at least up until the early 90s, registered as a Republican. And he's always been a more moderate Democrat. Here in New York City, there's lots of different shades of Democrats, right? And he's been more towards the right.

I think when it really solidified was before the election, there's somebody known as the Al Smith Dinner. It's a fundraiser for Catholic charities. Candidates always go, this was the first year that Vice President Harris did not go, or last year was. So now President Trump, then candidate, and former President Trump spoke. We were persecuted, Eric.

I was persecuted, and We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted and so are you, Eric. The mayor's dietary restrictions are well known, but I've got to say I've never met a person who's a vegan who liked turkey so much. He sympathized. He showed empathy for what Eric Adams was going through, which was sort of the first signal of, huh, if this guy wins, what can he do to help Eric Adams was going through, which was sort of the first signal of, huh, if this guy wins, what can he do to help Eric Adams? We actually would pressure the mayor, are you going to vote, who are you going to vote for? He wouldn't say Vice President Harris's name. We did go to him when he voted at his home voting site in Brooklyn. He finally said Kamala Harris. But there was a lot of speculation that if President Trump became the president again, he would help Eric Adams out, which is what we saw with the Justice Department memo.

— Yeah, what is the Justice Department memo? Explain what happened there. — So a few weeks ago, this memo drops from Emil Bové and the Justice Department to the federal prosecutors here in Manhattan requesting that they drop the charges against the mayor, never saying it's because the charges are without merit or there's no evidence behind it. But they said the charges restrict Eric Adams from assisting President Trump in carrying out his plans for undocumented immigrants here in the city. we saw immediately this sort of plainly political reasoning for wanting to drop the charges and we saw the fallout of that. One after another, those prosecutors have quit in protest, including an assistant U.S. attorney in New York who not only

refused to drop the charges against Adams, but in a letter announcing his resignation said, I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion. But it was never going to be me. And then you even see a further domino effect of the mayor's four top deputy mayors stepping down or announcing they will resign in mid-March because of what the mayor is doing and it's, you know working with the trump administration on things they don't believe it so is the case are the charges against adams really going to get dropped we don't know yet judge jail hole last week and decided on friday to

basically bring in a third party legal expert because his his argument was looked we've only heard from one side arguing yes we need to drop the charges. We need to have perhaps someone else to argue or to review the facts of the case and the circumstances and maybe make the argument that it should be kept and they should continue to pursue these charges. And here's why.

In appointing this person, he's delaying the process, but this does not get the mayor off the hook as easily or as quickly as I think he his lawyers and the Justice Department had hoped. Hmm. So you're a native New Yorker and politics in New York can it can get weird. In your time covering politics in New York, where does this where does this kind of stand on the on the scale of one to ten? Oh, I would say this is probably an eight. I want to leave open the possibility of things getting weirder. The city's Katie Honan getting ready to go into a Mayor Adams press conference.

Good luck in there. Enjoy. I'll need it. Thank you so much. Support for Today Explained comes from Vanta. Santa? That season's over. It's Vanta time, y'all. Vanta says that trust isn't just earned, it's demanded. Whether you're a startup founder navigating your first audit or a seasoned security professional selling your GRC program that stands for Governance Risk and Compliance and I am grateful for the reminder. Proving your commitment to security can be critical but it can also be complex. That is where Vanta comes in. Vanta says that businesses use their services to establish trust by automating compliance needs across 35 frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. They can help centralize security workflows, complete questionnaires up to 5 times faster,

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Warning. I've got this condition where I don't feel pain. You're a superhero. If this is how intense Novocaine sounds. Oh, wow. Imagine how it looks. Is there more? Yeah, big time. Oh, wow. Imagine how it looks. Is there more? Yeah, big time.

Nova Cane. Pullman Theaters, March 14. Today, today explains. It's today explains. Barbara McQuade teaches at the University of Michigan's Law School. She served as the US attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

There are 93 US.S. attorneys in these United States, and it is their job to enforce federal law. As all U.S. attorneys are, Barb was a presidential appointee. She was appointed by Obama in 2010, and she served until 2017. I think the expectation at that time was what President Obama had done, which was to allow U.S. attorneys to stay until their successors were identified. And that was sort of what the expectation would be with President Trump, but one day quite abruptly he told all of us to go. We called Barb because a relatively tiny number of people have held these jobs and

we wanted to know what she makes of the DOJ pressuring New York prosecutors to drop their case against Eric Adams. I think if they had focused on the case itself, perhaps the merits of the case, that would be appropriate. But that's not what they did. What they did here was to say that we think that defending himself in this case will make it more difficult for Mayor Adams to advance the president's policy priorities of violent crime and immigration. And for that reason, we want to dismiss this case.

That, to me, is highly inappropriate because that is allowing partisan politics to intrude upon the rule of law. Prosecutors follow what are known as the principles of federal prosecution, and they're supposed to follow cases based on the facts and the law and not the policy priorities of any president. Walk us through who gave the prosecutors in New York their marching orders and what exactly those orders said. Well, Emil Beauvais, who is the acting deputy attorney general, that is the second in command at the Department of Justice, sent a letter to the US attorney there. She was the interim US attorney placed by the Trump administration named Danielle Sassoon. And in that letter, he directed her to dismiss the indictment against Eric Adams, although

to do so without prejudice. And the reasons he stated were, number one, that it appeared that the case was brought for political reasons. And number two, he thought that the case would interfere with Mayor Adams' ability to enforce the law against violent crime and immigration. And it was the response from Danielle Sassoon publicly, I think, that put this issue on everyone's radar screen. She said, I'm not going to do it. I'll resign before I do it. But she was appealing to his boss, the attorney general,

Pam Bondi, to say, I hope you'll reconsider because this appears to me to be an illegal quid pro quo, a this for that, that is prohibited under federal bribery statutes that says if you give me something, I will use my office to give you something. And so she said based on the meeting she had had with E. Mel Boves and the lawyers for Eric Adams, that it appeared to be that they were agreeing to dismiss this case so that he would be a cooperative partner in exercising his role as mayor of New York. And it was that to which Danielle Sessoun objected. And then I also want to mention the significance of the without prejudice.

So cases can be dismissed with or without prejudice. That means with prejudice the case may not be brought again. Without prejudice means it can be resuscitated at any time and brought again. And so one of the things she noted was that the without prejudice nature of this case is what really raised suspicions because if you think this case shouldn't be brought, then dismiss it altogether. It appeared that this without prejudice was there to keep leverage over Eric Adams So that they could maintain control over him. And in fact, if you saw the interview he did Eric Adams with Tom Homan president Trump's border czar on Fox and Friends. It was pretty clear That's exactly what it was. If he doesn't come through I'll be back in New York City

And we won't be sitting on the couch. I'll be in his office up his butt saying where the hell is the agreement we came to? After the resignations, I heard people ask whether resigning is the best move because if everybody resigns, then eventually somebody does give in and do it and the people who are then eventually somebody does give in and do it and the people who are ethical, who have backbones, they're not there anymore. What do you think about that tension? Yeah, it's a really difficult dilemma. It's certainly a tradition, I suppose, in public service, in the military, and in the government. And I suppose it's an effort to respect the chain of command. If your supervisor gives you an order that you find illegal, unethical, or immoral, that your obligation is to resign rather than to implement it.

But I hear you because if all the good people resign, that means the people who will replace them are likely people who are willing to go to bat for Donald Trump and carry out his orders regardless of whether they satisfy the rule of law. And I think that puts us in a worse place. What do you think this scandal tells us about the Justice Department in the second Trump administration? I think it tells us that we're in a very different place than we were in the first administration.

When we had, you know, Jeff Sessions, very aggressive on immigration enforcement, but certainly not lawless, recused himself because of his involvement in his public statements about Russia. I said this, quote, I have now decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any manner relating in any way to the campaigns for president of the United States. William Barr, a little, maybe an intermediate step when he stood up and asserted his authority to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. The Department of Justice is not persuaded that this was material to any legitimate counterintelligence

investigation. So it was not a crime. And directed the filing of a new sentencing memo seeking a lower sentence for Roger Stone. Those struck me as inappropriate but not unlawful. And now we've got a completely different tenor at the Department of Justice with what we are seeing. You know the through line in Pam Bondi's memos to the lawyers in the Department of Justice and Donald Trump's executive orders all have this line about implementing the president's agenda faithfully. And it's an interesting choice of words because of course what the president's duty is under

the Constitution is to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. And so that's a little different. It seems to me that he is trying to change the mission of the department from the rule of law to the rule of Trump. How do we get out of this? Do you think that Congress is going to do anything here? I don't know. Certainly many presidents enjoy sort of a honeymoon period where members of Congress

allow him to begin his term with the ability to bring his own people on board. But I am hopeful that at some point constituents are going to let their members of Congress know that this is not acceptable. We're already starting to see town halls across the country where citizens are telling their members of Congress they're not satisfied with what's happening and wanting them to stand up. Why is a supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?

When will you stand up to them and say that is enough? And I think across the board, he's done some very good things. I think he's gotten rid of birthright citizenship. So I think ultimately, members of Congress care most about maintaining their seats in Congress. And, you know, shamefully, I think they are afraid of a primary contender. Elon Musk has threatened to support primary challengers to people who don't go along with Donald Trump's agenda. And I think that concerns them.

But if their voters indicate that they are unhappy with what they are seeing, I think that members of Congress have a duty to listen to them. And I think some, maybe many of them will. The issue, of course, in New York is the quid pro quo. Donald Trump wants something from Eric Adams and Eric Adams wanted something from Donald Trump. But the vast majority of mayors in the United States and governors in the United States and other people in the United States who Donald Trump might want something from are

not under indictment, right? So is this situation in New York City just a one-off or do you think it's part of a playbook? Well, I don't know, but recall that Donald Trump has famously said, he said it in his book, The Art of the Deal, that when people cross me, I hit them back, I counterpunch times 10 because it's important to send the message to everybody else that you don't mess with me. And so I imagine that when we see people who are refusing to cooperate with President Trump's

immigration agenda or other policy agendas, we could see other directives. If he's willing to dismiss a case in exchange for cooperation, might he also be willing to bring a case against someone who is not? Now we haven't crossed that road yet, but if you look at what's happening out of the District of Columbia with the US Attorney there sending out letters to Chuck Schumer and Congressman Robert Garcia in New York who have said things in opposition to President Trump and conservative justices on the Supreme Court. That seems to be an effort to perhaps chill free speech or intimidate them by introducing the concept of criminal charges against people who speak out

politically. That's a really dangerous place to be in. Barbara McQuade, Umich Law School, former US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Amanda Llewellyn and Devin Schwartz produced today's show, Jolie Meyers edited, Laura Bullard checked the facts, and Patrick Boyd is our engineer. I'm Noelle King. This has been Today Explained.