FNC spins the Adams-Homan meeting as follows: ‘Game changer’: Homan and Adams collaborate on NYC immigration enforcement. The entire video is at the link.
The Atlantic describes this as The Public Humiliation of Eric Adams.
This awkward scene was the culmination of what host Steve Doocy delicately described as a “very busy week” for Adams. On Monday, the Justice Department dropped charges against the mayor, who was indicted in September for a series of alleged bribery and campaign-finance offenses so elaborate that you’d have to go all the way across the Hudson River to New Jersey to find anything remotely comparable. (Adams pleaded not guilty to all charges.) As my colleague Jonathan Chait wrote, this was one of a series of Trump-administration actions that suggest that bribery is now effectively legal.
While Adams calls a quid pro quo “silly.”
Even the Fox & Friends gang understands that the charges can be re-filed.
Indeed,
[Acting U.S. deputy attorney general Emil] Bove made the Trump-Adams deal nearly explicit in his memo instructing Sassoon to suspend the charges: “The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.”
Adams is getting charges dropped (and the blocking of other pending charges) and Trump is getting a puppet in the Mayor’s office who has the very real possibility of charges being filed again if he doesn’t cooperate.
Yet, Homan ended the interview with “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?’” When directly asked if Trump was involved with the DoJ action, he did not answer the question directly.
But, you know, no quid pro quo!
Let me be as clear as possible so that there is no misunderstanding. This, quite clearly, is an abuse of power by the Justice Department. They are dismissing a case so that Adams will comply with what the administration wants. Cooperation is not being generated by negotiation between levels of government, nor through shared ideological or philosophical. Cooperation is being achieved through the use of the criminal justice system to coerce desired behavior.
Interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, knows it. From her resignation letter, “I attended a meeting on January 31, 2025, with Mr. Bove, Adams’s counsel, and members of my office. Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the
indictment were dismissed. Mr. Bove admonished a member of my team who took notes during
that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten knows it. As per his resignation letter, “But any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.”
And, above all else, Bove knows it. Again, I quote, “The pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.” If the policy goals are sound, then deal with the next mayor. And if the only way the administration can get what it wants is via coercion, then they short-circuit the duly office of the Mayor of New York, a democratically elected position.*
This is a corrupt and authoritarian usage of power by the Trump administration to gain leverage over Eric Adams, plain and simple.**
Adams gets the charges dropped.
DoJ retains the right to re-file.
Trump gets a puppet by using the Department of Justice as a cudgel.
It’s all authoritarianism 101: use the power of the state to force people to do what you want. And, despite protestations to the contrary, this is the most blatant example of the weaponization of the DoJ that I can think of.*** It is all the more concerning because it is being done out in the light if day for all to see.
*To avoid a lengthy digression, I will briefly note that this approach, that the Mayor of NYC should essential bow to the president, is a violation of the core of federalism, if not the simple fact even in a unitary system (like the UK or France), the mayors of London and Paris are not direct agents of the PM/President. Indeed, one of the clearly democratic reforms in Colombia was the popular election of mayors in 1988, most especially that of Bogotá. Likewise, a major step in democratization in Mexico was the popular election of the Mayor of Mexico City. Prior to reforms the President was the mayor and had an appointee govern on his behalf.
I am old enough to remember when the GOP was the party of state’s rights and federalism. I am also educated enough to know how flexible that position can be.
**If someone can muster an evidence-based, non-whataboutism argument to the contrary, please feel free to provide it.
***I am not a fan of the term, but it is accurate. The irony is that Adams claims the previous charges were weaponization of Justice.
