DOJ dismisses charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams

 

New York Mayor Eric Adams. Fox News.

The Department of Justice has dismissed charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Fox News. Adams was charged with several crimes based on foreign influence, including bribery, campaign donations from foreign government officials, wire fraud and conspiracy. The case was not dismissed due to the evidence in the case and was dismissed without prejudice. The reason the case was dismissed was for the appearance of prejudice by the Biden Administration due to they Mayor's criticism of illegal immigration. Adams was charged with the crimes shortly after the statements criticizing Biden's immigration policies. There was also concern that the charges would influence the 2025 New York mayoral race which Adams is running in and the Trump administration's effort to enforce immigration. 

My Comment:

I'm of two minds of this. I am convinced that Eric Adams is probably guilty of the crimes he is charged with. There is a real chance that he did accept bribes from the government of Turkey. He probably should face a trial based on the evidence. 

But I also feel like this is a pretty obvious "Bill Cosby" situation. Cosby was guilty as sin of sexual assault but the prosecutors in his case dropped an agreement they had with Cosby and a judge ruled that was a violation of his rights. In that case it was the right thing to let him go, despite his obvious guilt, because the prosecutors behavior was egregious. 

It seems like the same thing happened here. Selective prosecution is not something that should be tolerated. The timing of the case certainly made it seem like Joe Biden and his administration was only charging Adams because he spoke out about illegal immigration. I have very little doubt that these charges would not have been filed if Adams hadn't made the comments about illegal immigration that he did. 

They also have a point that this prosecution also appears to be an attempt to derail Adams and his election effort in 2025. Though Adams is himself a Democrat, the party is still angry with him for perceived support of Donald Trump. Adams is also a fairly centrist Democrat by the standards of the party and isn't really "woke" either. Convicting him of bribery charges would be a way to ensure that he wasn't going to win the 2025 election. 

I do think that the Trump administration did the right thing here but I do have to say that I do think that it's unfortunate that the case got destroyed by the Biden Administration. If Adams really is guilty, it's not great that he won't face any punishment for them. But as I said during the Bill Cosby case, it's better to let a guilty man go free in this kind of situation than to violate their rights.