Dem
47
GOP
53
Eric Adams is a low-grade crook. He gave away favors for upgrades on Turkish Airlines flights. He really should have talked to his neighbor in New Jersey, Bob Menendez, about this stuff. If you are going to risk going to prison for many years, you don't do it for an upgrade that might cost $3,000 if you just bought it. You ask for gold bars, new Mercedes-Benz cars, and other goodies. Stupid Eric.
Anyway, point is, he is kinda stupid and got caught and was indicted. Donald Trump noticed a fellow felon and decided to help out. He offered to suspend Adams' trial for the time being in return for Adams' help in rounding up immigrants in New York City and turning them over to ICE. Adams, realizing that he had been caught dead to rights, jumped at the chance and agreed to the deal.
However, the DoJ cannot drop charges or even suspend the trial on its own. It had to ask the judge in the case, Dale Ho. The DoJ asked Ho to drop the charges without prejudice, meaning they could bring them up again later, rather than dropping charges altogether. Ho smelled a rat, recognizing that the point was to maintain leverage over Adams.
Ho then hired Paul Clement, a highly respected conservative lawyer who was solicitor general under George W. Bush. He argued over two dozen cases before the Supreme Court. Ho wanted Clement's opinion about what to do. After studying the case for a while, Clement recommended dropping the case with prejudice, meaning that it was then definitively over and the DoJ could not restart it again on account of the constitutional ban on double jeopardy.
Yesterday, Ho threw the case out permanently, even though he surely knew Adams was guilty as hell (but his upgrades!). The Judge didn't want a situation where an elected mayor would be beholden to the president, rather than to his own constituents. Clearly something is rotten in the state of Denmark (and it does not involve Greenland), because now Adams gets off scot free and can run for reelection. Of course, his constituents know all of this, so he has almost no chance of being reelected, especially not since Andrew Cuomo is running to reboot himself. But at least Adams can retire in peace and not have to worry about moving to Rikers Island, even with its great view of the magnificent new terminal at LaGuardia.
Late yesterday, Adams withdrew from the Democratic primary and said he will run as an independent. That might be smarter than trying for the Democratic nomination, but it will still be a tough slog, especially if Cuomo wins the Democratic primary. (V)