More than a year after the Trump administration abandoned a federal corruption indictment against Eric Adams, then the mayor of New York City, a government watchdog is asking Manhattan\u2019s top prosecutor to pursue the case in state court.<\/p>\n
Mr. Adams was charged<\/a> by federal prosecutors in 2024 with bribery, soliciting illegal campaign donations and defrauding the city\u2019s campaign finance program. It was the first federal indictment of a sitting New York City mayor in modern history.<\/p>\n But when President Trump returned to the White House, his Justice Department took the highly unusual step of moving to dismiss the case<\/a> as Mr. Adams prepared for what would ultimately be a failed re-election bid. The department said at the time that the indictment was hindering Mr. Trump\u2019s deportation campaign, part of a rationale that Judge Dale E. Ho criticized as \u201cunprecedented and breathtaking in its sweep.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the prominent watchdog group, Citizens Union, is seeking accountability for Mr. Adams.<\/p>\n \u201cThe allegations set forth in the indictment were grave,\u201d Grace Rauh, its executive director, wrote in a recent letter to the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, that was shared with The New York Times. \u201cThese alleged offenses are not merely federal in character.”<\/p>\n Mr. Bragg is a former federal prosecutor in the office that charged Mr. Adams and has brought corruption cases in both federal and state court. His spokeswoman, Danielle Filson, said in a statement that his office appreciated the outreach by Citizens Union and that his prosecutors had \u201cconsidered all available and feasible avenues suggested in this letter at the time of the federal dismissal.\u201d<\/p>\n But former state and federal corruption prosecutors say that resurrecting the Adams case \u2014 built over several years by federal prosecutors, F.B.I. agents and city investigators \u2014 and prevailing at a trial in state court would pose an enormous challenge.<\/p>\n They cited several obstacles. The most daunting may be the posture of the U.S. attorney\u2019s office for the Southern District of New York. Though that office obtained the indictment against Mr. Adams, it is unlikely that its current leader, Jay Clayton, would cooperate with Mr. Bragg if he chose to go forward.<\/p>\n Ms. Filson would not address whether Mr. Bragg had sought assistance from federal prosecutors after the indictment was dismissed last year, but people familiar with the case said federal authorities had made it clear then that they would not cooperate.<\/p>\n A spokesman for the Southern District declined to comment.<\/p>\n Without the evidence that federal prosecutors developed during their investigation of Mr. Adams, rebuilding the case would require enormous resources. Several of the former corruption prosecutors argued it would be likely to fail.<\/p>\n Anthony Capozzolo, a defense lawyer who previously worked as both a state and federal prosecutor and handled high-profile corruption cases, said a state case without the cooperation of the U.S. attorney\u2019s office would be \u201cclose to unprosecutable.\u201d<\/p>\n State prosecutors would also confront limitations in state law, including a key state corruption statute<\/a> that caps the top charge at the misdemeanor level. State law also bars the use of accomplice testimony to corroborate evidence.<\/p>\n But Ms. Rauh argued in her letter that Mr. Bragg\u2019s investigation need not be identical to the federal one, and she urged his office to also look into \u201cother potential misconduct or violations of law, including conduct that may have occurred following the termination of the federal investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Early in his tenure, Mr. Bragg seemed eager to tackle public corruption cases. He tangled frequently with Mr. Trump and his allies, prosecuting Stephen K. Bannon<\/a> following a federal pardon, and Allen H. Weisselberg<\/a>, the president\u2019s longtime financial gatekeeper. He won the sole conviction of Mr. Trump, on 34 felonies; the case is on appeal.<\/p>\n He also took aim at city officials like Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Mr. Adams\u2019s former top aide. Her case is ongoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n During Mr. Trump\u2019s second term, the Justice Department has disbanded or downsized units focused on public corruption<\/a> investigations and moved to dismiss large corruption indictments<\/a>. Exceptions have been made, as federal prosecutors have charged some current and former<\/a> public officials in service of the president\u2019s retribution campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since January 2025, Mr. Bragg has not brought a major public corruption case. His office has turned to other priorities; some of its most prominent recent prosecutions have involved sex trafficking and wage theft, as well as the murder case against Luigi Mangione.<\/p>\n Mr. Bragg\u2019s spokeswoman pushed back on the suggestion that he has moved away from public corruption cases. She cited a $75,000 bribery indictment<\/a> against a former Department of Buildings supervisor this year and additional bribery charges<\/a> against Ms. Lewis-Martin in August.<\/p>\n The first indication of the Justice Department\u2019s new orientation was its abandonment of the Adams case.<\/p>\n In September 2024, federal prosecutors unsealed a five-count indictment against Mr. Adams, charging him with soliciting illegal foreign donations, routing them through illegal straw donors, using those donations to exploit the city\u2019s generous campaign matching funds system and accepting bribes from Turkish interests with business before the city. Those bribes were said to include more than $100,000 of free and heavily discounted international travel.<\/p>\n Mr. Adams insisted the alleged bribes were merely airline upgrades, and mounted an ultimately successful campaign to curry favor with President Trump. In the end, when Mr. Trump\u2019s Justice Department asked<\/a> Judge Ho to drop the case, <\/p>\n the judge was compelled by law to accept the dismissal and acquiesced, even as he argued that the whole episode smelled bad.<\/p>\n