William Brangham:
Geoff, it was this incredibly striking scene for a federal courthouse. On one side of the room, you had the prosecutors, in this case, the U.S. Department of Justice. And on the other side, at the defendant’s table, was the mayor of New York City.
And in this case, they both wanted the exact same thing, which is for this very serious corruption case against the mayor to simply go away. And the judge, in this case, Judge Dale Ho, wanted to know why. And so he peppered a series of questions to the deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, about why he drops the case.
And Bove made the argument that he’s made in the past, that this was not about the merits of the case. Instead, he argued that this case was brought for political reasons, because Adams once criticized President Biden, and that this case impinged on Adams’ ability to do his job, specifically to enforce immigration laws.
And it was that that argument that set off this revolt that you mentioned and all these resignations. In fact, one of those resigned prosecutors alleged that there was a quid pro quo here, that Adams had been told, we will drop this case if you get on board with Trump’s immigration crackdown.
So that’s what happened today.
