Attorney General Pam Bondi derided the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams of New York as “incredibly weak” on Thursday, as the Trump administration waits to hear if a judge will grant its request to dismiss the case.
The remarks came in an interview with Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington.
Eight federal prosecutors have already resigned from the Justice Department in protest over its efforts to dismiss the bribery and corruption charges against the mayor. One of those who stepped down was Danielle Sassoon, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, who said in a letter to Ms. Bondi that the case was well-founded in facts and law.
The administration’s rationale for dropping the case has shifted over time. At first, the Justice Department’s acting No. 2 official, Emil Bove III, who has led the bid for dismissal, said the reasons had nothing to do with the legal merits of the case. Instead, he said, it was based on the administration’s desire to have Mr. Adams’s support and assistance in efforts to ramp up deportations of undocumented immigrants.
As the conflict within the Justice Department over the Adams case escalated, senior leaders at the department have argued the case about campaign donations and travel perks was not strong.
Ms. Bondi amplified that argument Thursday.
“It was an incredibly weak case filed to make deportation harder; that’s why they did it,” she said. “They took one of the biggest mayors in the country off the playing field in order to protect their sanctuary city.”
The attorney general and other members of the Trump administration have argued they are trying to depoliticize Justice Department decision-making after what they describe as an anti-conservative bias by the Biden administration in its prosecutorial decisions.
Many current and former Justice Department officials reject those claims as spurious, and argue that the new administration is trying to use law enforcement powers to reward political allies and punish or intimidate their critics.
In her remarks, Ms. Bondi suggested federal prosecutors in New York should forget about the Adams case and focus instead on fighting violent crime. “Ride a subway in New York. It’s not safe,” she declared.
Her remarks came a day after a federal judge held a hearing to consider Mr. Bove’s request to dismiss the indictment against Mr. Adams. The judge has yet to issue a decision.
Afterward, Mr. Bove issued a statement suggesting prosecutors who disagreed with his approach should resign.
At the conference on Thursday, Ms. Bondi argued that the charges against the mayor were so weak she doubted they could win a guilty verdict. “That,” she said, “is the weaponization of government.”
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