Transcript of DOJ orders charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams dismissed

Just moments ago, the DOJ ordering the acting US attorney of the Southern district of New York to dismiss all charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. For more on this developing story, NBC News Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Delane joins us tonight. Ken, we've been covering this story a lot here on Top Story. What more do we know about what happened today? I know this story just broke moments ago.

Yeah, it really just did break, Tom. A Justice Department official confirming to me that the acting Deputy Attorney General, Emil Boboved, who, as you recall, was once Donald Trump's defense lawyer, has ordered the Southern district of New York, the acting US attorney there, to dismiss all charges against the New York mayor, Eric Adams. I got a sense from this official of what the Justice Department's reasoning was behind this decision, and it's multifold. They are saying that they believe this case was an example of weaponization, meaning that it was unfairly brought for political motive. They've accused the former US attorney, Damian Williams of using this case for his own political gain. They also say that because of this indictment, the New York mayor had lost his security clearance, and that made it more difficult for him to cooperate with law enforcement operations in the city including immigration enforcement, which is a high priority for the Trump administration. They say that they felt they assessed that the Adams defense was not given enough time before the imminent trial to deal with all the massive amounts of evidence in the case. They're ordering this dismissal. Now, the case has not yet been dismissed.

That would have to be done through a motion filed by the prosecutors in the Southern district of New York. A judge would have a chance to review that. One of the interesting questions is going to be, will those prosecutors carry out this order? Will any of them resign rather than do that? No doubt that they believe strongly in this case. There's a lot of evidence this is a massive bribery and corruption case not brought lately against a very prominent public figure. But this is also an example of how the Trump Justice Department is unafraid to weigh into these politically fraught cases and take these kinds of actions, Tom.

Yeah, and then can remind our viewers what mayor Adams was facing the charges he was facing, and then give us the TikTok, because around this time, we'll remember the mayor got sideways with President Biden over the migrant crisis in the city. Then, Mayor Adams started to curry favor with President President Trump, who was a candidate then, refusing to criticize him and saying he wanted to work with the Trump administration.

Yeah, that's right. Before these charges became public, although no doubt the investigation was brewing, Mayor Adams began to distance himself from the Biden administration over the migration crisis. He said that migrants were ruining New York. He really came out publicly and strongly, voicing the sentiments of a lot of people across the country. But for a prominent Democrat to do that, it really drew the ire of the Biden administration. Then you He had this corruption case where he was accused of taking favors from the government of Turkey and people associated with Turkey in the form of luxury air travel and other benefits in exchange, allegedly, for doing favors for Turkey, including forcing the approval of a building, a Turkish-owned building in New York City that the fire department had said was not safe. And so prosecutors said this was a years-long influence peddling and bribery scheme. They also charged him with acting as an unregistered foreign agent. So it was massive corruption case. It was a speaking indictment. There was a lot of evidence in it. But then as soon as Donald Trump was elected, Eric Adams began trying to curry favor with the Trump administration.

He very publicly said that he believed that the charges were the result of his getting crosswise with the Biden administration. He said things like he was told to be a good Democrat. There's really no evidence that the charges were in any way related to that, but that was his claim. You and I were talking not so long ago about the news that Maine Justice was talking to SDNY about whether they should dismiss the case, and today, they are ordering that be done.

Ken Dilanian on that breaking news for us. Ken, thank you for breaking it down. There was a lot there. We appreciate you.

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