NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams pulled out of a candidates forum Wednesday featuring many of his opponents in the Democratic primary, saying his lawyer had advised him to stay away from such events until a judge decides whether to dismiss the public corruption indictment still pending against him.
“Let's allow the court to do this process,” Adams told reporters as he left another event in the city, adding that there was plenty of time left in the mayoral campaign for other debates and public forums.
The mayor also offered a second justification for his absence from the planned forum, held by District Council 37, the largest municipal union in the city.
The event, he said, would not include at least one candidate who was “running in the shadows.” The comment appeared to be a thinly veiled reference to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is already racking up endorsements despite having not yet said publicly whether he plans to enter the race.
“We need to get everybody running,” Adams said. “No candidate should be able to stay on the sidelines and send out innuendos.”
An attorney for Adams and a campaign representative did not return a request for comment about him skipping the mayoral forum.
Earlier Wednesday, Adams again asked the judge to toss the criminal case, alleging prosecutorial misconduct.
Adams was charged in September with accepting over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and others seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president.
Two weeks ago, the new senior leaders of the U.S. Justice Department reversed course, ordering prosecutors in New York to drop the case on the grounds that it was distracting Adams from helping the Trump administration's immigration crackdown and hindering his reelection campaign.
A slew of prosecutors in New York and Washington, D.C., resigned rather than carry out the order.
In court papers filed Wednesday, Adams' lawyers accused the government of improperly leaking a letter then-U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi explaining why charges should not be dropped, and revealing that prosecutors had planned to charge the mayor with obstructing justice.
They said Sassoon's “unhinged resignation letter” was “part of an extraordinary flurry of leaked internal Justice Department correspondence” that occurred after Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered an end to the prosecution. The lawyers said public exposure of the internal Justice Department fight had interfered with Adams' ability to receive a fair trial.
Adams has pleaded not guilty and insisted he is innocent.
A request for comment was made to the Justice Department in Washington. Bove and two Justice Department lawyers are currently trying to get a Manhattan judge to dismiss the charges.
The judge, who has canceled an April trial, has appointed outside counsel to advise him as he decides what to do over the next few weeks.
Bove's request to dismiss charges had included the possibility that charges could be reinstated after the mayoral election, but lawyers for Adams said that possibility should be eliminated.
“Mayor Adams was prosecuted in the media long before there was ever an indictment. The Court should take a moment to consider this inescapable reality. This case, which was once just a farce, has now become a cancer, and its pendency continues to cause real and irrevocable harm each and every day,” they said.
Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
