The calls for Mayor Eric Adams to either resign or be removed have increased over the last week for one main reason: The mayor has agreed to help President Donald Trump carry out his draconian immigration enforcement agenda at the exact same time that Trump's Department of Justice is calling for federal charges against Adams to be dismissed.
The overwhelming stench of this kind of unprecedented quid pro quo is so blatantly obvious that several (now former) federal prosecutors alleged it had happened and then angrily resigned rather than carry out the dismissal, and four of Adams's deputy mayors, all of whom saw their boss laugh on "Fox & Friends" with Trump's deportation czar last Friday, decided it was time to leave. It's so conspicuous that the number two at Trump's DOJ, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove III, felt compelled to deny the existence of any such deal in writing, as he cast about looking for federal attorneys who would be willing to drop the federal corruption charges against the mayor. The dismissal was, in Bove's words, about ensuring that the mayor could devote his "full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration."
But on Wednesday, during a federal court hearing to discuss the government's motion to dismiss, Bove said that even if Adams and Trump had entered into some kind of corrupt bargain, it wouldn't matter.
"I don't concede, and I don't think it's correct, that even if there was a quid pro quo, there would be any issue with this motion," Bove told Judge Dale Ho as he launched into an attack on the prosecutors who resigned, as well as anyone else who doubts that President Trump has the authority to pursue his agenda through the DOJ.
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