Could President-elect Donald Trump pardon New York City Mayor Eric Adams, or could the Department of Justice potentially drop the criminal case against Adams? Bennett Capers, associate dean for research, explained to Spectrum News NY1 that “it’s almost a Hail Mary pass.”
“It’s pretty standard for a new president to install his own U.S. attorneys,” said Bennett Capers of Fordham Law School.
Capers also served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the same district in the 1990s and 2000s.
“So, just as Trump is going to pick an attorney general, he is likely to ask for resignations of U.S. attorneys around the country,” Capers said.
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For months, Mayor Eric Adams has been reluctant to criticize Trump, perhaps with the hope something might change with his case.
Trump, after all, could pardon the mayor or the Department of Justice could potentially drop the case — which would be highly unusual and exceedingly rare.
“I suspect that he’s hoping that this will somehow be done to his benefit,” Capers said. “That Trump will find a way to intervene either by appointing a new prosecutor who will go lightly on his case or dismiss it, or trump could outright pardon his case himself. It seems to be that it’s almost a Hail Mary pass.”
Read “What is the future of the Adams indictment under Trump?” on Spectrum News NY1.