Former New York City Mayor; federal corruption charges dismissed by Trump DOJ in exchange for immigration enforcement cooperation
Background
Eric Leroy Adams is a Democratic politician who served as Mayor of New York City from January 2022 through December 2025. He was indicted by federal prosecutors in September 2024 on charges of bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign contributions, becoming the first sitting New York City mayor to face federal criminal charges. In February 2025, the Trump administration’s DOJ moved to dismiss the charges, with prosecutors later acknowledging the dismissal was linked to Adams’s agreement to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement priorities in New York City, an arrangement that federal career prosecutors said constituted an improper quid pro quo.
