Judge Orders Trump’s DOJ to Explain Themselves on Eric Adams Reversal

A federal judge has ordered indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Trump Justice Department officials to appear in court on Wednesday to explain why exactly the DOJ is conveniently dropping its case against Adams.

Last week the Justice Department decided to drop its case against Adams, openly admitting that the Justice Department “reached this conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based,” but that Adams deserved more time to “devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration.”

This blatant quid pro quo situation raised alarms everywhere, and even led longtime Justice Department officials to resign. Now, Judge Dale Ho wants answers.

“Defendant is therefore ORDERED to appear before the court for a conference on February 19th, 2025 at 2:00 PM,” Ho wrote in an order Tuesday. “The parties shall be prepared to address, inter alia, the reasons for the Government’s motion, the scope and effect of the Mayor’s “consent in writing…”

It will be interesting to see how the DOJ explains that its tossing of Adams’s case isn’t actually completely corrupt and politically motivated move.

A senior prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., resigned on Tuesday, citing an improper demand by Trump administration officials to freeze assets and launch a criminal investigation.  

Denise Cheung said that she was ordered to investigate a government contract awarded under the Biden administration, and to begin the process to freeze the recipient’s assets. Neither request was supported by the evidence that was provided to the Deputy Attorney General’s Office, Cheung wrote in a letter to the interim head of the office, Ed Martin. Reuters reviewed a copy of the letter. 

Cheung was in charge of the criminal division within the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and her resignation comes one day after Trump nominated Martin as the permanent head of the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office. Martin was an organizer for the “Stop the Steal” movement and the defense attorney for three of the January 6 rioters. He announced last month he would investigate the office’s handling of the Capitol riots. 

Earlier this week, Martin, in his capacity as interim head of the office, said he would investigate former special counsel Jack Smith and a law firm that supposedly gave Smith free legal services. Meanwhile, Martin has also threatened to go after anyone who tries to hinder Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency efforts. The office he heads is responsible for many legal cases involving the federal government, and Cheung’s resignation doesn’t bode well for Martin’s future plans once the Senate likely confirms him to lead the office.

MAGA delegates around the country are offering local homages to Donald Trump, handing over the naming rights of everything from airports to mountains in an effort to curry more favor with him.

On Friday, West Virginia lawmakers introduced a resolution to rename the state’s highest point—Spruce Knob—after the 47th president, citing the “overwhelming support” Trump had in the state in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 elections.

Resolution 33 requests that the 4,863-foot peak be renamed to “Trump Mountain.”

“As a lasting tribute to his legacy and enduring influence, it is fitting that Spruce Knob be officially renamed ‘Trump Mountain’ in honor of President Trump’s service to our state, his impact on the nation, and the loyalty of the people of West Virginia,” the resolution reads.

In January, North Carolina Representative Addison McDowell introduced legislation to officially rename Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia as Donald J. Trump International Airport. McDowell’s effort was joined by Representatives Guy Reschenthaler, Brandon Gill, Riley Morre, and Brian Jack.

“It is only right that the two airports servicing our nation’s capital are duly honored and respected by two of the best presidents to have the honor of serving our great nation,” McDowell said, referring to Washington’s other eponymously named Ronald Reagan Airport.

Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly, who represents Dulles as a part of Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, bit back, telling Washingtonian that Trump’s name would be better used on a “federal prison nearest to Mar-a-Lago.”

“I still can think of no more fitting an honor for our first convicted felon President,” he said.

But some MAGA acolytes have taken the obsession a step further than simply extending Trump’s name to their local landmarks. In late January, Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna introduced a bill to add the 78-year-old’s face to Mount Rushmore—a move that would have the visage of the former reality TV star join the likes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

“Let’s get carving!” Luna posted on X after revealing the legislation.

Republicans have also sparked the sycophantic idea to mark Trump’s birthday as a national holiday. On Friday, New York Representative Claudia Tenney introduced “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act” via a press release, seeking to permanently codify June 14—which is already Flag Day—as a holiday.

During Trump’s last term, conservatives pitched the idea of placing Trump’s face on $500 bills.

The New York Times criticized the sudden, potentially futile surge in support earlier this month, calling it a “competition of sorts” to determine who in Trump’s Republican base will be the “most pro-Trump member.”

“It shows the power that Donald Trump has within the Republican Party these days, and that Republican members want to stay on his good side,” Sean Theriault, government professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told the Times. “A lot of these people are in really safe districts, but they’re also thinking about what their next step is. And so if they have designs on being in the Senate or running for governor or even a position in the administration, then there’s no better way to get on his good side than to do these over-the-top moves toward him.”

A top official at the Social Security Administration decided she would rather quit than hand over the personal information of millions of people to Elon Musk and DOGE, according to The New York Times.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Michelle King resigned Sunday after Musk’s crew was looking to access a repository full of personal information, like financial information and employment history, on millions of Americans.

“S.S.A. has comprehensive medical records of people who have applied for disability benefits,” Social Security Works President Nancy Altman told the Times. “It has our bank information, our earnings records, the names and ages of our children, and much more.”

“If there is an evil intent to punish perceived enemies, someone could erase your earnings record, making it impossible to collect the Social Security and Medicare benefits you have earned,” she warned to the Associated Press.

It is unknown whether or not Musk and DOGE ended up accessing the information anyway.

King, one of many federal officials who’ve decided to call it quits as DOGE and Musk bulldoze their agencies, was replaced by pro-Musk official Leland Dudek, a career official who has been overseeing the agency’s anti-fraud office. Technology executive Frank Bisignano is Trump’s nominee to head the entire agency. He is not yet confirmed.

Border czar Tom Homan struggled to explain why New York City Mayor Eric Adams suddenly decided to comply with Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his sanctuary city, if not to have the public corruption charges against him dismissed.

During an interview on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, Homan was asked about Adams’s decision to allow ICE agents into Rikers Island, just days after the Department of Justice instructed prosecutors to drop the public corruption case against the mayor. ICE had been prohibited from entering New York City’s notorious jail complex in the East River since 2015.

In her startling resignation letter, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon stated that Adams’s lawyers had sought a quid pro quo for their client to comply with Trump’s immigration enforcement demands.

“It sounds like the DOJ dropped the case against Adams, and in exchange he let you into Rikers. Is that what happened?” asked CNN host Dana Bash.

“No, I think that’s ridiculous,” Homan replied. He explained that it couldn’t possibly have been quid pro quo, because he’d first met with Adams months ago, before the case was dropped. He then explained that after that meeting, no progress had been made on getting ICE access to the prison complex, so they needed to meet again last week.

“We had that a couple months ago, long before this other discussion. So, I don’t think that had anything to do with that,” Homan insisted. “As a matter of fact, the meeting was very well. It’s the same meeting we had a few weeks ago, and the reason we had the follow-up meeting was because there was no action being done. So, we follow up on how we can get some of this stuff in place, and that’s what the meeting Thursday was about.”

Bash said that Homan had said he was “really unsatisfied” after his initial meeting. “What changed between then and now other than the Department of the Justice dropping the case against Adams?” she asked.

“I didn’t come out of that meeting unsatisfied, I was, I was a little, you know, after several weeks I was a little taken back that we hadn’t gotten any action on that yet, on getting into Rikers Island,” Homan said.

Bash was unconvinced. “Just looking at the series of events, sir, the fact that you didn’t get what you wanted, you came away not sure why he wasn’t doing what you wanted him to do, particularly with opening Rikers. The Department of Justice gets rid of the charges against him, and poof, he agrees,” Bash pressed.

Homan did little to assuage her concerns, insisting that the two had found a way to really connect “cop-to-cop, not border-czar-to-mayor.”

The two men didn’t seem quite as friendly during a disturbing appearance on Fox & Friends last week when Homan jokingly threatened to crack down on the mayor if he failed to perform.

Crucially, something did change between the first and second meeting. A five-page letter from Adams’s lawyer Adam Spiro to U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove dated February 3, which made clear that Adams sought a specific quid pro quo agreement: relief in return for immigration compliance.

“As Mayor Adams continues to help with DHS’ ramping enforcement operations, the risk that his political opponents—and in particular, the City Council—will try to remove him from power will only increase,” the letter warned, adding that Adams’ “political muscle is weakened by an indictment.”

“There is a reason that the Justice Department does not prosecute sitting presidents, and while a mayor is not a president, Mayor Adams is nonetheless the leader of this country’s largest city and needs to be an important partner to the President and his administration. An honest balancing of these concerns against the unsupported prosecution theories in this case militates strongly in favor of dismissal,” Spiro wrote.