Kathy Hochul Sure Sounds Ready to Fire Eric Adams Over Trump Deal

Push may finally come to shove for New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Adams’s political boss—New York Governor Kathy Hochul—signalled that the mayor’s time in Gracie Mansion may be coming to an end following the joint resignation of four top officials in Adams’s administration: First Deputy Mayor Maria Torres-Springer, and Deputy Mayors Meera Joshi, Anne Williams-Isom, and Chauncey Parker.

“If they feel unable to serve in City Hall at this time, that raises serious questions about the long-term future of this Mayoral administration,” Hochul wrote in a statement Monday.

“I recognize the immense responsibility I hold as governor and the constitutional powers granted to this office,” she continued. “In the 235 years of New York State history, these powers have never been utilized to remove a duly-elected mayor; overturning the will of the voters is a serious step that should not be taken lightly. That said, the alleged conduct at City Hall that has been reported over the past two weeks is troubling and cannot be ignored.”

“Tomorrow, I have asked key leaders to meet me at my Manhattan office for a conversation about the path forward, with the goal of ensuring stability for the City of New York,” Hochul wrote.

“Let me be clear: my most urgent concern is the well-being of my 8.3 million constituents who live in New York City. I will be monitoring this situation extraordinarily closely to ensure that New Yorkers are not being shortchanged by the current crisis in City government.”

In order to dismiss him, Hochul must first serve the mayor with a copy of charges that could warrant his removal, according to the city’s charter. Adams would then have “an opportunity to be heard in his defense.” But, as Hochul noted, the path forward on Adams’s dismissal would not just be incredibly opaque but totally unprecedented, as the governor’s power to unseat an elected mayor has never been flexed in the state’s history.

Adams pleaded not guilty to criminal charges last September, denying allegations that he had accepted more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions as well as lavish gifts from a Turkish official and business leaders interested in buying his favor during his tenure as Brooklyn borough president.

The mayor has come under heavy fire since acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove told federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop the corruption case against Adams after Hizzoner allowed ICE agents to enter Rikers Island for the first time since 2015. That sparked widespread criticism that the New York mayor was no longer an independent political entity and prompted the mass resignation of seven federal prosecutors, who quit in protest of the Justice Department order.

In a profound resignation letter, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon outlined that Adams’s legal team had sought a political “quid pro quo” with the Trump administration. In another blistering resignation letter, assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten claimed that the scheme to use prosecutorial power to forgive Adams and simultaneously advance Donald Trump’s agenda was in blatant violation of the nation’s laws.

“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion,” Scotten wrote. “But it was never going to be me.”

A federal judge set a hearing for Adams’s case on Wednesday, ordering attorneys working on the case to explain why the Justice Department had requested the charges be dropped.

Steve Bannon is not happy with Elon Musk, and revealed as much in an interview with the conservative website UnHerd Tuesday.  

The far-right commentator and former Donald Trump adviser told the outlet that “Musk is a parasitic illegal immigrant. He wants to impose his freak experiment and play-act as God without any respect for the country’s history, tradition or values.”

Bannon has feuded with Musk in the months following Trump election win, beginning with a disagreement  within the MAGA movement over H-1B visas. At the time, Musk posted about how more foreign tech workers were needed in the U.S. under the program, which allows immigrants in specialized fields to work in the United States temporarily. In response, Bannon called out the visa program as “a scam by the oligarchs in Silicon Valley to basically take jobs from American citizens.”

The dispute escalated into Bannon calling Musk a “truly evil guy” in an interview last month, vowing to get the tech mogul “kicked out” of Trump’s orbit by the inauguration. Bannon’s efforts were unsuccessful, as Musk has taken a powerful role in the Trump administration. 

“Musk is the one with power at the moment,” Bannon told UnHerd. “The Democrats are nowhere to be seen.” 

In Bannon’s opinion, the tech mogul’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative also hasn’t done enough to dismantle the administrative state. 

“DOGE is sitting there with the budget, but where the fuck are the DOGE cuts? We are 30 days away from approving a budget for the entire year with $2 trillion already baked in, and not one penny of anything that DOGE found. It’s ludicrous,” Bannon said, adding that he would like to see Musk’s efforts directed at cutting the massive Department of Defense budget. 

“I would like to see $100 billion taken off the $900 billion budget right now, which is really a trillion,” Bannon said, calling DOGE’s campaign “performative.”

Right now, Bannon is on the outside of the White House, looking in, so his opinions only carry limited weight at best with Trump. But he still commands influence within Trump’s support base, especially with his War Room radio show and podcast. It remains to be seen whether Bannon’s ideas for the GOP and Trump will be heard, or whether the party’s future lies with Musk.

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.”