The Department of Justice & Mayor Adams are on the same quid pro quo side. No one is representing “The People.”
PISSED OFF Judge CONFRONTS Trump MAYOR SCHEME
MICHAEL POPOK
Feb 18, 2025 Legal AF Podcast
"Will a NY Federal Judge use his “inherent authority” to refuse to dismiss the indictment of Mayor Eric Adams as demanded by Trump and his DOJ, and instead appoint a Special Prosecutor of his own to investigate the corruption scandal that’s engulfed the Trump Administration? Michael Popok takes a deep look at the unique circumstances present to allow Judge Ho to save the criminal justice system from an ethically challenged and corrupt Trump DOJ.
“Judge Dale E. Ho, who on Wednesday will hold a hearing in the foundering corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, is facing a storm of demands that he look deeply into the federal government’s reasons for seeking to drop the prosecution.
On Monday night, three former U.S. attorneys from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut filed a brief asking the judge to conduct an extensive inquiry into whether the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the Adams case was in the public interest or merely a pretext for securing the mayor’s cooperation with the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies.
Earlier in the day, Common Cause, the good-government advocacy group, asked the judge to deny the Justice Department’s motion, which it called part of a “corrupt quid pro quo bargain.” The organization asked the judge to consider appointing an independent special prosecutor to continue the case.
And the New York City Bar Association, with more than 20,000 lawyers as members, said in a statement that the order by a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, “cuts to the heart of the rule of law” and asked for a “searching inquiry” into the facts.
On Tuesday morning, Judge Ho set a hearing for 2 p.m. Wednesday in Manhattan federal court to discuss the reasons for the government’s motion and the procedure for resolving it.
The judge, in a two-page order, offered no hint about his position and made it clear that under a federal rule, the executive branch was “the first and presumptively the best judge” of whether to drop a prosecution.
But he also emphasized the court’s independent responsibility. The government’s discretion, he wrote, “should not be judicially disturbed unless clearly contrary to manifest public interest.”
The legal and political crisis encompasses both the Justice Department and New York’s City Hall, calling into question Mr. Adams’s future as well as the independence and probity of federal prosecutions…
The law gives judges scant ability to refuse a prosecutor’s request to drop criminal charges. But Mr. Adams’s case may be an exception…
“What is at stake here is far more than an internal prosecutorial dispute about an individual case,” the former U.S. attorneys wrote. “The public furor that has arisen during the past week raises concerns about respect for the rule of law and the division of power between the executive and judicial branches of government in our nation…”
Nick Akerman, the lawyer for Common Cause, also asked that his organization be heard as a friend of the court, noting that because the government had agreed with Mr. Adams to dismiss the indictment, no one was representing the public before the judge.
He asked that Judge Ho consider the appointment of an independent prosecutor, as State Senator Zellnor Myrie, a Democrat who is running for mayor, did last week. It is a remedy that is unusual but plausible, said Stephen Gillers, a legal ethics expert at New York University School of Law.
Professor Gillers said that if Judge Ho ordered the government to proceed with the case and it refused, the judge might then explore the possibility of appointing a special prosecutor.
“He’d be vindicating the interest of the grand jury and the court itself in not letting the case die,” Professor Gillers said…
Late Monday night, Justice Connection, an organization that supports Justice Department employees facing “unprecedented attacks on their employment, their integrity, their well-being and their safety,” made public an open letter praising prosecutors in New York and Washington who resigned or whose jobs were threatened.
It was signed by more than 850 former federal prosecutors and was addressed to their counterparts still in the department. Among the signers was Jack Smith, the special counsel who carried out two federal criminal investigations of Mr. Trump.
“You have responded to ethical challenges of a type no public servant should ever be forced to confront with principle and conviction,” Justice Connection’s letter said, adding that current prosecutors would face more challenges ahead.
“Generations of former federal prosecutors are watching with pride and admiration and stand ready to support you in this honorable pursuit,” the letter said."
FROM:
The New York Times
Judge Sets Wednesday Court Hearing to Weigh Dropping Eric Adams Case
Judge Dale E. Ho will hear the government’s rationale for its request to stop the corruption case against New York’s mayor. Former U.S. attorneys are asking him to investigate.
Published Feb. 17, 2025
Updated Feb. 18, 2025, 12:01 p.m. ET
KAKISTOCRACY/KLEPTOCRACY governments say the quiet parts OUT-LOUD:
February 14, 2025