CNN’s Elie Honig Tees Off on Trump DOJ’s ‘Bizarre,’ ‘Worrisome’ Attempt to Save Eric Adams: ‘Never Seen Anything Like It’
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig had nothing good to say about a memo written by Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directing the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York to dismiss the pending charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) on Tuesday morning, calling it “bizarre” and “worrisome.”
On Monday, Bove issued the order, by his own admission, “without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based.”
Instead, Bove cited Adams’s criticism of the Biden administration’s immigration policies and the fact that his prosecution might unduly restrict the mayor’s “ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.”
After being asked “how unusual” Bove’s order was on Tuesday, Honig minced no words:
This is a bizarre and extraordinary memo. I’ve really never seen anything like it in all my years of being at the Justice Department and since then. What the memo says essentially — this is the bosses at DOJ — ordering the Southern District of New York to dismiss their indictment of Eric Adams. And as you know, Kate, the memo itself said this has nothing to do with the merits of the case, with the quality of the evidence, with anything Eric Adams is alleged to have done.
Instead, they couch it first of all, in these sort of broad political terms. They say, “Well, the prior U.S. attorney had bad motives when he indicted Eric Adams.” They argue that it had something to do with trying to influence the election while providing zero support, zero evidence for that. And then the second excuse that DOJ gives is, “Also the mayor has to do his job as mayor, he has to focus on his job as mayor, he shouldn’t be sort of sidetracked with such trifling matters as a federal indictment.” But by that logic, no public official should ever be indicted for anything because they all have jobs to do, from a member of a city council all the way up to governors and the U.S. Senate. You can make the exact same argument. So this is a flagrantly political move. I think it’s poorly disguised, and I think it’s absolutely out of the ordinary. I think it’s a worrisome harbinger about what’s to come from DOJ. It’s outright political.
An indictment released by the DOJ last September alleged that Adams accepted campaign contributions and other gifts from Turkish individuals and entities in exchange for access and preferential treatment.
Watch above via CNN.
