The Mayor
Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City, was in deep trouble. The attorneys of the Federal Southern District of New York (SDNY) were after him for corruption. The case seemed rock-solid: Adams took money from foreign nations, including Turkey. He took “gifts”, including free plane tickets. He put his relatives in charge of contracting for the city, and they paid out to friends. It was typical, Tammany Hall (also in New York) style city corruption.
Adams refused to resign, declaiming his innocence. And, even as the facts piled up against him, he held out hope to his supporters. After all, we are in a new era of “innocence”. The Nation just elected a convicted felon as President. (Can’t say the word “felon” at the White House anymore; that’s another Executive Order).
It doesn’t matter that Adams is a Democrat. The “Democratic” Biden Justice Department brought the charges in the first place. And the SDNY was in full pursuit, ready to go to a grand jury with even more charges and issue a superseding indictment. But there’s a “new sheriff” in town, the Trump Justice Department. Adam’s negotiated with the highest level of the Department, all the way up to Emil Bove, Deputy Attorney General, second only to the Attorney General herself. Bove was Trump’s defense attorney for multiple cases, including the January 6th Federal charges, the multi-million dollar New York civil suit, and the national security documents case.
Sword of Damocles
Bove and the Trump Administration, are understandably sympathetic to politicians under fire. They could have granted Adams a pardon. That legally would for forgive him for any criminal acts he might have committed. And certainly Trump knows his way around the “pardon power” with 1500 pardons issued on his first day in office. But they didn’t.
Instead, Bove reached an agreement with Adams. He ordered the SDNY to drop the charges against Adams, with the legal proviso, “without prejudice”. That simply means that while the charges are dropped now, they could be reinstated at any time. Adams will have a legal sword of Damocles hanging over his head. In return, the Mayor agreed to allow ICE to use New York jails to store the undocumented migrants, and ignore the City ordinances making New York a “sanctuary city”. (New York City limits its cooperation with ICE, as does Chicago, Los Angeles, Columbus, Ohio, and many other US urban areas). He used his political office to make one more private deal, this time, with the government of the United States: a quid-pro-quo arrangement.
So now, attorneys for the SDNY will have to go before a Federal District Judge and essentially tell him, “never mind”. It doesn’t matter that the facts overwhelmingly show Adams to be a corrupt politician profiting from his office, with even more charges in the pipeline. Emil Bove has made a “political” deal with the Mayor. The facts of crime don’t matter.
Unbiased Justice
Multiple Assistant US Attorneys resigned; unwilling to follow the Deputy’s orders. Bove himself will have to appear before the Judge, explaining the Government’s new position. But ultimately, the charges will be dropped, and Adam’s will be a “made man” in MAGA world. He not only owes the Trump Administration, but, as the Immigration Czar Tom Homan clearly pointed out, the charges can always be reinstated. Homan said if Adams fails to deliver, he’ll be “right up his butt”.
The United States used to have a “norm” of an independent Justice Department. Joe Biden made it clear that his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, was independent of White House control or interference. Garland allowed a politically motivated investigation of Biden’s son Hunter, to fester for four years. In fact, many Democrats, including me, were incredibly frustrated by the pace of Garland’s investigation of Trump and the January 6thInsurrection. (Can I even use that term anymore, or will the DOGE kids crash my website?) The Federal charges against Trump were too little, too late. And, as the old adage goes: “If you strike against a King, you must kill him”. We all know the outcome of Garland’s belated attempts at getting justice against Trump.
Watergate
But those norms are only fifty years old, a result of the criminal actions of President Richard Nixon. Before Nixon, the Attorney General’s job was, in large part, to protect the President’s back. There’s a good reason that John Kennedy appointed his brother, Bobby, to the job. And Nixon followed suit eight years later, appointing his campaign manager, John Mitchell, as his AG. Mitchell was “hip-deep” in the Watergate scandal and coverup, and ultimately was convicted of Federal violations and served nineteen months in jail. (But oddly, despite his criminal record, Mitchell was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was a World War II Navy veteran, and served as Attorney General. That qualified him regardless of his conviction).
After Nixon, most Attorney Generals have kept a distance from the White House. Bill Clinton’s AG, Janet Reno stayed “hands-off” the Whitewater investigations that led to Clinton’s impeachment. And while there was a famous friendship between Barack Obama and his AG, Eric Holder, the Justice Department still maintained an arms-length separation from the White House.
Trump’s Demand
So when Trump’s first Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, recused himself from Department investigations of the Trump Administration, it was in-line with Department guidelines. But Trump was furious. He expected more from his AG, and ultimately pressured Sessions to resign. He then appointed Bill Barr, who made sure to have Trump’s back. The Russiagate investigation was hamstrung, and ultimately discredited regardless of the facts.
And in his second go-round of the Presidency, Trump placed loyalty first. Newly minted Attorney General Pam Bondi has been a Trump backer for years, and his personal defense lawyers now play important roles in the Department.
Now we are back to the “good old days”. A lot of what the MAGA “philosophy” preaches is that America was at “it’s best” in the 1950’s, the heady post-World War II days. That fake memory ignores the fact that it was a time of racial discrimination, political McCarthyism, and environmental ignorance. But it doesn’t matter. The Department of Justice was an arm of the White House then, the FBI fully dominated by J. Edgar Hoover. It’s what Nixon tried to replicate in his own Administration that came crashing down in Watergate. And now, the direct descendants of the Watergate failure are back in power again.
This time they want to “do it right”.
