Judge dismisses corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge dismissed New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case on Wednesday, agreeing it was the only practical outcome while blasting the Justice Department’s “troubling” rationale for wanting the charges thrown out — namely so the Democrat could help President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The judge, though, denied prosecutors the option to refile the charges after the mayoral election. Judge Dale E. Ho’s order to dismiss the case “with prejudice” spares Adams from having to govern in a way that pleases Trump or potentially risk having the Republican's Justice Department revive the charges.

The judge said he wasn't opining on the merits of the case, but that courts can't force prosecutors to move forward. Still, he expressed qualms about the government's move, saying “there are many reasons to be troubled” by its reasoning.

“Everything here smacks of a bargain: dismissal of the indictment in exchange for immigration policy concessions,” Ho wrote. He said he found it “disturbing” that public officials might get special treatment from prosecutors by complying with policy goals.

He rejected an alternative the Justice Department had sought — dismissing the case “without prejudice,” which would have left room for the charges to be refiled.

“Dismissing the case without prejudice would create the unavoidable perception that the mayor’s freedom depends on his ability to carry out the immigration enforcement priorities of the administration, and that he might be more beholden to the demands of the federal government than to the wishes of his own constituents,” the judge wrote.

Adams lauded the judge’s decision during brief remarks outside the mayoral residence.

“As I said all along, this case never should have been brought, and I did nothing wrong," he said.

“I have always been solely beholden to the people of this city,” the mayor added. “No special interests, no political opponents, but just everyday New Yorkers, just you.”

Asked about his chances for reelection, Adams said: "I’m gonna win."

He closed by holding up a copy and encouraging people to read FBI Director Kash Patel’s 2023 book “Government Gangsters," which alleged a “sinister cabal” at the heart of government.

The Justice Department said in a statement that Adams' case had been “an example of political weaponization and a waste of resources.”

Ho’s decision follows a legal drama that roiled the Justice Department, created turmoil in City Hall and left Adams’ mayoralty hanging by a thread amid questions about his political independence and ability to govern.

Several prosecutors in New York and Washington quit rather than carry out the Justice Department's directive to drop the case against Adams.

After four of Adams’ top deputies decided to resign, Gov. Kathy Hochul pondered taking the unprecedented step of ousting a New York City mayor. The governor, a fellow Democrat, ultimately concluded it would be undemocratic and disruptive to do so and instead proposed new oversight for city government.

At a Feb. 19 hearing, Adams told Ho: “I have not committed a crime.”

Adams pleaded not guilty to bribery and other charges after a 2024 indictment accused him of accepting illegal campaign contributions and travel discounts from a Turkish official and others — and returning the favors by, among other things, helping Turkey open a diplomatic building without passing fire inspections.

The case, brought during President Joe Biden's administration, was on track for an April trial until Trump’s Justice Department moved to drop it. Ho delayed the trial while considering what to do, seeking advice from former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement.

Ho's decision comes about three months before a Democratic primary that will likely choose the New York's next mayor.

Adams faces a large field of challengers, including former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and several Democrats who say he’s now too indebted to Trump for New Yorkers to be sure he’ll prioritize their interests. Adams has said he's “solely beholden to the 8.3 million New Yorkers that I represent, and I will always put this city first.”

As recently as Jan. 6, Manhattan federal prosecutors wrote in court papers that they continued to “uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams.” But a month later, their new Washington superiors decided to abandon the case.

In court filings and a hearing, then-acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said he was "particularly concerned about the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams’ ability to support” Trump’s immigration objectives. Bove also questioned the prior administration’s motives in pursuing Adams, who had criticized Biden’s handling of immigration.

The Trump administration’s acting U.S. attorney in New York, Danielle Sassoon, resisted Bove’s order, saying she couldn’t defend a dismissal linked to political considerations.

Sassoon and several other career prosecutors quit in protest.

Adams, a retired police captain and former state lawmaker and Brooklyn official, was elected in 2021 as a centrist Democrat in a liberal stronghold. Since his indictment, Adams has cultivated a warmer relationship with Trump, telling mayoral staffers not to criticize the president publicly.

Associated Press reporters Joseph B. Frederick and Larry Neumeister in New York, Anthony Izaguirre in Albany and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.

In this photo taken from video, New York mayor Eric Adams speaks after a federal judge dismissed his corruption case, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in New York. (New York City Mayor's Office via AP)

In this photo taken from video, New York mayor Eric Adams comments as he leaves a press conference after a federal judge dismissed his corruption case, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in New York. (New York City Mayor's Office via AP)

In this photo taken from video, New York mayor Eric Adams speaks after a federal judge dismissed his corruption case, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in New York. (New York City Mayor's Office via AP)

New York mayor Eric Adams speaks at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during a task force meeting addressing retail theft, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Joseph Frederick)

FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams appears before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing with Sanctuary City Mayors on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr., file)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's expansive new tariffs reverse a decades-long global trend of lower trade barriers and are likely, economists say, to raise prices for Americans by thousands of dollars each year while sharply slowing the U.S. economy.

The White House is gambling that other countries will also suffer enough pain that they will open up their economies to more American exports, leading to negotiations that would reduce the tariffs imposed Wednesday.

Or, the White House hopes, companies will reverse their moves toward global supply chains and bring more production to the United States to avoid higher import taxes.

But a key question for the Trump administration will be how Americans react to the tariffs. If prices rise noticeably and jobs are lost, voters could turn against the duties and make it harder to keep them in place for the time needed to encourage companies to return to the U.S.

The Yale Budget Lab estimates the Trump administration's tariffs would cost the average household $3,800 in higher prices this year. That includes the 10% universal tariff plus much higher tariffs on about 60 countries announced Wednesday, as well as previous import taxes on steel, aluminum and cars. Inflation could top 4% this year, from 2.8% currently, while the economy may barely grow, according to estimates by Nationwide Financial.

Investors turned thumbs-down on the new duties Thursday, with the S&P 500 index dropping 4.8% at the close of trading, its worst day since the pandemic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 1,600 points.

Still, Trump was upbeat Thursday when asked about the stock market drop.

“I think it’s going very well,” he said. “We have an operation, like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is."

The average U.S. tariff could rise to nearly 25% when the tariffs are fully implemented April 9, economists estimate, higher than in more than a century, and higher than the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs that are widely blamed for worsening the Great Depression.

“The president just announced the de facto separation of the U.S. economy from the global economy,” said Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The stage is set for higher prices and slower growth over the long term."

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick argued the policies will help open markets overseas for U.S. exports.

“I expect most countries to start to really examine their trade policy towards the United States of America, and stop picking on us,” he said on CNBC Thursday. ”This is the reordering of fair trade.”

Bob Lehmann, 73, who stopped by a Best Buy in Portland, Oregon, Wednesday opposed the tariffs. “They’re going to raise prices and cause people to pay more for daily living,” he said.

Mathew Hall, a 64-year-old paint contractor, called the tariffs a “great idea” and said potential price increases in the short term were worth it.

“I believe in the long term, it’s going to be good,” he said, adding that he felt the U.S. had been taken advantage of.

But a former trade official from Trump’s first term, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the impact, suggested that Americans, including those who voted for Trump, may have difficulty accepting the stiff duties.

Americans “have never faced tariffs like this,” the former official said Thursday. “The downstream impact on clothing and shoe stores, it’s going to be pretty significant. So we’ll have to see how the Trump voters view this ... and how long their support for these policies goes.”

On Thursday, automaker Stellantis, which owns the Jeep, Citroen and Ram brands, said it would temporarily halt production at plants in Canada and Mexico in response to Trump's 25% tax on imported cars. The reduced output means the company is temporarily laying off 900 workers at plants in Michigan and Indiana.

Some exporters overseas may cut their prices to offset some of the tariffs, and U.S. retailers could eat some of the cost as well. But most economists expect much of the tariffs to bring higher prices.

The tariffs will hit many Asian countries hard, with duties on Vietnamese imports rising to 46% and on Indonesia to 32%. Tariffs on some Chinese imports will be as high as 79%. Those three countries are the top sources of U.S. shoe imports, with Nike making about half its shoes last year and one-third of its clothes in Vietnam.

The Yale Budget Lab estimates all Trump’s tariffs this year will push clothing prices 17% higher.

On Thursday, the Home Furnishings Association, which represents more than 13,000 U.S. furniture stores, predicted the tariffs will increase prices between 10% and 46%. Vietnam and China are the top furniture exporters to the U.S.

It said manufacturers in Asia are offsetting some of the costs by discounting their products and lowering ocean freight rates, but that won't be enough to avoid price hikes. Even domestically made furniture often relies on imported components.

“While many in the industry support the long-term goal of reshoring manufacturing, the reality is that it will take at least a decade to scale domestic production,” Home Furnishings Association CEO Shannon Williams said in a statement. “Permitting, training a skilled workforce and managing the higher costs of U.S. manufacturing are significant hurdles.”

At Gethsemane Garden Center in Chicago, there are Canadian-grown tulip, daffodil and hyacinth bulbs, though only about 5% of center plants are imported. Thousands of lemon cypress trees from Canada are sold year-round and Canadian mums are sold in the fall.

Regas Chefas, whose family has owned Gethsemane for decades, says all the tariffs won't be passed onto customers.

“We’re going to absorb some of the increase. The growers will absorb some of the increases and then the customers will pay a little bit higher price,” he said.

The Consumer Brands Association, which represents Coca-Cola, General Mills, Nestle, Tyson and Del Monte as well as Procter & Gamble and Colgate-Palmolive, said its companies already make the majority of their goods in the U.S.

But there are critical ingredients and inputs — like wood pulp for toilet paper — that are imported because of scarce domestic availability. Cinnamon is harvested from trees that can’t survive in the U.S.. Domestic production of coffee and cocoa is also limited.

“We encourage President Trump and his trade advisers to fine-tune their approach and exempt key ingredients and inputs in order to protect manufacturing jobs and prevent unnecessary inflation at the grocery store,” said Tom Madrecki, the association’s vice president of supply chain resiliency.

Outside a Tractor Supply south of Denver, two family members on opposite sides of the political spectrum debated the tariffs.

Chris Theisen, a 62-year-old Republican, said: “I feel a good change coming on, I feel it’s going to be hard, but you don’t go to the gym and walk away and say, ’God, I feel great.”

Nayen Shakya, a Democrat and Theisen’s great nephew, said higher prices are already a hardship. At the restaurant where he works, menu prices have been raised to account for higher ingredient costs.

“It’s really easy sometimes to say some things in a vague way that everyone can agree with that is definitely more complex under the surface,” said Shakya. "The burden of the increased prices is already going to the consumer.”

Listening to his nephew, Theisen added: “I understand this side of it, too."

“I ain’t got no crystal ball. I hope it works out good.”

AP Writers Paul Wiseman, Jesse Bedayn, Dee-Ann Durbin, and Claire Rush contributed to this report. Rush reported from Portland, Durbin from Detroit, and Bedayn from Colorado. AP Photographer Erin Hooley contributed from Chicago.

Manager Andrew Balfe, left, helps a customer at Gethsemane Garden Center, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Employee Lauren Owen holds Azaleas imported from Canada for sale at Gethsemane Garden Center, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

Employee Lauren Owen points out a variety of flowers imported from Canada for sale at Gethsemane Garden Center, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

A shopping cart filled with groceries sits in an aisle at an Asian grocery store in Rowland Heights, Calif., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A woman walks past Chinese and United States' national flags on display at a merchandise store in Beijing, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A worker displays textiles in the fashion district Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Cars line the BNSF Railway vehicle storage facility at the Port of Richmond on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Richmond, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

President Donald Trump waves as he arrives on Air Force One at Miami International Airport, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

Containers are stacked at the Port of Los Angeles Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Cargo containers line a shipping terminal at the Port of Oakland on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Bags of rice imported from Vietnam are displayed at an Asian grocery market in Rowland Heights, Calif., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Boxes of mangos imported from Mexico and Korean pears are displayed at an Asian grocery market in Rowland Heights, Calif., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

A woman shops at an Asian grocery market in Rowland Heights, Calif., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Textiles are displayed in the fashion district Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Bobby Charmak works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Mike Pistillo Jr., center, works with other traders on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Employee Jon Vazquez-DeAnda cuts keys for a customer at employee-owned Devon Hardware, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)

A cluster of tomatoes grown in Canada rest on a kitchen counter of a home, Tuesday April 1, 2025, in East Derry, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Stacks of lumber are set up on shelves at a local Lowes store Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)