The Trump administration's demand to dismiss the case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams resulted in a full-blown scandal. Now, two senior Democrats want some answers.
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When Donald Trump accuses someone of something, it is fairly safe to assume that he is either guilty of that behavior himself or is fantasizing about it. Perhaps the best example of this is that for years he complained about a “weaponized” Department of Justice (DOJ) and that he was the target of a “witch hunt,” even though he was simply charged with crimes for which there was ample evidence, that were committed in plain view, and/or that he admitted to.
Trump never presented any evidence to back up this claim, and we have pointed out repeatedly that reality tells a different story.
It should therefore come as no surprise that one of the first things he did in office was to create the kind of biased DOJ that he previously ranted about. That began with picking a loyalist as attorney general, a position that is supposed to be apolitical in order to maintain the impartiality of DOJ.
After Trump’s first choice, then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) — who was notably not indicted for behavior that might have warranted criminal charges if DOJ had truly been weaponized — flamed out, he picked Pam Bondi, another sycophant.
Even before she was sworn in, the new president had already instructed the department’s interim leadership to fire prosecutors involved in securing hundreds of convictions related to the Trump-inspired January 6 insurrection.
By that time, he had already pardoned or commuted the sentence of all of the people who had been convicted for their roles in storming the Capitol, assaulting police officers, or other crimes related to the attack; DOJ also deleted a database with their charges.
But that was not the only way in which Trump used the Justice Department for his personal or political gain.
One of the most egregious examples of doing so came when DOJ instructed New York prosecutors to drop the charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D), who was indicted last year for a smattering of offenses related to accepting illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials.
Adams had wisely sucked up to Trump after the November election, which is the most assured way to beat a rap these days.
Predictably, the plan worked. Three weeks ago, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to dismiss the case.
At the time, Bove made it clear that this was a political decision.
“[The] pending prosecution has unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the previous Administration,” he wrote.
Later, “Border Czar” Tom Homan also suggested on TV that the Trump administration and Adams had come to an “agreement” on the issue.
This resulted into a full-blown scandal with several officials in New York and Washington resigning in protest after refusing to carry out the order.
Now, two leading Democrats have some questions about this arrangement… and Bove’s conduct.
In a letter to Bondi, Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and Jasmine Crockett (TX), the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Oversight, demanded to halt any kind of retaliation and cover-up related to the Adams matter.
“Not only did [DOJ] attempt to pressure career prosecutors into carrying out this illegal quid pro quo, it appears that Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove was personally engaged in a cover-up by destroying evidence and retaliating against career prosecutors who refused to follow his illegal and unethical orders,” the lawmakers wrote.
The evidence refers to notes being taken during a meeting in January between Adams’s legal team and prosecutors that were allegedly collected and may have been destroyed.
Raskin and Crockett also request copies of all communications related to the matter between Trump’s transition team, the White House, senior DOJ officials, Adams’s attorneys, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
The lawmaker gave Bondi two weeks to respond. However, based on how DOJ is run now, they may not want to hold their breaths to ever hear from her.
That’s because there is now only one person the Department of Justice is beholden to… and it ain’t Raskin or Crockett.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
