Ex-Prosecutor Says New Trump Admin Move ‘Is What Happens In Authoritarian Countries’

Jeffrey Toobin is stunned that the Department of Justice under President Donald Trump has ordered federal prosecutors to drop their charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, and told Anderson Cooper on Monday it’s “one of the most bizarre situations” he’s ever seen.

Adams was indicted in September on allegations he accepted bribes and illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals in exchange for political favors. The first sitting New York mayor to be indicted, he pleaded not guilty ahead of a trial scheduled for April.

Toobin, a CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, suggested Monday on “Anderson Cooper 360” that Trump is actively helping Adams — because the mayor maintains he was politically targeted for criticizing former President Joe Biden and his immigration policies.

“Here this guy is indicted by a very respected office,” said Toobin. “He makes complaints that he was politically targeted … which there is absolutely no evidence of, and the Justice Department, now under the new Trump administration, dismisses the case against him.”

Emil Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, told federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Monday to drop the corruption charges against Adams because, he said, a trial could interfere with Adams’ efforts to fight crime and illegal immigration.

Toobin argued the Trump administration liberating Adams from an upcoming corruption trial because “we want him to fight crime” is a dubious explanation and is further potential evidence of the erosion of U.S. democracy.

“I mean, this is what happens in authoritarian countries,” Toobin told Cooper.

The Democratic mayor certainly appeared to curry favor with Trump after his election win in November; Trump publicly floated considering a pardon for Adams one month before the mayor visited him at Mar-a-Lago — and attended the presidential inauguration.

Toobin told Cooper on Monday that “the rule of law is not applied equally.”

“It’s only applied to how the leader wants it applied,” he continued. “And Eric Adams has ingratiated himself with the Trump administration. And now he gets his case dismissed … And that’s not how the legal system is supposed to work.”

Adams, who was elected in 2021, has been adamant about staying in the mayoral race set to conclude in November.