Mayor Eric Adams’ hopes of beating his federal corruption rap could hinge on a unlikely savior: Donald Trump.
A Trump win in the 2024 presidential election is viewed by some in Adams’ camp as potential path to legal victory for the mayor against an unprecedented federal indictment, sources close to the case told The Post.
The insiders’ hopes are that Trump would quickly replace Attorney General Merrick Garland with a pick who could scuttle the case against Adams, sources close to the case told The Post.
“Any adult will see this is a bulls–t case, so a new attorney general will help,” a source with direct knowledge of Adams’ legal strategy said.
“I don’t think it is far-fetched to say a Trump win could help Adams.”
The scenario envisioned by Adams’ defenders hinges on Trump — or at least his appointee to head the Department of Justice — seeing parallels between the legal woes of the mayor and the former president.
And the Democrat Adams and Republican Trump aren’t quite the strange political bedfellows they may seem.
After Adams was indicted on bribery and corruption charges from Garland’s DOJ, Trump claimed he predicted the mayor would face federal charges for speaking out on migrants and, implicitly, against President Biden.
“And I said, ‘You know what? He’ll be indicted within a year,’” Trump said.
Adams, who has pleaded not guilty to all five counts he faces, likewise insinuated without evidence that his stance on the migrant crisis made him a target of a vengeful federal government.
The mayor has publicly supported Vice President Kamala Harris in the election, endorsing her when Biden stepped down as the nominee in July, before Adams was indicted.
But Adams has coyly suggested that he’d “welcome” Trump’s support.
“I welcome support from every American,” Adams said. “No matter where they are and who they are.”
Adams has also lawyered up behind-the-scenes with Trump-linked attorneys.
Conservative attorney John Bash — one of Trump’s White House legal advisers whom the former president picked in 2017 to serve as US Attorney for the Western District of Texas — is helping Adams combat his federal charges in Manhattan, court records show.
He works with Adams’ lead attorney Alex Spiro at Quinn Emanuel.
Adams is also working with attorney William “Bill” Burck who once represented Trump’s former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.
The mayor has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election.
The Trump-friendly scenario for Adams’ defense depends on an attorney general who’d review Adams’ case before it goes to trial and view it as political persecution, much like how the former president casts his porn star hush-money conviction and other pending criminal cases, according to the sources.
Sources view it as one of three ways the mayor can avoid jail. The other two are Adams’ current motion to dismiss or prevailing in a trial, sources said.
But Adams’ sympathetic Trump legal strategy struck Duncan Levin, a former Brooklyn federal prosecutor, as unrealistic.
“If that’s his plan to get out from under these charges, I would say it’s quite delusional,” Levin said.
“You’re talking about a sympathetic person who might become Attorney General under somebody who has not been elected president yet. Obviously, it’s a long shot unto itself. So many things would have to happen for that situation to arise.”
Beyond that, a potential order from a Trump Justice Department for the Southern District to drop the case against Adams is likely to be met by fierce opposition from existing Manhattan prosecutors in the office — which prides itself on its independence from Washington.
Prosecutors in the office sometimes use the nickname “Sovereign District of New York” to describe the office’s reputation of autonomy.
Axing Adams’ high-profile case not only would risk threatening that reputation, but also make it harder for the office to recruit like-minded prosecutors.
The office is considered the most prestigious in the nation.
Adams’ and Trump’s campaigns didn’t return requests for comment
— Additional reporting by Craig McCarthy and Diana Glebova