Federal Judge Dale Ho threw yet another spanner into this year’s mayoral race Friday by kicking the can on whether he’ll force a trial of Mayor Eric Adams even though the feds want to drop the charges.
More, he named powerhouse attorney Paul Clement to make the case for going ahead — and gave him ’til March 4 to file his brief, with a followup hearing March 14.
The trial had been scheduled to start April 21, and so finish in time for the June 14 start of early voting in the June 24 Democratic primary — but if Clement convinces Ho the case should go ahead, that timeline’s still out the window as a whole new prosecution team would have to be assembled and given time to prepare.
Meanwhile, petitioning to make the primary ballot starts Monday, running from Feb. 25 to April 3.
Petitioning is a resource-intensive process, as would-be candidates gather enough signatures from registered city Democrats to be sure they make the legal minimum.
What do you do if you’re interested in running only if Adams is out?
That’s no problem for the various lefties looking to oust the mayor; they’re in no matter what; any bad breaks for Adams is just good news for them.
And ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign, whenever he makes it official, won’t lack for resources.
Meanwhile, the city Campaign Finance Board continues to stall on paying out roughly $4 million in matching funds to the Adams campaign, even as it enrichs several rivals.
Argh!
The interim leaders at the Trump Justice Department truly messed this up: They said they wanted to avoid complicating the city’s election.
Not to mention that, outside of court, they outlined a major reason for dropping the case — namely, federal prosecutors’ horrific string of Supreme Court defeats in such “corruption” cases.
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Including, as Chad Mizzelle, the new Justice chief of staff, flagged in an X thread, two 2023 losses by the very Southern District team that insisted it had Adams dead to rights.
In other words, even if Clement convinces Ho to go to a trial that actually convicts the mayor, it’s at huge risk of being tossed years later.
Indeed, Ho himself has noted in court that Adams’ lawyers arguments against the prosecutors’ entire legal theory has “some force.”
It looks to us like Ho’s been intimidated by the self-righteous fury of the mayor’s enemies into stringing this thing out.
But the real victims are the voters of New York City.