Trump’s Pardon-for-Deportation Crackdown Deal with NYC Mayor Eric Adams

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with taking bribes from the government of Turkey, but Donald Trump’s new appointees ordered federal prosecutors to drop the case in a clear exchange for Adams supporting Trump’s policies in New York.

As the BBC noted:

The U.S. justice department has told federal prosecutors to drop their corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

The order came from the acting deputy attorney general, appointed by President Donald Trump, who said the indictment had “restricted” the mayor’s ability to address “illegal immigration and violent crime” in the city.

Adams, a Democrat, has recently built a closer relationship with Trump, a Republican, and has told law enforcement to co-operate with the president’s immigration raids.

The Constitution charges the president to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Instead, Trump appointees are granting immunity from the law to politicians who support him and aid in the implementation of his policies—subordinating the rule of law to the rule of quid pro quo.

The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.

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