LETTER FROM NEW YORK
In American mythology, salvation comes from the Feds. We think back to Eliot Ness’s incorruptible tax inspectors in the fight against Al Capone in Chicago in the late 1920s. Or the FBI cops who, at the same time, flushed out the adventurers who married and then murdered their Native American wives in Oklahoma to tap their oil wells (as recounted in Martin Scorcese’s western Killers of the Flower Moon). Even in the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation in 1974, America was saved by a federal official, in this case the FBI’s number two, who turned out to be The Washington Post’s source.
But with Donald Trump, everything is changing. Corruption is coming from the top, from the federal government and the Justice Department, in the hands of a loyalist of the current president, Pam Bondi. States and cities are without recourse, starting with New York. Gotham City is more Gotham than ever, corrupt, in perdition – at least morally – since the number two man at the federal Department of Justice (DOJ), Emil Bove, ordered, at Trump’s behest, a halt to legal proceedings against Democratic mayor Eric Adams. The 64-year-old former African-American Brooklyn police officer was indicted in September 2024 on charges of corruption and illegal financing of his 2021 New York mayoral election campaign by Turkish interests. His entourage has been tainted by multiple scandals. Trump came to his rescue in October, arguing that the mayor of New York, who opposed Joe Biden’s open immigration policy, was, like himself, being pursued by a partisan justice system. “I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders,” the Republican candidate had declared in Manhattan alongside Adams. “We’ve been persecuted, Eric. I’ve been persecuted, and so have you, Eric.”
A cascade of magistrate resignations
The argument of the DOJ memo, dated February 10, is mind-boggling. It cites a lawsuit that would impede the mayor’s ability to work with the Trump administration to deport illegals. “The pending lawsuits have unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote his full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime,” Bove said. Adams had given his subordinates two hours to sign the order dropping the charges, prompting the resignation of at least seven magistrates in New York and Washington.
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