司法部向法院申请撤销对纽约市长亚当斯的腐败起诉
2025年2月14日，美国司法部向位于纽约州纽约县曼哈顿的纽约南区联邦地区法院提交申请，要求法院批准撤销对纽约市长埃里克·亚当斯（Eric Adams）的腐败起诉。案件由联邦法官戴尔·何（Dale E. Ho）审理，案号为24 Cr. 556。申请以「不起诉声明」（nolle prosequi）的形式提出，依据《联邦刑事诉讼规则》第48(a)条，请求以「无偏见」方式撤销全部指控——即本次撤销之后，检方今后仍可重新起诉。动议写明，亚当斯已通过律师书面同意这一申请，并同意自己不属于《海德修正案》所称的「胜诉方」；司法部律师已取代纽约南区联邦检察官办公室的助理检察官，成为本案的记录律师，今后由司法部处理本案及相关决策。
动议列出两项理由。其一，代理副部长埃米尔·博夫（Emil Bove）认定，撤销是必要的，因为本案存在不当观感，并有干预2025年纽约市选举的风险，牵涉第14147号行政令；这一结论部分依据前任纽约南区联邦检察官达米安·威廉姆斯（Damian Williams）离任后维护的个人网站及其发表的一篇专栏文章。其二，博夫认定，继续推进诉讼将妨碍亚当斯治理纽约市，对公共安全、国家安全以及联邦移民倡议与政策构成不可接受的威胁；动议称，亚当斯因本案被拒绝接触敏感信息，而博夫认为这些信息是亚当斯治理城市、协助保护纽约市所必需的。
这项申请源于博夫2月10日发给纽约南区代理联邦检察官丹妮尔·萨松（Danielle Sassoon）的一份备忘录。备忘录称，博夫的行动经司法部长授权，要求南区办公室尽快撤销起诉，条件有三项：亚当斯须书面同意无偏见撤销；亚当斯须书面同意自己不是《海德修正案》下的胜诉方；全案须在2025年11月市长选举之后，由经参议院确认的纽约南区联邦检察官复核。备忘录还要求，在复核之前不得再针对亚当斯、不得采取追加调查步骤，并指示恢复亚当斯的安全许可。备忘录提出两个独立理由：一是起诉的时机与前任联邦检察官近期的公开行为已威胁程序的完整性，包括增加可能影响潜在证人与陪审团的偏见性审前报道；二是待决起诉不当限制了亚当斯把全部精力与资源投入非法移民与暴力犯罪事务的能力。备忘录明言，这一决定是在「未评估证据强弱或案件所依据的法律理论」的情况下作出的；备忘录的脚注同时写明，政府「不是提出以撤销一桩刑事案件，换取亚当斯在移民执法上的协助」。
萨松没有执行这一指令。她在2月12日致司法部长帕姆·邦迪（Pam Bondi）的信中写道，备忘录提出的两个理由，她都无法以善意在法庭上提出；她确信亚当斯犯有被控的罪行，并指出博夫从未质疑办案团队的操守，也从未质疑指控严肃、且有事实与法律支持。萨松在信中一处脚注里写道，她参加了1月31日与博夫、亚当斯的律师及其办公室成员的会议，会上「亚当斯的律师一再敦促一种实质上的交换条件，表示只有起诉书被撤销，亚当斯才有可能协助司法部执行其优先事项」；她还写道，博夫训斥了她团队中一名在会上做记录的成员，并下令在会议结束时收走那些记录。萨松称，她领导的南区办公室原已准备向一个新的大陪审团申请追加起诉书，新增一项妨害司法共谋罪——依据是亚当斯销毁证据、指使他人销毁证据并向联邦调查局提供虚假信息的证据——并补充其参与欺诈性稻草人捐款安排的事实。她写道，以亚当斯在移民等政策事项上机会主义、反复变化的承诺换取撤销一桩刑事起诉，是「一个令人震惊且危险的先例」。她在信末表示，如果部长不愿与她会面或重新考虑这一指令，她准备辞职。亚当斯的律师亚历克斯·斯皮罗（Alex Spiro）否认存在任何交换条件，亚当斯本人也表示，他从未提出以市长权力交换结束自己的案件。
2月13日，博夫回信接受萨松的辞职，宣布将本案起诉移交司法部本部处理，并将本案两名主办助理检察官停职，交由司法部长办公室与司法部职业责任办公室调查。同一天，被要求接手此案的司法部刑事司代理负责人凯文·德里斯科尔（Kevin Driscoll）与公共廉正科代理科长约翰·凯勒（John Keller）辞职，该科另有三名律师也辞职——连同萨松，2月13日一天内共有六名检察官离职。2月14日，本案主办检察官之一哈根·斯科滕（Hagan Scotten）致信博夫辞职，成为第七人。他写道：「任何一名助理联邦检察官都知道，我们的法律与传统不允许以这种方式使用检察权去影响其他公民，更不用说民选官员。如果总统身边没有律师愿意给他这个忠告，那么我预计你最终会找到一个足够愚蠢、或足够懦弱的人来提交你的动议。但那个人永远不会是我。」据路透社援引知情人士报道，博夫2月14日要求公共廉正科的律师们在一小时内自行决定由谁来提交动议；资深检察官爱德华·沙利文（Edward Sullivan）最终同意签署，以减轻同事们的压力。14日提交的动议由博夫签署指令，并由沙利文与刑事司主管官员安托瓦妮特·培根（Antoinette T. Bacon）联署。
亚当斯是于2024年9月24日被起诉的。五项罪名的起诉书指控他犯有共谋罪（共谋实施电汇欺诈、联邦项目贿赂并接受外国国民的竞选捐款）、电汇欺诈罪、两项向外国国民索取竞选捐款罪以及贿赂罪。检方指控，亚当斯索取并接受了价值超过10万美元的不当好处，包括土耳其官员与商人提供的豪华旅行，并施压纽约市消防局，在消防安全问题尚未解决的情况下让土耳其总领馆大楼得以启用。亚当斯已作无罪答辩，否认有不当行为，本案原定于2025年4月开审。按照第48(a)条，政府的撤销申请必须经法院批准；截至2月14日动议提交之时，法官尚未作出裁定，案件仍在审理之中。
（来源：美国司法部）
Justice Department Asks Court to Dismiss Corruption Case Against New York Mayor Eric Adams
On February 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in Manhattan, New York County, New York, for leave to dismiss the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The case, No. 24 Cr. 556, is before U.S. District Judge Dale E. Ho. The filing, styled a nolle prosequi, was made under Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and seeks dismissal without prejudice of all charges — meaning the government would remain free to bring the charges again in the future. The motion states that Adams, through counsel, consented in writing to the motion and agreed that he is not a "prevailing party" for purposes of the Hyde Amendment. It also states that attorneys from the Department of Justice have replaced the Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Southern District of New York as counsel of record, and that the Department will handle the matter and any related decision-making in the future.
The motion gives two reasons. First, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove concluded that dismissal is necessary because of appearances of impropriety and risks of interference with the 2025 elections in New York City, which implicate Executive Order 14147. The motion says that conclusion rested in part on a review of a website maintained by a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, and an op-ed published by that former U.S. Attorney. Second, Bove concluded that continuing the proceedings would interfere with Adams's ability to govern in New York City, posing unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies. The motion says that, as a result of the proceedings, Adams has been denied access to sensitive information that Bove believes is necessary for Adams to govern and to help protect the City.
The filing grew out of a memorandum Bove sent on February 10, 2025, to Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The memorandum said Bove acted as authorized by the Attorney General and directed her to dismiss the pending charges as soon as practicable, subject to three conditions: Adams must agree in writing to dismissal without prejudice; Adams must agree in writing that he is not a prevailing party under the Hyde Amendment; and the matter must be reviewed by the confirmed U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York following the November 2025 mayoral election. The memorandum further directed that there be no further targeting of Adams and no additional investigative steps before that review, and that steps be taken to restore Adams's security clearances. It gave two independent reasons: first, that the timing of the charges and more recent public actions by the former U.S. Attorney had threatened the integrity of the proceedings, including by increasing prejudicial pretrial publicity; and second, that the pending prosecution had unduly restricted Adams's ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime. The memorandum stated that the Department had reached its conclusion without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based. In a footnote, it also stated that the government is not offering to exchange dismissal of a criminal case for Adams's assistance on immigration enforcement.
Sassoon did not carry out the directive. In a letter dated February 12, 2025, to Attorney General Pam Bondi, she wrote that she could not advance either of Bove's two grounds in good faith. She wrote that she was confident Adams had committed the crimes charged, and that Bove had never called into question the case team's integrity or that the charges were serious and supported by fact and law. In a footnote, Sassoon wrote that she had attended a January 31 meeting with Bove, Adams's counsel, and members of her office, at which "Adams's attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed." She wrote that Bove admonished a member of her team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. Sassoon said her office had been prepared to seek a superseding indictment from a new grand jury, adding an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that Adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the FBI, along with further allegations about a fraudulent straw donor scheme. She wrote that it was "a breathtaking and dangerous precedent" to reward Adams's opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment. She closed by saying that if the Attorney General was unwilling to meet or to reconsider the directive, she was prepared to offer her resignation. Adams's lawyer, Alex Spiro, denied that there had been any quid pro quo, and Adams himself said he had never offered to trade his authority as mayor for an end to his case.
On February 13, Bove replied by letter accepting Sassoon's resignation, transferring the prosecution to the Justice Department, which would file the dismissal motion itself, and placing the two Assistant U.S. Attorneys principally responsible for the case on leave pending investigations. The same day, Kevin Driscoll, the acting head of the Criminal Division, and John Keller, the acting chief of the Public Integrity Section, resigned after being asked to take over the case, and three other attorneys in the Public Integrity Section also resigned — six prosecutors in all left on February 13, counting Sassoon. On February 14, Hagan Scotten, one of the lead prosecutors on the case in the Southern District, resigned as well, the seventh to do so. In his letter to Bove, Scotten wrote: "Any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way. If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me." According to Reuters, citing sources briefed on the matter, Bove told the Public Integrity Section's career prosecutors on February 14 that they had an hour to decide among themselves who would file the motion, and Edward Sullivan, a veteran career prosecutor in the section, agreed to do so to spare his colleagues. The motion filed that day was directed and signed by Bove and also signed by Sullivan and by Antoinette T. Bacon, a supervisory official in the Criminal Division.
Adams had been indicted on September 24, 2024. The five-count indictment charged conspiracy to commit wire fraud and federal program bribery and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals, wire fraud, two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals, and bribery. Prosecutors alleged that Adams sought and accepted more than $100,000 in improper benefits, including luxury travel provided by Turkish officials and businesspeople, and that he pressured the New York City Fire Department to allow the new Turkish consulate building to open despite unresolved fire-safety concerns. Adams pleaded not guilty and denied wrongdoing, and his trial had been scheduled for April 2025. Under Rule 48(a), a government motion to dismiss requires leave of court; as of the February 14 filing, Judge Ho had not yet ruled, and the case remained pending.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
来源：美国司法部
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：纽约市长埃里克·亚当斯（2024年9月，纽约大都会运输署摄，CC BY 2.0）；系其被起诉前不久的公开活动照片。 / Photo: New York City Mayor Eric Adams in September 2024 (Metropolitan Transportation Authority, CC BY 2.0), photographed at a public event shortly before his indictment.
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