Governor Kathy Hochul Should Answer the Call to Hold Mayor Adams Accountable

Here's Why and How She Should Do It.

Danielle Sassoon is not someone I know. In fact, I don’t know any of the seven prosecutors who quit their coveted jobs in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. I worked in the Civil Division of that office too many years ago to know them. But I know what I hope is apparent to all. This public, group resignation should never have been necessary. These career prosecutors blew a very loud whistle - a clarion call for action - and it requires an answering call. Governor Kathy Hochul should answer by initiating a proceeding to gather and hear evidence against Mayor Eric Adams and make a judgment based on that evidence about whether to remove him from office.

We know, thanks to Sassoon and others, that Trump loyalists strong-armed career prosecutors into dropping Adam’s corruption charges without even looking at the evidence. Sassoon’s full letter is here, which says on page 6, “dismissing the case will amplify, rather than abate, concerns about weaponization of the Department” and that “the directive to dismiss the case has been reached without assessing the strength of the evidence against Adams.” She goes on to point to the dangerous damage this has done, adding “Adams has already seized on the memo to publicly assert that he is innocent and that the accusations against him were unsupported by the evidence…”

According to Hagen Scott, one of the prosecutors who also resigned, "No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives." He went on to say that, “our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.” Sasson, Scott, and all of those who resigned, did us a service at personal cost. Unsurprisingly, elected officials and others now demand that Governor Hochul step in and use her power under New York law to remove Mayor Adams from office.

I agree she should use her power and how she uses it also matters. She should use that power as Governor Franklin Roosevelt did in the early 1930s.

Before Mayor Adams there was Mayor Jimmy Walker, an associate of the infamously corrupt Tammany Hall. Governor Roosevelt appointed a retired Judge, Samuel Seabury, to investigate some specific allegations of corruption that did not involve Mayor Walker, but his dogged and determined pursuit of evidence led all the way up to Mayor Walker and a very large slush fund of ill gotten gains. Seabury was no “special prosecutor.” There were no indictments and Governor Roosevelt was judge and jury. He stuck to the evidence and forced the lawyers for Mayor Walker to stick to the evidence, refusing to tolerate political theater and distracting displays. Mayor Walker resigned because the evidence was damning. While there were no criminal proceedings, the people had the truth and it was a stake in the heart of municipal corruption.

Governor Hochul has the power under Public Officers Law Section 33, that gives her the power to remove Mayors, and other officials, from office. The law says:

The chief executive officer of every city ... may be removed by the governor after giving to such officer a copy of the charges against him and an opportunity to be heard in his defense.

It does not include a judge or jury and cannot result in jail time but like a trial, it develops and shares evidence and can result in consequences. The consequences can include a public that may not vote for the officer again. It might include removal or force a resignation without removal. If removed, Adams would become the only member of a club of one - the Removed Mayor’s Club. This is an awesome responsibility that the Governor cannot and is not taking lightly. Now the Governor should invite an inappropriate use of this power, but this is no misuse of power. Like Governor Roosevelt, Governor Hochul should not commit to the outcome. The evidence should dictate that. We know evidence exists. But a dismissed indictment doesn't help the court of public opinion shape its own conclusions, or the Governor ensure public integrity. Both matter in a democratic system.

There is one more important reason the Governor should take action. The Department of Justice put New York City’s head on a pole as a threat to other cities to fall into line on mass deportation of immigrants. By agreeing to this corrupt deal, Adams gets a personal pass from federal criminal charges, as long as he complies and other cities are to take note. Cities have absolutely no legal obligation to cooperate with ICE in rounding up people, and in fact must ensure that their residents’ rights are protected. That includes immigrants.

New York City electeds passed a law, a law I was proud to work on, to make New Yorkers safer by ensuring appropriate cooperation with ICE. The law allows the New York City Police Department and Corrections Department to hold undocumented immigrants with violent crime histories, if ICE, protecting due process rights at the same time. We knew citizens had been wrongly detained by ICE and undocumented immigrants also have rights. New York City’s balanced approach to be a sanctuary for constitutional rights and a protector of people’s ability to get the help they have a right to receive from city government. That means a sanctuary for people who are assaulted, whether that assault be rape or domestic violence, for exploited workers, for people who are sick and need to see a doctor, and for children in schools so their parents aren’t afraid to support their learning. We kept ICE out of locations that undermined the city’s ability to deliver to residents. That has not stopped ICE from doing its job lawfully.

We need Governor Hochul to appoint an investigator, like Governor Roosevelt did, and to hold an evidentiary hearing that seeks truth and is fair. Adams, of course, would have the power to assert his right to remain silent. That would be his decision to make. But we need an investigation and hearing given the authoritarian over-reach of a weaponized Department of Justice and a President who has already abused his power. No president can decide when States and cities have rights and when they don’t, when people have rights and when they don’t or when corruption is permissible and when it is not. And no Governor should let him.