Justice Department Accuses Adams Prosecutors of Politicking and Hypocrisy

Top Justice Department officials issued an extraordinary attack on Friday on the Manhattan prosecutors who brought the federal corruption case against Mayor Eric Adams of New York, releasing a selection of their internal messages in a further attempt to discredit the case.

The attack came in an evening court filing from the two officials, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove III. Using emails, texts and other messages sent by the case’s lead prosecutor and his colleagues, the officials sought to paint the former U.S. attorney who brought the case as politically motivated and other prosecutors as hypocrites.

The filing came as part of an effort by Mr. Blanche and Mr. Bove to persuade a judge to drop the case against Mr. Adams. A motion to dismiss the charges is pending before the judge, Dale E. Ho.

The former prosecutors’ messages were quoted only in fragments in the court filing, while the full text of the communications was filed under seal, making it impossible to determine the context in which they were sent — and in some cases their meaning.

Much of the attack was focused on the former U.S. attorney, Damian Williams, who resigned in December. Mr. Bove, in ordering Manhattan prosecutors to dismiss their case, argued that Mr. Williams’s actions had “threatened the integrity of the proceedings.”

The actions to which he was referring included a January opinion article Mr. Williams published in which he wrote that the city was “being led with a broken ethical compass.” Mr. Williams also created a website highlighting his achievements, prompting speculation that he was preparing to embark on a political campaign.