With the criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams now imperiled, his chances of re-election this year seem poised to receive at least a modest boost.
But whether it will be enough to overcome his flagging poll numbers — recent surveys suggested that he was favored by around 10 percent of respondents — was far from certain.
The fact that a potential dismissal would come at the hands of President Trump, who is wildly unpopular among New York City Democrats, may diminish some of the benefits for the mayor of no longer facing a five-count federal indictment.
Mr. Adams’s relentless currying of favor with Mr. Trump, both before Mr. Trump’s re-election and after, had already given ample ammunition to the mayor’s challengers, who have argued that Mr. Adams put his own interests ahead of the city’s.
The mayor’s overtures to Mr. Trump have also alienated some of Mr. Adams’s Black supporters, an important part of the mayor’s constituency that he will need to nurture as he seeks re-election as the city’s second Black mayor.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a close ally of Mr. Adams, said the mayor would have a “challenging” time explaining the dismissal of the charges to his base of supporters.
“I’m not anti-Adams, but I’m anti-Trump, and a lot of people in the Black community will have the same feelings,” Mr. Sharpton said.
Damian Williams, the former federal prosecutor who brought the charges against the mayor, and who is the first Black person to head the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, is also respected throughout the city, Mr. Sharpton added.
“Many of us have a lot of respect for the mayor, but also have equal respect for Damian Williams who we do not think would operate in a way that would be based on a political vendetta,” he said.
It was unclear on Monday night if the Justice Department’s request to drop Mr. Adams’s case might affect whether former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo enters the mayor’s race. Mr. Cuomo, who regularly leads mayoral polls even though he has not declared his candidacy, has often drawn strong support from Black voters, placing him in direct competition with Mr. Adams.
In the memo sent to prosecutors in Manhattan, Emil Bove, the Justice Department’s acting No. 2 official, cited Mr. Trump’s immigration enforcement as part of the rationale for dropping the charges against the mayor. Mr. Bove said the indictment had impeded Mr. Adams’s ability to bring down violent crime in New York and to help Trump administration officials carry out immigration enforcement activities there.
In discussions with federal officials, Mr. Adams’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, suggested that the mayor would not be inclined to cooperate with the president’s immigration crackdown if he remained under indictment, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Spiro has called that reporting “a complete lie.”
Mr. Bove’s assertions run directly counter to Mr. Adams’s own frequent insistence that his criminal case has done nothing to distract him from his day job. He bolsters his case by pointing to some declining crime numbers and a lower population of migrants in city shelters.
“I can do my job. My legal team is going to handle the case,” the mayor said in December on Bloomberg TV’s “The Close.” “People said it was going to be a distraction. I’m moving forward, and I’m going to continue to deliver for the people of the city of New York.”
Still, with the Justice Department directing federal prosecutors in Manhattan to drop the charges against the mayor, just weeks after they said they had uncovered “additional criminal conduct” by him, Mr. Adams is likely to be freed from the prospect of having to sit through a heavily publicized April trial, only two months before the primary.
More than a half-dozen candidates have entered the race. They include Brad Lander, the city comptroller; State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani; State Senator Zellnor Myrie; State Senator Jessica Ramos; and Scott Stringer, the former city comptroller. All are considered to the left of Mr. Adams.
Two other candidates are running as moderates: Jim Walden, a lawyer who is suing to run on the Independence Party ballot line, and Whitney Tilson, a former hedge fund executive.
Many of Mr. Adams’s rivals quickly released statements on Monday denouncing the request to have the charges dropped and sought to cast the move as a miscarriage of justice and evidence of the mayor’s self-interests dictating his agenda.
Mr. Stringer said in a statement, “The only New Yorker breathing a sigh of relief tonight is Eric Adams.”
Mr. Mamdani said that “Mr. Adams has narrowed the focus of city government to a singular goal: keeping himself out of prison.”
He called for an investigation “into whether Mayor Adams has cut any kind of deal with the Trump administration that involves breaking city law.”
Mr. Myrie said on Monday night that the letter “makes it clear that justice is dead in America.”
“The decision by Trump’s Department of Justice to drop charges against Eric Adams should outrage every single New Yorker,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Myrie announced an endorsement from Representative Dan Goldman, a former prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, who told reporters that he was worried about the charges being dropped and that prosecutors in the office had a strong reputation for independence.
“If they dismiss the case for political reasons, that is a miscarriage of justice,” Mr. Goldman said. “That undermines our criminal justice system.”
Hours before news of the dismissal broke, Mr. Adams met with top officials from his administration and encouraged them to avoid criticizing Mr. Trump or his administration for fear that the city might lose federal funding.
Many of the mayor’s agency heads were concerned about President Trump’s mass deportation efforts and were seeking guidance on what to do when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers showed up at public buildings.
Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, wrote an “open letter” to city workers after the meeting, criticizing the mayor’s failure to protect immigrants who are living in fear amid Mr. Trump’s calls for mass deportations.
“Every day, Mayor Adams makes it more clear that he is willing to maneuver city government not to better the lives of New Yorkers, but to advance his own personal agenda,” he said.
On Monday night, Mr. Lander said “now we know why” the mayor had urged officials not to criticize the president.
“Instead of standing up for New Yorkers, Mayor Adams is standing up for precisely one person — and that’s himself,” he said. “New Yorkers deserve better.”