New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan in New York, U.S., February 18, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon
Legal experts who have spoken with Vanity Fair have expressed grave concern about the legal maneuverings currently being conducted in the criminal case against New York Mayor Eric Adams.
In particular, the experts expressed concern that a prosecutor as renowned as former United States Attorney Hagan Scotten would depart from prosecuting the Adams case by leaving a scathing resignation letter that called into question the integrity of the United States Department of Justice.
Neal Katyal, the former solicitor general under the Obama administration under whom Scotten once worked, told Vanity Fair that he believed the former U.S. attorney was trying to leave a message with his letter along the lines of, "‘This is not the rule of law that I knew. This is not the Justice Department that I knew. This is some new and very dangerous development."
Katyal added, "I’m sure it pained him greatly, and he did it because he had to have seen no other choice."
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Defense attorney Mark I. Cohen, meanwhile, tells Vanity Fair that he believes Trump's acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove is "the perfect f--king hatchet man" for the Trump administration and he spoke admiringly of Scotten's decision to resign from the case.
“I’ve had a practice in the Southern District and the Eastern District for nearly, what? 35 years," Cohen said. "And listen, I worked against a lot of really smart people. But what [Scotten] did the other day? Come on.”
In his resignation letter, Scotten defiantly refused to sign off on requests to file a motion to drop the criminal case against Adams and informed the DOJ that "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.”