Tom Homan, President Donald Trump’s border czar, denied that the Justice Department’s order to drop the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams was part of a “quid pro quo” arrangement to force the Democrat to go along with the administration’s wishes during a Sunday interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Following a meeting with Homan, Adams, who has denied wrongdoing, signed an executive order Thursday granting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents authorization to operate in Rikers Island, days after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove instructed federal prosecutors in Manhattan to dismiss the charges against Adams.
“It sounds like the DOJ dropped the case against Adams, and in exchange he let you into Rikers. Is that what happened?” CNN’s Dana Bash asked.
“No, I think that’s ridiculous,” Homan replied.
Homan claimed he and Adams have long talked about establishing a federal law enforcement presence on Rikers and working together to address public safety threats. “I really don’t think it had anything to do with whatever is going on at the Justice Department,” Homan said. “We never talked about that. It’s kind of out of my lane.”
In a joint interview with Adams on “Fox and Friends” on Friday, though, Homan had a warning for the mayor. “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on the couch,” he said. “I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’”
In regard to his remarks on “Fox and Friends,” Homan told Bash his words were meant as a “joke.”
“This is a conversation between two cops, having a good time, and people are making a lot out of nothing,” he said. Homan, a former Border Patrol agent, previously served as acting ICE director in the first Trump administration, while Adams is a retired police captain.
The DOJ on Friday asked a court to dismiss the case against Adams following a public showdown with federal prosecutors who refused to go along with Bove’s order to drop the charges to allow the mayor to devote his “full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that has escalated under the policies of the prior Administration.” A judge has yet to rule on the request.
In her resignation letter last week, Manhattan U.S. attorney Danielle Sassoon accused Adams’ lawyers of offering what amounted to a “quid pro quo” in a meeting with Trump officials last month. His legal team has denied the allegation.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, on Sunday ripped the DOJ for pursuing what he described as a “deeply corrupt bargain.”
“This is an outrageous violation of the rules of prosecutors and an offense against due process and a very dangerous first move for the Department of Justice to be making under the Trump people,” Raskin told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
