There have been at least 2 requests that Judge Ho allow amicus curaie “friend of the court” briefs from outsiders that would argue against the government’s request to drop the charges. One request came from 3 former US attorneys & another came from Common Cause, a good-government advocacy group. The judge just referred to those requests & no surprise #EmilBove indicated he has some objections to them.
Judge Ho asks Alex Spiro, a lawyer for #EricAdams, about his assertion in a letter that Adams did not promise further assistance with federal #immigration efforts in exchange for the case’s abandonment. Spiro says he was responding “to anyone who suggests such a thing, because it never happened.” He offers to swear an oath in court to that effect but Ho does not ask him to do so.
#EmilBove continues to insist that the judge’s questioning of the mayor earlier mooted any talk of a #QuidProQuo arrangement between the government & the mayor. “You have a record, undisputed, that there is no quid pro quo,” he says.
Bove is telling the judge that if #EricAdams & the #DOJ say so, he must accept that there was no quid pro quo to drop the case.
It is worth noting that #DanielleSassoon, the former head of the Manhattan prosecutor’s office, said there was indeed a #QuidProQuo offered by #EricAdams’s lawyer in a meeting she attended, & that one of her prosecutors took notes & got scolded for doing so by #EmilBove, who had the notes collected at the end of the meeting.