NY Trial Attorney David Schwartz @PIX11News Talking About NYC Mayor Adams Trial

Youtube transcript
0:00 live from pix Plaza on 42nd Street it's 0:04 the Pix 11 morning news New York city 0:07 mayor Eric Adams future continues to be 0:09 in limbo as a federal judge considers 0:11 whether or not to dismiss charges 0:13 against him so mayor Adams maintained 0:15 his innocence when he appeared in court 0:17
yesterday former prosecutor David schwar 0:19 is joining us now to share his insight 0:20 into yesterday's Court proceedings and 0:22 to really take us into the next couple 0:24 days and weeks David great to see you 0:25 good to see you uh judge hoe pouring 0:27 over the legal briefs he was measured 0:30 his questions to both the prosecution 0:31 and the defense yesterday now says he's 0:33 he's not going to shoot from the hip he 0:34 wants to take some time over this case 0:36 he obviously didn't issue a ruling 0:37
yesterday so what can we expect moving 0:40 forward well you know judge ho wanted to 0:42 do his due diligence in questioning 0:44 questioning Eric Adams making sure that 0:46 it was voluntary uh that he was in court 0:49 and understood that that a uh dismissal 0:52 without prejudice means that the 0:55 prosecutors can bring a case again 0:57 although very highly unlikely so what 0:59 we're going to expect now is Judge ho is 1:02 going to make a thoughtful written 1:04 decision that's what that's what judge 1:06
ho is going to do he wasn't going to 1:07 just do it from the bench because of the 1:09 unusual 1:10 circumstances uh involved in the case 1:13 but when you talk about making a very 1:14 thoughtful decision does that mean he's 1:16 literally going to pick apart everything 1:18 look through every single file no no not
1:21 at all but he's going to analyze the 1:23 arguments that were made in court he's 1:25 going to address all the briefs that 1:27 were made uh and and and judge is 1:30 ultimately going to dismiss this case 1:32 but he's going to do it in a way where 1:34 he's taking into account all the various 1:37 briefs and the arguments by all the 1:39 attorneys in court so not an overnight 1:41 decision by any stretch of the 1:42 imagination it's it's interesting how 1:44 this all played out yesterday with Emil 1:45 B right U the attorney for the justice 1:47
department told the judge that the 1:49 charges needed to be filed because it 1:50 was hindering the mayor's ability to do 1:52 his job and also to work with the Trump 1:55 Administration on immigration issues how 1:56 do you think that actually landed with 1:58 the judge in terms consideration here 2:00 you have to take those two arguments 2:03 globally with everything that's going on 2:05 first of all they they did analyze the 2:08 strength of the case against Adams and 2:11 and and bottom line is we're talking 2:13 about upgrades on planes we're talking 2:16 about uh a favor done for the Turkish uh 2:18 Embassy or consulate when he was burough 2:21 president so so the the prosecutors took 2:25 into account the the strength of the
2:27 case itself and then basically analyzed 2:31 these decisions against a high-profile 2:34 public figure like like mayor Adams 2:36 they're made at Main justice anyway the 2:38 the the charges were brought in the 2:40 first place with the approval of main 2:42 Justice and Main justice has power over 2:45 the case and basically you're going to 2:48 have a mayor that can't do his job 2:50 properly based on these types of charges 2:53 I think an evaluation was made to to 2:56 drop those charges and so you have to 2:58 take those arguments in context with the 3:01 whole picture but the there wasn't just 3:04 one prosecutor who resigned because of 3:06 this a number of people resigned and 3:08 that didn't come up at all yesterday 3:10 about the resignation to not drop the 3:12 charges a a handful of prosecutors 3:14 resigned there's plenty of lawyers to 3:16 take their jobs there a big deal is 3:18 being made about all the prosecutors 3:20
that resigned when a new Administration 3:22 Tes uh goes into office prosecutors 3:25 resigned this happens all the time when 3:27 a new DA this Trump appointe excuse 3:30 what's that this Danielle Sassoon was a 3:32 was a trump appointee that that's okay 3:34 and and Danielle Sassoon did what she 3:37 felt was right in the case and and it 3:39 should be honored what she did but 3:41 bottom line is if main Justice doesn't 3:43 want to go forward with charges and 3:45 these charges were ridiculous charges 3:47 they they were absolutely to to indict a 3:50 mayor of the city of New York first time 3:52 a mayor has ever been indicted there 3:54 there wasn't gold bars in his 3:56 refrigerator like the Menendez this said 3:59 this was in any where near the Menendez 4:01 case and to make a decision to indict 4:03 him based on upgrades on flights and a 4:06 favor for the Turkish Consulate where 4:09 you can't even make out a quit proquo 4:11
these were ridiculous charges in the 4:12 first place and that was the evaluation 4:15 and I don't know too many attorneys that 4:17 think that these were legitimate charges 4:18 but this whole thing is unprecedented so 4:20 Judo obviously under a lot of pressure 4:22 do you feel that he might uh appoint a
4:25 special prosecutor in this case I I I 4:27 don't think so the you know the the the 4:30 the prosecutors the Department of 4:32 Justice has discretion over whether to 4:34 prosecute Eric Adams there's no reason 4:38 to appoint a special prosecutor I don't 4:40 think that's what the judge is going to 4:41 do although the judge does have power to 4:43 do that I believe the judge is going to 4:45 make a thoughtful written decision 4:48 taking into account all the various 4:50 arguments but also giving difference to 4:52 the justice department in their 4:54 discretion as to whether or not to 4:55 prosecut a couple things about the
4:57 charge of the charges but what was 4:59 interesting yesterday was that quid pro 5:01 quo did come up and whether or not there 5:04 was a quidd proquo and the prosecution 5:05 didn't say there wasn't they just said 5:07 even if there was you would still have 5:10 to drop the case so they didn't deny 5:11 that there was a quid pro quo Danielle 5:13 Sasson in her letter said that that's 5:14 the reason she didn't want to drop it 5:15
was because of a quid proo what did you 5:16 make of that exchange yesterday right so 5:18 now we're talking about the quid pro quo 5:20 between the Department of Justice the 5:22 alleged quid pro proo that uh for them 5:25 to drop the charges Eric Adams will have 5:27 to listen to Donald Trump and his 5:29 immigration 5:30 that quid pro ased to the quid pro in 5:33 the cas 5:34 itself clearly the officers of the Court
5:37 B is an officer of the court and they 5:39 deny any type of quid pro quid pro quot 5:42 uh this idea that Eric Adams you know 5:45 that that he may be removed because 5:48 somehow he's cooperating with the
5:50 president of the United States in an 5:52 immigration policy which is broken which 5:56 which most people agree is completely 5:57 broken is is ridiculous so so whether or 6:00 not there was a quidd proquo we'll drop 6:02 the charges if you do whatever Trump 6:04 wants you to do that was not established 6:07 in court yesterday all everybody that 6:09 was at that meeting denied that 6:11 happening and there are fficers of the 6:13 court and there must be discretion you 6:15 can't allege a quidd pro quo based on 6:17 hypothesis and speculation there has to 6:20 be real evidence of that and and deals 6:22 are made all the time with prosecutors 6:24 anyway which is a whole another issue so 6:26 based on what was presented yesterday 6:28 and you said that this is be a 6:29 thoughtful decision where do you think 6:31 that this is going to go the case will 6:33 be dismissed without prejudice and the 6:35 justice department will not bring
6:37 charges against Eric Adams again why not 6:41 why not do it with prejudice that was 6:43 question the meor the mayor was 6:44 questioning that yesterday saying why 6:45 not why not fight for this to be with
6:47 prejudice meaning the charges can't come 6:49 back right because I think the mayor 6:51 from his point of view is making a 6:53 calculation that there is a 99% chance 6:56 that these charges will never come back 6:58 so the idea that they're dismissing it 7:00 without prejudice they're just dropping 7:02 the case for right now so the mayor can 7:04 do his job I think the mayor and his 7:06 defense team made that type of
7:08 calculation and it wasn't something that 7:11 they wanted to fight for all right David 7:14 Schwarz thanks so much for coming and 7:15 appreciate your time this morning thank 7:17 you