Auchincloss: Trump 'replacing the rule of law with the law of the ruler'

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) on Sunday criticized the order from the Trump administration's Justice Department to dismiss the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

In an interview on NewsNation's "The Hill Sunday," anchor Chris Stirewalt asked Auchincloss what he makes of top federal prosecutors resigning this past week instead of carrying out the order to drop the charges.

"What I say about it is that this president is replacing the rule of law with the law of the ruler," Auchincloss said.

"He came into office, he pardoned violent criminals from Jan. 6 insurrection, including men who tased cops in the neck. Those people are now recommitting crimes back in their communities. He fired inspectors general and federal prosecutors without cause, and now he is directly bullying the Southern District of New York to act in a corrupt manner," Auchincloss continued.

The remarks come just days after Trump's Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against the mayor, who had cozied up to the president in recent months as his bribery trial set for April neared.

Adams was indicted in September on counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national and bribery. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered prosecutors to dismiss the counts without assessing the strength of the case, and he indicated that the attorneys who filed the charges did nothing wrong.

Instead, he said the case "improperly interfered" with Adams's 2025 mayoral campaign and "unduly restricted" the mayor's ability to focus on "the illegal immigration and violent crime that has escalated under the policies of the prior Administration."

The move prompted concerns about a possible quid pro quo and led to the resignations of the interim U.S. attorney in Manhattan and several other federal prosecutors, who refused to drop the charges against Adams.

On Friday, President Trump said he was not involved in the mayor's case and suggested that the prosecutors would have been dismissed in the coming days anyway when asked about their resignations.

"I don't know about it," Trump said in the Oval Office, about the resignations. "Obviously, I'm not involved in that, but I would say this. If they had a problem — and these are mostly people from the previous administration, you understand. So they weren't going to be there anyway. They were all going to be gone or dismissed … because what you do is you come in and you put new people in."

"So when you say resigned, they were gonna be gone anyway," Trump continued. "But I know nothing about the individual case. I know that they didn't feel it was much of a case. They also felt that it was unfair with the election."

Auchincloss praised the prosecutors for refusing to dismiss the charges, pointing specifically to Hagan Scotten, the assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who resigned from his post over the order to dismiss the case.

"That was the lead prosecutor on Eric Adams, and he resigned rather than pursue this corrupt path," Auchincloss said. "And he said anybody who followed this order would be a fool or a coward. Now Hagan Scotten clerked for a conservative Supreme Court justice. He is no fool. He is a decorated special forces officer. He's no coward. Can Republicans answer the same? Because right now they look like both."

The Hill is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns NewsNation.

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