White House border czar Tom Homan on Sunday denied allegations of a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and New York Mayor Eric Adams, calling the notion that the Justice Department moved to dismiss criminal charges against Adams in exchange for the mayor’s cooperation on immigration “ridiculous.”
CNN anchor Dana Bash asked Homan, “It sounds like the DOJ dropped the case against Adams and, in exchange, he let you into Rikers,” referring to the New York City jail. “Is that what happened?”
“No, I think that’s ridiculous,” Homan replied, saying the two have been discussing access to the Rikers Island jail for months.
During a closed-door meeting with Homan on Thursday, Adams agreed to allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to operate at Rikers.
The two men then sat for an interview with “Fox & Friends” on Friday, during which Homan said, “I came to New York City and I wasn’t going to leave with nothing,” adding he would be on Adams’ case and “be in his office, up his butt,” if the mayor did not follow through with his commitment.
Homan, who served as acting ICE director in President Donald Trump’s first administration, said Sunday that the conversation between him and Adams — a former New York City police captain — was “cop to cop.”
“I just think people are making a lot about nothing,” Homan said. “I mean, again, I went up there as the ICE director, now the border czar, and we collaborated on how to move illegal alien crime, decrease it down in New York City, and find the worst of the worst. And that’s what we talked about. It was cop to cop, not border czar to mayor, cop to cop.”
The Justice Department moved to dismiss corruption charges against Adams on Friday, following an internal mutiny that included a wave of resignations over the department’s handling of Adams’ case.
At least seven DOJ officials have resigned as part of the fallout of Adams’ legal saga, including Danielle R. Sassoon, who was the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan. Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered U.S. prosecutors in New York to dismiss the charges against Adams, arguing in part that the case was interfering with Adams’ ability to help the administration tackle illegal immigration.
Sassoon, a conservative who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, resigned in a sharply worded memo to Attorney General Pam Bondi, which said that during a Jan. 31 meeting with Bove and Adams’ lawyers, “Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.”
Adams, who was elected mayor in 2021 and is up for re-election in November, was indicted last year on bribery and fraud charges and had been facing trial in April.
Adams has pleaded not guilty and has insisted he is innocent and the charges are politically motivated. Adams and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, vehemently denied any quid pro quo offered in the Jan. 31 meeting.
