Opinion: Beg your pardon?

The laws of justice and politics have been swirling like a tornado the past ten days in Washington, D.C., and the winds from this brave new world have now blown into New York City and City Hall.

It all started 10 days ago with a last-minute Inauguration invitation to our embattled Mayor Eric Adams late on the eve of MLK Day, which also happened to be the day of the installation of the 47th president of the United States.

This unexpected invite resulted in an unusual overnight drive by Adams in the wee hours of the morning to make it to D.C. in time to witness President-elect Donald Trump stride to the lectern at the Capitol Rotunda.

This was a very coveted invitation because seating was limited – even many senators and members of Congress were not able to squeeze into the room where it was about to happen.

Adams appeared to be in the new president’s good graces, up there with the tech oligarchs that came to show their devotion to the new leader of the free world and were rewarded with plum seats at the political event of the year.

But the mayor’s invite proved to be not as attractive as initially thought, as the mayor of the largest city in the country was relegated to the spillover room, sitting near some of the crypto bros who stand to make billions from the new administration’s pro-crypto policies.

Just a week earlier, Adams was in Florida for a private meeting with the president, his son Eric and the mayor’s erstwhile BFF, Frank Carone. None of that conversation was made public, but the mayor said it was a productive discussion about how the new White House can help New York.

After the mayor returned to New York City, the reality of Trump 2.0 hit the city. Earlier this week, new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came to town to highlight a series of high-profile ICE operations in the Big Apple. 

Many of these raids targeted alleged gang members and others accused of serious crimes, but ICE also made a number of “collateral arrests” of undocumented people who just had the misfortune of being nearby when federal immigration agents showed up looking for someone else. 

The city is now bracing for the next steps in the battle to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, many of whom have come to New York’s sanctuary city the past few years.

Late Sunday night, City Hall’s deputy mayor for communications issued a cryptic press advisory that the “mayor wasn’t feeling his best” and would not be conducting public events for the week while he consulted and met with his doctors. For a mayor with a history of pre-diabetes and its attendant health risks, alarm bells went off in political circles that the mayor might be very ill.

But by late Tuesday, concerns about the mayor’s physical health had been tamped down, overshadowed by a “death watch” of his political health.

I received numerous texts from mayoral candidates, other elected leaders, consultants and others in the insular political world who were floating rumors that were widely circulating.

“The mayor is cutting a deal and will resign by the end of the week,” wrote one insider.

“There is no plea deal,” insisted another powerful New Yorker.

“I’m hearing that there will be a superseding indictment by Wednesday night,” wrote another.

“The mayor has been caught on tape by the feds with more damning info that  will lead him to either resign or cut a plea deal,” went another.

“WTF is going on?” was the collective cry from the political chattering class.

A well-connected supporter of the mayor told me that the mayor’s attorney was preparing a resignation letter on Wednesday morning. By noon, calls and texts were swirling that Politico was working on a story about a superseding indictment coming Wednesday night. 

The mayor was still confined to Gracie Mansion with his mysterious ailment, and the whole city was waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Until around 4 p.m., when The New York Times, the preferred media conduit for the Southern District of New York, reported: “Justice Dept. Is Said to Discuss Dropping Case Against Eric Adams.”

Everyone in the political world had the same reaction: “Beg your pardon? There’s no superseding indictment? No resignation? They’re dropping the whole case?”

Heads were spinning. Jaws were dropping. Phone lines were buzzing.

We are living in Bizarro world, as Jerry Seinfeld might say.

A week after the new president pardoned all of the roughly 1,500 people who stormed our nation’s Capitol in 2020 (including those who attacked some public safety officers), the Justice Department was doing the exact opposite of what everyone expected.

Weeks earlier, federal prosecutors had indicated in court that there was additional damning evidence against the mayor that could result in a superseding indictment. Now, the leadership in D.C. reportedly was considering saying: “Nah, there’s no case here. Let’s drop all charges.”

It might not be a coincidence that the Justice Department is getting cold feet about prosecuting Adams just as ICE raids are ramping up in New York City. The Times reported that Adams’ attorney “suggested that the mayor would not be inclined to cooperate with the president’s immigration crackdown if he remained under indictment.”

Things are moving at lightning speed. By the time you read this, less than 12 hours after I’m writing this column, Bizarro world could reverse itself and the heat could be on full blast again at Gracie Mansion.

But I doubt it.

Around the same time the Times story broke, the City Hall press office announced that the mayor had been cleared by his doctor to resume public events, one of the mayor’s favorite pastimes. Whatever mysterious illness announced Sunday night seemed to pass. Everyone who cares for our mayor and for our city is relieved the mayor is feeling better.

But I bet that a forgiving Justice Department message reported by The New York Times certainly didn’t hurt the mayor’s recovery.

Now the guessing game begins. Why is Trump essentially pardoning the mayor through the Justice Department? Does this give Trump more leverage in having the mayor comply with ICE raids and mass deportations? Is this turn of events good or bad for the mayor’s reelection prospects?

Stay tuned for the next installment of “New York’s Bizarro Political World.” The next five months until the June 24 primary (and likely beyond) promises to be the best and most unpredictable show in town.

There’s a reason this year’s Inner Circle show theme is “Beg your pardon.”