Justice Department lawyers in Washington met on Friday with Manhattan federal prosecutors and defense lawyers representing Mayor Eric Adams of New York City to discuss dropping the corruption case against him, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Details of the meeting, held at the Justice Department building in Washington, were not immediately available. But it came days after senior department officials had conversations with the federal prosecutors in Manhattan who brought the high-profile case — which President Trump has criticized — about dropping it at their direction.
The session was expected to determine the future of the first criminal prosecution of a sitting mayor in modern New York City history, a bribery and fraud case that is set to go to trial in April.
Senior officials from the federal prosecutors’ office in Manhattan, including the interim head of the office, Danielle R. Sassoon, were seen outside the Justice Department shortly before the meeting on Friday afternoon. Two of Mr. Adams’s lawyers, Alex Spiro and William Burck, also met with department officials.
A spokesman for the Manhattan prosecutors’ office, Nicholas Biase, declined to comment, and the defense lawyers could not immediately be reached. Mr. Spiro and Mr. Burck emerged from the building on Friday afternoon, about an hour after Mr. Spiro was seen entering it. The Manhattan prosecutors left about 30 minutes after that.
The agency’s handling of the matter represents a high-profile test of the department under the Trump White House and is likely to be seen as an indication of how extensively the president will interfere with the administration of justice during his second term.
Since Watergate, the White House has largely kept the Justice Department at arm’s length to ensure the agency’s independence. And while Mr. Trump broke with that norm during his first term, a dismissal of the case against Mr. Adams, who has curried favor with the president for months, would be a strong signal that any distance between the presidency and the department has closed.
Mr. Trump could, of course, pardon Mr. Adams, and in December suggested he was considering doing so. Under the law, the president’s attorney general also has the authority to ask the presiding judge to dismiss the indictment.
But if the federal prosecutors in Manhattan seek to dismiss it, Mr. Trump will be able to avoid the appearance of interference, and Mr. Adams, who is running for re-election, could say that the Justice Department determined that the case against him should not continue.
That would strongly counter the impression left by the prosecutors in recent weeks. Earlier this month, they said in a court filing that they had uncovered “additional criminal conduct” by the mayor. Last month, Mr. Adams’s lawyers revealed in court papers that prosecutors had presented more evidence to a grand jury in his case, a disclosure that also suggested that additional charges were in the offing.
Mr. Adams, who traveled to Florida to meet with Mr. Trump near Mar-a-Lago and who attended his inauguration, has aligned himself with the president on some aspects of immigration enforcement, one of the new White House’s highest priorities.
The mayor also opposes some provisions of New York City’s sanctuary laws, which limit city workers’ cooperation with federal authorities, as Mr. Trump prepares a nationwide immigration crackdown.
Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.
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