A former Republican Tennessee lawmaker says President Donald Trump has pardoned him two weeks into his 21-month prison sentence for an illegal campaign finance scheme. Former Sen. Brian Kelsey announced on social media Tuesday that he received a “full and unconditional pardon” for the scheme that he pleaded guilty to in 2022, before he tried and failed to take back his plea. He reported to a federal minimum security facility in Ashland, Kentucky, late last month. Kelsey pleaded guilty in November 2022 to charges related to his attempts to funnel campaign money from his state legislative seat toward his failed 2016 congressional bid. He had tried unsuccessfully to rescind the plea and raise other claims on appeal.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is in a state of legal and political purgatory. The first-term Democrat is waiting on a judge to rule on a Justice Department request to dismiss a federal indictment charging him with accepting lavish travel perks and illegal campaign contributions from foreign interests seeking to buy his influence. And he’s waiting on the political fallout. Namely, that's whether Gov. Kathy Hochul will seek to remove him from office amid concerns that he’s compromised his independence by relying on the Trump administration to end his criminal case.

Manhattan federal Judge Dale E. Ho faces the biggest challenge of his young judicial career: deciding whether to end New York Mayor Eric Adams' corruption case. Ho is weighing a request from top Justice Department officials to dismiss the charges over the objections of federal prosecutors in Manhattan, some of whom have resigned in protest. Ho is summoning the parties, including Adams, to his courtroom Wednesday as he seeks to drill down on the Justice Department’s drive to end the case and the mayor’s willingness to go along with that.

The U.S. attorney for Manhattan has resigned after she refused to succumb to pressure from the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against New York City’s mayor. The resignation Thursday of Danielle Sassoon was confirmed by a spokesperson for the office. Sassoon is a Republican who was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. A top Justice Department official on Monday directed Sassoon to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams, who was accused of accepting bribes of free or discounted travel and illegal campaign contributions. Adams insists he is innocent.

The criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams is hanging by a thread after the Justice Department ordered federal prosecutors to drop the charges. It remains unclear how quickly that might happen or if the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan might try to resist the directive. In a two-page memo sent on Monday, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed federal prosecutors to dismiss the bribery charges “as soon as is practicable,” saying that they were disrupting the mayor’s ability to assist in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and crime.

A top official at the U.S. Department of Justice has ordered federal prosecutors to drop charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams and halt the ongoing investigation. The development comes after months of speculation that Trump would take steps to end the criminal case against Adams, who was accused of accepting bribes of free or discounted travel and illegal campaign contributions. Trump had hinted at the possibility of a pardon in December, telling reporters the mayor had been “treated pretty unfairly.” Adams had insisted he was innocent of any wrongdoing.