Three headlines diverged on the web

1

The top story on my Google News feed was about how the case against the New York City Mayor was dropped. Here were some of the headlines

Three headlines: The New York Times: Judge Ends Case Against Adams, Bowing to Trump Administration’s Wishes CNN: Judge dismisses Eric Adams case and says it cannot be brought again, defying Trump DOJ Fox News: NYC Mayor Eric Adams indictment dismissed with prejudice
Three headlines: The New York Times: Judge Ends Case Against Adams, Bowing to Trump Administration’s Wishes CNN: Judge dismisses Eric Adams case and says it cannot be brought again, defying Trump DOJ Fox News: NYC Mayor Eric Adams indictment dismissed with prejudice426×275 22.9 KB

From what I can tell the sequence of events was:

  1. The Trump administration promised the mayor that the Department of Justice would drop corruption charges in exchange for his cooperation in immigration matters.
  2. The Department of Justice asked the judge to drop the charges without prejudice, which means they could file those same charges again in the future without running into double jeopardy problems. (This is unusual for politicians because it means the government can use the threat of charges to get cooperation on political matters.)
  3. The judge dropped the charges with prejudice, which means the government can’t file those charges again in the future.

So yes, the judge did what the Trump administration wanted by dropping the charges. And yes, the judge defied Trump by dropping them with prejudice. It was Fox News that presented the information without spelling out the implications for national politics.

I appreciate that. Not everything needs to be framed by which team it helps.