Ho, who argued against Trump’s first administration twice before the U.S. Supreme Court, 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.

A judge scrutinized the Justice Department‘s controversial decision to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams during a hearing on Wednesday and did not issue any rulings from the bench,

The judge acknowledges he has little latitude, but still wants to carefully consider the government's request.

The jurists are grappling with how to handle a different sort of bid for power by Mr. Trump, sometimes halting his blizzard of executive orders and sometimes letting them move forward.