The Justice Department's order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams will test whether a fiercely independent federal prosecutor's office can resist efforts by President Donald Trump's administration to rein it in.

Eric Adams isn’t going away. That was the message the mayor delivered in a sober but defiant five-minute midday address from City Hall on Tuesday, all but comparing Donald Trump’s Justice Department to the Almighty after Washington directed the Southern District of New York to dismiss the corruption charges against him.

New York City’s Democratic mayor had been scheduled to go to trial in April over charges he had described as politically motivated.