NEW YORK (AP) — At an extraordinary hearing Wednesday, a federal judge pressed the Justice Department over its demand to throw out New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption case, grilling a top official and putting the Democratic mayor under oath to answer concerns that the Trump administration’s lifeline came with strings attached.

“Not at all,” Adams responded stoically, his liberty and political future at stake.

Manhattan federal Judge Dale E. Ho declined to rule immediately, leaving the charges in place at least for now.

The Justice Department’s push to end Adams’ case led to a rift between its leadership in Washington and federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who brought the charges and rebuffed commands to drop them. Seven prosecutors resigned in protest.

“I’m not going to shoot from the hip right here on the bench,” Ho said, sighing heavily as he closed the 80-minute proceeding.

The judge said he wanted to carefully review the “unusual situation." Acknowledging the political and legal implications — including Adams’ reelection campaign and April 21 trial date — he indicted that he would rule soon, saying, “it is not in anyone’s interest for this to drag on.”

No one objecting to the Justice Department’s request spoke in court, though the judge said he received court filings from several people urging him to keep the case alive. He also cited letters written by some of the prosecutors who had resigned.

Ho called the hearing after Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove and two other lawyers from Justice Department headquarters in Washington filed paperwork last Friday seeking a dismissal. Bove stepped in after Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor refused to drop the case and quit instead.

Closely watching how things play out is Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has said she is considering removing Adams from office amid concerns that his reliance on the Trump administration to end his criminal case has left him politically compromised.

Adams appeared in high spirits as he came and went from court Wednesday, a shift from past appearances. Strolling slowly into the courtroom, he embraced Black clergy members sitting in the front row.

Bove, sitting alone at the prosecution table, told Ho that the Justice Department was simply exercising “prosecutorial discretion” based on President Donald Trump’s vision for the department and that granting the request was the only option. Bove said the decision to seek dismissal was reached without assessing the strength of the evidence.

The request is “virtually unreviewable in this courtroom," he argued.

Reiterating arguments from the dismissal motion and a Feb. 10 memorandum that set off a firestorm about the future of the case, Bove said the charges were impeding Adams’ ability to govern, hampering his campaign for a second term and impeding his cooperation with the administration’s immigration crackdown.

“Frankly I think the fact that Mayor Adams is sitting to my left right now is part of the problem,” Bove said. “He’s not able to be out running the city and campaigning. I think that is actual interference with the election.”

Bove urged Ho to ignore outside voices — including those of the prosecutors who quit in protest — and reject claims of a quid pro quo between Adams and the Justice Department.

“I don’t concede and I don’t think it’s correct that even if there was a quid pro quo, there would be any issue with this motion,” Bove added.

Adams, questioned under oath by Ho, testified that there was no “other agreement” between himself and the government. Ho also questioned the mayor about a provision in the Justice Department's dismissal motion that would allow prosecutors to revive charges against him at a later date.

“I understand that, Judge,” Adams said. “I have not committed a crime, and I don’t see them bringing it back.”

Adams pleaded not guilty last September to charges that he accepted more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from a Turkish official and business leaders seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He faces multiple challengers in the Democratic primary in June.

Two days after Bove ordered her to drop the case, then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon told U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in a letter that dismissing the charges in return for Adams' assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws would betray Bondi's own words that she “will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct.”

“Dismissal of the indictment for no other reason than to influence Adams’s mayoral decision-making would be all three,” said Sassoon, a Republican. She said it amounted to a quid pro quo deal and disclosed that prosecutors were about to bring additional obstruction of justice charges against Adams.

Bove, in accepting Sassoon's resignation, accused her of “pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case.” He said two other prosecutors assigned to the case were being suspended with pay and an investigation would determine if they would keep their jobs.

Another prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, told Bove in a resignation letter that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet Bove's demand, “but it was never going to be me.”

Shortly before Wednesday's hearing, Bondi’s chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, defended the department’s dismissal request.

In a series of posts on the social platform X, Mizelle argued that in the Adams case, prosecutors’ “expansive reading” of the public corruption law was unlikely to fare well before the Supreme Court, which has overturned the convictions of high-profile white-collar defendants.

“The case against Mayor Adams was just one in a long history of past DOJ actions that represent grave errors of judgement,” Mizelle wrote.

Sassoon and her colleagues have found support for their stand from a small army of former prosecutors.

A former Watergate prosecutor filed papers telling the judge to reject the government's request, to consider assigning a special counsel to explore the legal issues and ultimately to consider appointing an independent special prosecutor to try the case.

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed.