A federal judge on Monday rejected the criminal fraud charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and several of his co-defendants, after Politically appointed leaders in the Justice Department decided to dismiss the case in May. The decision comes after a lengthy and contentious ruling by Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis for the Eastern District of New York, where he refused to dismiss two of the counts against five other co-defendants.
In a scathing 47-page ruling, Garaufis took aim at Trent McCotter, the principal associate deputy attorney general, who he said bears sole responsibility for trying to dismiss the case. The judge argued that McCotter had disregarded professional opinions and relied solely on his judgment, a move that was deeply concerning.
Garaufis detailed how the judge ordered the rejection of the dismissal, citing the Justice Department’s failure to provide him with a sufficient reason for doing so. The ruling detailed that McCotter’s decision to dismiss the case largely in collaboration with defense counsel, and seemingly without input from the FBI and SEC agents who investigated the alleged misconduct, or the attorneys from the Department, SEC, and U.S. Attorney’s Office who brought the case, appeared highly unusual.
In a memo to the court, McCotter stated that he and other government officials met with McDonald, Giuffra, and Andrew DeFilippis of Sullivan & Cromwell, sources previously told CBS News. McDonald has since been nominated by Mr. Trump to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The high-profile foreign bribery case against Adani was brought at the tail end of former President Joe Biden’s tenure, and it managed to survive even after President Trump ordered the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct a review into all of their pending foreign bribery cases.
After Adani retained Bob Giuffra and Jamie McDonald of Sullivan & Cromwell, the Justice Department in May moved to dismiss the case entirely. McCotter made the determination after he and other government officials met with McDonald, Giuffra, and Andrew DeFilippis, sources told CBS News. McDonald has since been nominated by Mr. Trump to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
In one of these meetings at the Justice Department about the Adani case, Giuffra made a presentation that disputed evidence of the alleged bribery scheme, according to sources familiar with the matter and records reviewed by CBS News. One slide touted how one of Adani’s companies is “powering India’s progress,” and another slide said the Trump administration "would not have brought the case."
If prosecutors were to drop the charges, Giuffra also said at the meeting, Adani — the leader of a massive Indian conglomerate — would be willing to invest $10 billion in the American economy, sources told CBS News.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment beyond the letter McCotter submitted to the court about the case, in which he said he made the decision to dismiss the charges "after conducting numerous meetings with defense counsel" and reviewing "hundreds of pages of materials."
CBS News has reached out to Adani’s lawyer for comment.
Judges have some discretion to review motions to dismiss charges, but it is unusual for them to extensively question the government’s rationale for tossing out indictments.
The decision to dismiss the Adani case has raised eyebrows and sparked questions from the judge. Two career prosecutors who were involved in the case withdrew from the matter after the motion to dismiss was filed. Additionally, politically appointed officials — the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and McCotter— were the only signatories on the motion to dismiss.
McCotter initially pushed back when Garaufis first started raising questions about the motion to dismiss the case, prompting the judge to order Adani last month to provide answers to the court on whether there was any sort of quid pro quo arrangement. The judge did accept some of the Justice Department’s arguments for dismissing the two counts against the five remaining co-defendants. He also ordered attorneys for the remaining defendants to inform the court that they consent to the dismissal.
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Source: CBS News
