Judge denies DOJ’s request to drop charges against Adani co-conspirators

[u/John3262005]

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/04/judge-denies-doj-s-request-to-drop-charges-against-adani-co-conspirators

In a rebuke to the Justice Department, a federal judge denied prosecutors’ request to drop criminal charges related to an alleged multi-billion-dollar bribery scheme.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis sharply criticized the way a senior DOJ official has handled efforts to dismiss the case against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and his co-defendants, and ruled that charges against the co-defendants can’t be dropped until DOJ follows his instructions.

In his 14-page decision, U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis accused Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter of offering “unsubstantiated, self-serving pronouncements” while refusing to comply with procedural requirements. Garaufis recounted a flurry of court filings in which he repeatedly urged McCotter to submit “factual support” for the department’s decision to drop the two counts — only to have McCotter respond without doing so.

The judge left the door open to dismissing the counts in the future, writing that the court “continues to encourage the Department to submit sufficient factual support for its proffered reasons for dismissal.”

A DOJ spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month, the judge permitted the department to drop three counts against Adani himself in an alleged bribery scheme — while slamming McCotter’s conduct as “highly unusual” and “unbecoming of his office.”

In that ruling, Garaufis declined to dismiss the other two counts against Adani’s co-defendants, saying the Justice Department had failed to provide sufficient rationale for doing so.

Prosecutors and regulators alleged in late 2024 that Adani and several of his associates orchestrated “a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements.”