At the Wednesday hearing, Spiro argued that it was the Justice Department, represented by the four prosecutors sitting nearby, who had done something wrong by leaking information about the indictment. He also claimed that prosecutors were being slow with sharing material in discovery and made the case for a trial sooner rather than later - as early as February. 'I know how to try cases, and I will be ready for trial,' he said. 'We expect the mayor to be acquitted, quickly.'
But the hearing did not quite go as planned for the defense attorney. Spiro fumbled an argument about the ballot certification for next year’s primary, and Judge Ho appeared skeptical the ballot would be affected much by the trial. The arguments about the alleged leaks devolved into whether Adams would take advantage of abstruse court rules that could have forced the government to move faster, all but erasing the prosecution’s advantage of extra time, if the argument succeeded.
At one point, the government detailed at length the kinds of evidence it plans to lay out in a 'likely' superseding indictment - including apparent allegations of witness tampering, new defendants, and issues with Adams's cell phone - only for Spiro to interrupt. 'I’m going to object to the continual 20-minute opening statement,' he said. Instead, Ho allowed prosecutors to continue.
Spiro is one of the city’s most familiar stock characters - a brawling, meticulously groomed, in-your-face attorney whose client list draws from the upper heights of the world’s wealthiest and most notorious. Adams, of course, is another kind of New York fixture: the made-for-the-tabloids mayor trailed by corruption allegations.
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