A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Caitlin Tremblay

What's going on today?

Have a great weekend!

NYC Mayor Eric Adams attends a press conference, Feb. 20, 2025. REUTERS/Jeenah Moon

U.S. District Judge Dale Ho said he would not immediately dismiss New York City Mayor Eric Adams' corruption case, but ordered the trial delayed indefinitely after the DOJ asked him to dismiss charges.

In a written ruling Ho said he would appoint an outside lawyer, Paul Clement of the law firm Clement & Murphy, to present arguments against the prosecutors' bid to dismiss to help him make a decision. Read more about Ho’s decision.

Learn more about Judge Ho.

DOJ officials in D.C. asked Ho to dismiss the charges against Adams on Feb. 14 after several prosecutors resigned rather than follow orders from Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, President Donald Trump's former personal criminal defense lawyer, to seek dismissal of the case brought last year. The Trump DOJ argued that dismissal is needed so Adams can focus on helping Trump crack down on illegal immigration. Senior Democrats have said that dismissing the charges makes Adams beholden to Trump's administration.

Trump administration…

President Donald Trump continued his overhaul of the federal government. A federal judge ruled that Trump can continue mass firings despite disruption and chaos, but some of his plans hit legal snags: A federal judge temporarily halted the firings of 11 CIA officers and a different federal judge blocked Trump's removal of a Democrat from a government workplace board. Trump’s DOJ is also taking shape: He picked first-term loyalists for top posts, the department declared administrative law judge removal rules unconstitutional and Trump instructed the department to terminate all remaining Biden-era U.S. attorneys. The DOJ also dropped its immigration case against SpaceX and cut its database tracking federal police misconduct. Also, FBI pick Kash Patel was confirmed. Meanwhile, legal fights over Trump’s executive orders made their way through the courts. A judge again ordered the U.S. to unfreeze foreign aid but stopped short of contempt, the 9th Circuit rejected Trump's emergency bid to curtail birthright citizenship, and two lawsuits were filed challenging Trump's end to deportation protections for Venezuelans.

Legal industry…

Venable was hit with a $10 million lawsuit by an ex-client in an FDA fight … AI "hallucinations" in court papers spell trouble for lawyers … Cleary plans to close its Beijing office in the latest U.S. law firm retreat from China … And a Republican lawmaker called for a U.S. judge's impeachment over a ruling against Trump.

IP…

OpenAI must face part of The Intercept’s lawsuit over AI training … Netflix and Warner Bros were sued by Pepperdine University over a basketball comedy … Elon Musk's X Corp and a PR firm settled a lawsuit over the "X" trademark … Bio-Rad was sued by Caltech over DNA analysis technology … Guardant Health sued rival Natera over cancer-testing trade secrets … And Stanley Black & Decker sued the maker of Stanley cups over the trademark.

Trump deported 37,660 peoplein his first month … Fired and rehired: the dizzying confusion of Trump's government overhaul … Russia could concede $300 billion in frozen assets as part of Ukraine war settlement, sources say … How Germany's economic strength became a weakness