Judge says DOJ replaced investigators’ opinions with singular judgment
The charges against Gautam Adani, the head of the Indian conglomerate Adani Group, and seven other current or former executives of the group or its subsidiary Adani Green Energy were originally filed in November 2024. The indictment alleged that the defendants participated in schemes to pay $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to secure lucrative solar energy contracts, lied to U.S. and international investors to raise billions of dollars in financing, and impeded the investigations of three U.S. government entities. The three alleged schemes were conducted between 2020 and 2024, according to the indictment.
In May, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter requested that the charges be dismissed, stating “the Department of Justice has reviewed this case and has decided, in its prosecutorial discretion, not to devote further resources to these criminal charges against individual defendants.”
McCotter’s stated reasoning for the dismissal included that the case was predominantly foreign, that India had investigated the allegations and found no actionable misconduct, that investors lost no money, that there would be “extraordinary proof problems,” that the defendants would likely never appear before U.S. courts, and that the indictment was unsealed during the final days of the Biden administration to drop “a potential quagmire of a case into the lap” of the incoming Trump administration.
Judge Garaufis, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, called the “irregularities” in McCotter’s decision to dismiss the indictment “concerning” and said the principal associate deputy attorney general “appears to have eschewed the professional opinions of innumerable officials from various federal offices and replaced them with his singular judgment.”
The judge said McCotter reached the decision largely in collaboration with Adani’s defense counsel and seemingly without input from those who investigated and brought the case, adding that the decision “evinces a lack of respect for the judiciary.”
Garaufis also strongly rebuked McCotter for alleging that the Biden administration’s Justice Department unsealed the indictment during its final days to hinder the incoming Trump administration. The judge said McCotter appeared to be accusing officials from four different government agencies without providing “a scintilla of evidence” that the unsealing was politically motivated.
“McCotter’s baseless assertion is unbecoming of his office. It is also inconsistent with this court’s experience,” Garaufis said.
He said the court had “presided over innumerable cases brought by the SEC, the FBI, the department and the U.S. Attorney’s Office over the last 26 years (and counting)” and did not agree with McCotter’s characterization of their integrity and motives.
The judge’s order also recounts several events involving Gautam Adani and President Donald Trump or his inner circle during the period when Adani was being investigated and prosecuted. The order recounts that Adani congratulated Trump on Nov. 6, 2024, on winning re-election and announced a commitment to invest $10 billion in the United States days later. The order also cites reporting that Gautam Adani and Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., held meetings as early as November 2025.
On Monday, Gautam Adani said in a social media statement that he welcomed the court’s decision “with humility and deep respect for the judicial process.”
“Throughout this challenging period, our faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering,” he said.
The three fraud-related charges were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled. The judge reserved judgment on two conspiracy charges against five other defendants and asked the Justice Department for more information before deciding their dismissals.