NYC Mayor Eric Adams is running as an independent for reelection

The development comes with three months to go until a Democratic primary that is likely to choose the city's next mayor.

Fresh off the dissolution of his criminal corruption case, New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he's pulling out of the Democratic primary and running instead as an independent, citing his court case as a distraction.

The embattled Democrat announced Thursday that he will run for mayor as an independent, leaving Andrew Cuomo, who resigned as governor of New York amid a sexual harassment controversy, the primary contender at the top of the blue ticket. Adams remains a registered Democrat, however.

In a video, Adams, said he will not run in the Democratic primary in June because the case “dragged on too long” while the “false accusations were held over me."

“I firmly believe that this city is better served by truly independent leadership, not leaders pulled at by the extremists at the far left or the far right, but instead those rooted in the common middle, the place where the vast majority of New Yorkers are firmly planted," Adams said. "There isn’t a liberal or conservative way to fix New York, but there is a right way."

The development comes with three months to go until a Democratic primary that is likely to choose the city's next mayor. Adams faces a large field of challengers and several Democrats who say he’s now too indebted to Trump for New Yorkers to be sure he’ll prioritize their interests. A recent poll shows Cuomo trouncing him.

Adams has said he's “solely beholden to the 8.3 million New Yorkers that I represent, and I will always put this city first.” He also said he will remain a registered Democrat.

Cuomo, who has been leading in the polls thus far in the race for mayor, appeared to shrug at the news. On stage at the National Action Network forum Thursday afternoon, the former New York governor pivoted to attack President Donald Trump, territory that Adams has never approached.

"Trump is a bully and we will protect New York," Cuomo said.

When asked how he would be different from Adams if elected, Cuomo — who could absorb much of the mayor’s democratic base — didn't give a specific answer.

At the same NAN forum, Adams said "I'm going to fight any White House that is not going to benefit our city."

As recently as Jan. 6, the assistant U.S. attorneys in New York who were prosecuting Adams wrote in court papers that they continued to “uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams.” But a month later, their new superiors in Washington decided to abandon the case.

In court filings and a hearing, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove has said he was "particularly concerned about the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams’ ability to support” Trump’s immigration objectives. Bove also has questioned the prior administration’s motives in pursuing Adams, who had criticized then-President Joe Biden’s handling of an influx of migrants.

The Trump administration’s acting U.S. attorney in New York, Danielle Sassoon, resisted Bove’s order, saying she couldn’t defend a dismissal linked to political considerations.

Adams, a retired police captain and former state lawmaker and Brooklyn official, was elected in 2021 as a centrist Democrat in one of the United States’ liberal strongholds. But since his indictment in September, Adams has cultivated a warmer relationship with Trump, telling his staff not to criticize the president publicly and making media appearances with administration officials.

Adams insists that he’s just looking out for the city by having a working relationship with the administration.