Justice Department lawyers and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are set to face a federal judge who is signaling that he's unlikely to rubber stamp their request to drop corruption charges weeks before an April trial.

Eric Adams’ City Hall, already embattled from his indictment last year on federal corruption charges, has now been plunged into an even deeper crisis that threatens to sink his mayoralty. Four of Adams' deputies — touted last fall as reliable bureaucrats to demonstrate steady leadership to a principal under indictment — are quitting and soon to be gone.