US Justice Department says Adani case should never have been brought, urges judge to permanently drop charges

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has strongly defended its decision to drop criminal charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani and seven others, telling a federal judge that the prosecution was legally flawed, diplomatically counterproductive and inconsistent with the Trump administration’s law enforcement priorities.

In a sharply worded 10-page filing, the Justice Department said the case “should have been thrown out a year ago — or never brought in the first place,” saying the court has only a limited role in reviewing its decision to dismiss the charges with prejudice.

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The filing came after U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis asked the department to explain why it was seeking a permanent dismissal of the indictment, calling its earlier motion “brief, bland and persuasive.”

In 2024, under the Biden administration, the Justice Department indicted Adani and others for allegedly engaging in a scheme to bribe Indian government officials to the tune of $250 million and lie to investors to obtain billions more in investment from other entities—during which the alleged Adani Green Energy Limited program raised at least $175 million from American investors.

The Justice Department said requiring prosecutors to publicly justify decisions to drop cases would discourage future dismissals, expose privileged insider dealings and violate the executive branch’s constitutional authority to make charging decisions.

“A judicial inquiry into the basis for dismissal will reveal privileged internal debates,” wrote Chief Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter, adding that such a requirement would harm defendants by potentially freezing the department from seeking dismissal of criminal charges it believes are not in the interest of justice.

Also Read: US judge won’t immediately dismiss criminal charges against Gautam Adani

McCotter waived privilege only for this case, saying he decided to dismiss the charges after months of meeting with defense attorneys, reviewing hundreds of pages of filings and conducting his own legal analysis. “The decision to request a release was not a close one,” he wrote.

The department cited six overarching reasons for dropping all charges, including that the alleged conduct was largely centered in India, Indian authorities investigated the allegations and found no actionable wrongdoing, investors suffered no financial losses, key evidence and witnesses were located abroad, the defendants were likely never to appear in a US court, and the prosecution faced significant evidentiary hurdles.

“This is a foreign case,” McCotter wrote.

The indictment concerns “several Indians (with possibly one or two Europeans) who allegedly attempted to bridge other Indians by paying the Indian government through complex Indian rebate programs to obtain Indian contracts to provide Indian electricity to Indians in India.”

“The United States, pretending to be the world’s police, can cause diplomatic disputes and also waste resources better spent on domestic issues. India can manage its internal systems better than the prosecutors in Brooklyn and Washington,” McCotter wrote.

The filing also argued that the criminal securities fraud charges against Gautam Adani, Sagar Adani and Cyril Cabanes lack a solid legal basis because the alleged misconduct occurred almost entirely outside the United States and the securities transactions did not meet the requirements of US jurisdiction.

The Justice Department said investors did not lose money because the bonds in question were either fully repaid or continued to be serviced. It also questioned whether the statements cited in the indictment constituted a crime of fraud, describing them as largely corporate “excuses” and “puff” that sophisticated institutional investors were unlikely to rely on.

“The securities charges should never have been brought,” McCotter wrote, adding that at most the charges warrant a civil, not criminal, resolution.

The department also said Foreign Corrupt Practices Act charges are no longer in line with Justice Department policy under Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s June 2025 memo, which directs prosecutors to focus on cases involving US national security, transnational criminal organizations, serious misconduct or harm to US companies.

“The alleged conduct did not involve criminal organizations, had no impact on American companies, did not interfere in any way with national security, was not egregious, and was the subject of an investigation in India,” the filing said. “According to the Blanche Memorandum, the FCPA charges should have been dropped a year ago.”

McCotter also rejected media reports suggesting the Justice Department had demanded the release in exchange for promises of US investment by the Adani Group, calling the claims “false”.

“I would push for the abolition of securities fees regardless of any mention of investments,” he wrote. “The mention of potential investments could play no part.”

The department urged the judge to quickly dismiss the case, arguing that continued judicial review only prolonged uncertainty for defendants facing charges the government itself no longer believed should proceed.

“In short, there was absolutely nothing improper about the Department’s motion to dismiss as presented,” McCotter wrote. “The defendants have been held in limbo on charges that should have been dropped a year ago – or never filed.”

Published – 4 Jul 2026 22:08 IST