New Delhi: A US federal judge has questioned whether the Department of Justice gave the court the full reasons for seeking dismissal of the criminal indictment against Gautam Adani after a filing by the billionaire's lawyer appeared to contradict the department's claim that a single official alone decided to drop the case.

In an order issued on Wednesday (July 15), Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York said a declaration filed by Adani's lawyer, Robert Giuffra Jr., had introduced "new documents and new information" that prompted fresh questions about the Justice Department's account of its decision-making. 

"The representations made in Mr. Giuffra's declaration and the quoted portions of US Attorney Nocella's email appear to directly contradict that claim and to call into doubt whether Mr. McCotter's professed reasons for seeking dismissal of the indictment are the “real” and complete reasons on which the government's motion is based," he wrote.

The contradiction arises from two filings before the court made less than two weeks apart. 

In a July 4 submission, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter said he was the "final and sole decisionmaker" behind the government's bid to dismiss the indictment and had therefore not asked US Attorney Joseph Nocella or any other government lawyer to sign his filing.

Giuffra's declaration, filed alongside Gautam Adani's affidavit, disclosed a May 11 email from Nocella to defence lawyers – copied to McCotter and Tysen Duva, an assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division – rejecting one aspect of the defendants' settlement proposal while indicating that discussions over other possible grounds for resolving the criminal case remained active.

In his affidavit, filed in response to Judge Garaufis's July 8 order, Adani denied knowledge of any agreement in exchange for dismissal while acknowledging that his lawyers had suggested the Adani Group's proposed $10 billion US investment "might be part of a resolution" if that was what the DOJ or the SEC wanted.

Alongside the affidavit, Giuffra filed a declaration providing what he described as additional context. Among the new material disclosed by Giuffra were excerpts from a May 11 email sent by Nocella to defence lawyers, with copies to McCotter and other senior Justice Department officials. 

Garaufis said the excerpts suggested that Nocella was involved in determining the "grounds for resolution" of the criminal case as recently as May 11, about a week before the Justice Department moved to dismiss the indictment.

“The excerpt suggests that, in fact, US Attorney Nocella was also a decisionmaker and involved in the process to resolve the charges against defendants – including the determination of the 'grounds for resolution of the pending criminal charges with the Department of Justice' – as recently as May 11, 2026," he wrote.

The judge also noted that although Nocella signed the government's May 18 motion to dismiss, he did not sign McCotter's July 4 letter explaining the reasons for abandoning the prosecution. McCotter had further stated that he did "not ask the US Attorney or any other attorney to sign th[e] submission." Under those circumstances, Garaufis said, the court required assurances directly from Nocella that "the reasons advanced [by Mr. McCotter] for the proposed dismissal are ... the real grounds upon which the application is based."

Background

The latest order follows weeks of judicial scrutiny of the Justice Department's attempt to abandon the criminal indictment. 

The DOJ’s indictment, unsealed in November 2024, accused Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others of orchestrating a years-long scheme to pay about $250 million in bribes to Indian state government officials to secure lucrative renewable energy contracts, while misleading US investors who purchased debt securities linked to the Adani Group. In a parallel civil case, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Gautam and Sagar Adani of misleading investors through statements made in connection with a 2021 bond offering.

In May, the SEC reached a proposed settlement with Gautam and Sagar Adani under which they agreed to pay a combined $18 million in civil penalties without admitting or denying the allegations. Four days later, the Justice Department moved to dismiss the criminal indictment with prejudice, saying only that it had decided, "in its prosecutorial discretion," not to devote further resources to pursuing the case.

Last month, Garaufis declined to immediately approve the US government's request to throw out the indictment, describing the motion to dismiss as "terse, bland and conclusory." He had directed the prosecutors to explain in detail each reason for seeking dismissal.

Responding on July 4, McCotter denied media reports that Adani's proposed US investments had influenced the department's decision, insisting that he had already decided to seek dismissal before the investment proposal arose. He also wrote that he had been the "final and sole decisionmaker" in the matter.

After reviewing Giuffra's declaration, Garaufis also directed him to produce the complete email quoted in the filing by noon of July 16, observing that the court had been provided with only an excerpt. 

Within a few hours, Giuffra complied, telling the court that his declaration had omitted only "a handful of introductory words" from the beginning of Nocella's email and filed the full email exchange.

The email correspondence showed that Nocella informed the defence on May 11 of the rejection of a proposal to invest $10 billion as part of the resolution to drop the charges.

“This email is to confirm that the portion of the joint defense offer made by Gautam Adani, represented by Sullivan & Cromwell, Sagar R. Adani, represented by Nixon Peabody LLP and Hecker Fink LLP, and Vneet S. Jaain, represented by Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, to resolve the criminal charges against them by, in part, a general proposal to invest $10 billion in the United States is categorically rejected by this Office”.

But he also told the lawyers, "We understand that other grounds for resolution of the pending criminal charges with the Department of Justice are being explored." He further clarified that any settlements with the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control would remain independent of the criminal case.

Garaufis has now directed Nocella to file a sworn declaration by July 17 stating whether he agrees with each of the reasons for dismissal set out in McCotter's July 4 filing and whether any additional grounds existed for the government's decision to abandon the prosecution, together with supporting facts.

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