The New York City Law Department will not represent Mayor Eric Adams or his administration in the lawsuit filed by the City Council over his executive order to allow federal immigration authorities to operate on Rikers Island, the city’s largest jail complex.

“The New York City Law Department has advised that they will not be representing any party in this litigation, and the respondents are accordingly in the process of identifying outside counsel to represent them in this matter,” Allison Stoddart, the mayor’s chief counsel, wrote in an emailed letter to the Manhattan Supreme Court clerk on Tuesday evening, which was obtained by the New York Daily News.

Muriel Goode-Trufant, who heads the Law Department as the city’s corporation counsel, said in a statement: “Due to the fact that the New York City Law Department has provided advice to both sides of City Hall on the scope of the city’s sanctuary city laws, it has removed itself from representing either side of City Hall in this litigation.”

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