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(NEW YORK) — A document unsealed Tuesday from the criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams may raise questions about the testimony of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during his Senate confirmation hearing.

During the hearing, Blanche was asked about the Justice Department’s decision to drop the corruption charges against Adams.

“What I just saw with the dismissal of the Adams charge, that was directed by D.C., correct?” Democratic Sen. Peter Welch asked.

“I have the same information you have,” Blanche responded. “I don’t know beyond what I’ve [seen] publicly reported.”

However, a newly unsealed draft letter from then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon suggests Blanche may have known more than he let on.

Sassoon, who was fighting the directive to drop the mayor’s case, wrote that she expressed concern to top DOJ official Emil Bove that such a grave decision about a high-profile case should wait until Blanche was confirmed. In response, Sassoon wrote that “Bove informed me that Todd Blanche was on the ‘same page.'”

Sassoon would later resign rather than obey Bove’s order to drop the mayor’s case.

Her draft letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi was among a tranche of materials ordered unsealed by Judge Dale Ho, who is still considering whether to dismiss the case against Adams.

The Justice Department insisted Blanche played no role in the determination to seek dismissal.

“Todd Blanche was not involved in the Department’s decision-making prior to his confirmation,” a spokesperson said in a statement provided to ABC News.

The mayor’s lawyer said the unsealed letter is further proof that the case should be tossed.

“As I’ve said from the beginning, this bogus case that needed ‘gymnastics’ to find a crime – was based on ‘political motive’ and ‘ambition’, not facts or law. The more we learn about what was really going on behind the scenes, the clearer it is that Mayor Adams should have never been prosecuted in the first place,” the mayor’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement.

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(NEW YORK) — The number of measles cases associated with an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 400, with 73 cases reported over the last three days, according to new data released Friday.

Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). At least 41 people have been hospitalized so far.

Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases at 164, followed by children ages 4 and under comprising 131 cases, according to the data.

It comes as the CDC has so far confirmed 483 measles cases this year in at least 19 states: Alaska, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont and Washington

This is likely an undercount due to delays in states reporting cases to the federal health agency.

Meanwhile, reports have emerged that some unvaccinated children hospitalized with measles in Texas are showing signs of vitamin A toxicity.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other vaccine skeptics have promoted vitamin A amid the measles outbreak. During an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity earlier this month, Kennedy said that HHS was currently providing vitamin A to measles patients for treatment, claiming vitamin A can “dramatically” reduce measles deaths.

Vitamin A can be used as part of supportive treatment for those who are already sick, with the World Health Organization recommending two doses of vitamin A in children and adults with measles to restore low vitamin A levels, which can help prevent eye damage and blindness.

However, vitamin A does not prevent measles infections, experts previously told ABC News, nor does it directly fight the virus when used as a treatment.

Covenant Children’s Hospital, which has treated dozens of measles patients in Texas amid the outbreak, told ABC News in a statement that some parents appear to have given their unvaccinated children vitamin A for “treatment and prevention.” Some of those children now show signs of vitamin A toxicity.

Fewer than 10 children have come in with abnormal liver function in routine lab tests, indicating possible vitamin A toxicity, according to Covenant Children’s.

Vitamin A toxicity occurs when someone consumes too much vitamin A, and can result in severe complications iincluding liver and kidney damage.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says vaccination is the most effective way to prevent measles.

The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective, the CDC says. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.

State health data shows that Gaines County, which is the epicenter of the Texas outbreak, has seen its number of vaccine exemptions grow dramatically in the last dozen years.

In 2013, roughly 7.5% of kindergartners in the county had parents or guardians who filed for an exemption for at least one vaccine. Ten years later, that number rose to more than 17.5% — one of the highest in all of Texas, according to state health data.

Among the nationally confirmed cases by the CDC, about 95%, are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown, the agency said.

Of those cases, 3% are among those who received just one dose of the MMR inoculation and 2% are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.

ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisory committee meeting that was set to discuss what flu strains to include in next season’s flu vaccine has been canceled, multiple sources told ABC News, leaving some to wonder if the meeting cancelation will delay next year’s flu vaccine delivery schedule.

The meeting was canceled in an email sent from the FDA to members who were planning to attend the annual meeting in about two weeks.

The high-profile, public meetings of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee are where independent experts review scientific data and vote on a variety of vaccine related issues. Members of the March 13 meeting were set to vote on which flu strains would offer the most protection in next season’s flu shot.

“Influenza vaccines aren’t perfect and to get the best influence vaccine each year requires predicting the strain as best we can,” said Dr. Andrew Pavia, professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Utah and a spokesperson for the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “There’s a lot of complex data that needs to be reviewed and having a number of experts do it gives us the best chance of making the best prediction.”

The meeting typically takes into consideration recommendations from WHO. It also receives input and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense and vaccine manufacturers.

The timing of this meeting aligns with the six-month lead time typically required for vaccine manufacturing to ensure vaccines are ready for distribution in the fall — before peak flu season hits in the United States.

“I can’t think of any rational reason to do this other than to throw a hand grenade into vaccine production,” Pavia said. “The impact is going to be felt in terms of our ability to reduce flu hospitalizations and flu deaths.”

Earlier in the week, officials and specialists at the CDC virtually joined the annual WHO meeting to discuss the upcoming flu vaccine strain for next year, despite being previously ordered to halt all communication with the global health organization.

Typically, the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meets after the WHO meeting to finalize recommendations.

It remains unclear what impact the meeting cancellation may have on next season’s flu vaccine. But experts are concerned about the timing because flu vaccines are made using chicken eggs to grow and harvest the virus before processing it into a vaccine.

“It’s a very very tight timeline because it takes a long time to create the template viruses and then grow them in eggs,” Pavia said. “It is a many months long process and any delay means it will be difficult to have vaccine in time for the next season.”

U.S. vaccine strains are usually picked by April. Manufacturing is completed over the summer and delivered for vaccination starting in September.

Sanofi, one manufacturer of flu vaccines, told ABC News the company has already started the initial steps of manufacturing.

“Just as every year, we have already begun production for the 2025-2026 flu season in the Northern Hemisphere and will be ready to support final strain selections in time for the season,” a spokesperson for Sanofi told ABC News.

However, the FDA must approve the final strains for the shots to be legally marketed and distributed in the U.S.

ABC News has reached out to both the FDA and Health and Human Services for comment.

Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s independent committee who was planning on attending the meeting said, “Who canceled this meeting? Why did they cancel it? Will the vaccine makers turn to the World Health Organization to determine which strains to include in this year’s vaccine?”

“It’s very concerning with regard to the ability to produce enough vaccine in time for next year’s flu season,” Pavia added. “Hopefully, there will be workarounds that could be developed. But what they are — we don’t know yet.”

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