By Chris Walker
The DOJ had ordered the case against Mayor Eric Adams to be dropped following weeks of his cozying up to Trump.
UPDATE: As of Friday afternoon, the number of federal prosecutors who have resigned over the Department of Justice’s demands to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams (amid claims that that action was part of a quid pro quo with the Trump administration) .
Three senior federal prosecutors within the Department of Justice (DOJ) abruptly resigned on Thursday after refusing to follow orders from the acting deputy attorney general to drop charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Adams was facing charges . One of the prosecutors who was fired also indicated that to “add an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that Adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence.”
In the past several weeks, however, Adams has been cozying up to the Trump administration, , for example, for what appeared to many observers to be talks of a pardon. Adams Trump’s far right agenda on immigration since the president took office.
On Monday, Adams’s efforts seemed to have paid off, as the DOJ ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop all charges against him. However, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) Danielle Sassoon — who was appointed to her interim post by none other than Trump himself — expressed doubts about the decision to drop the case, and resigned in protest on Thursday.
Emil Bove, acting U.S. deputy attorney general, had written in a Monday memorandum that was reached “without assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based,” and that Adams was given a “restricted” ability to help the Trump administration enforce immigration policies. Sassoon, , said in her resignation letter , noting that it didn’t seem to come from the case itself but rather from Adams’s relationship with the White House.
Adams’s and Bove’s actions — including promises to help the administration while asking for the case’s dismissal — were troubling, according to Sassoon’s resignation letter. In a footnote within that letter, Sassoon wrote:
I attended a meeting on January 31, 2025, with Mr. Bove, Adams’s counsel, and members of my office. Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. Mr. Bove admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion
“I cannot fulfill my obligations, effectively lead my office in carrying out the Department’s priorities, or credibly represent the Government before the courts, if I seek to dismiss the Adams case on this record,” Sassoon added.
Sassoon also indicated to Bove that no prosecutor involved in the case would sign on to the dismissal filing. In response, Bove went to the Public Integrity unit of the DOJ and asked two top prosecutors there, Kevin Driscoll and John Keller, to sign it instead. Both refused to do so, and like Sassoon, resigned from their positions following Bove’s request.
In a letter responding to Sassoon’s resignation, Bove struck a deeply critical tone. “You lost sight of the oath that you took when you started at the Department of Justice by suggesting that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General,” Bove wrote to Sassoon, .
Bove’s actions seem to have surprised former prosecutors who worked with him in the past. “The guy was true blue…[and was] smart, dogged, with great instincts,” , noting that Bove himself had worked within the SDNY offices for several years.
Bove’s loyalty to Trump, however, is well documented — .
For now, the charges against Adams haven’t been officially dropped, though the advancement of his case is also stalled.
Legal experts responded to the drama by pointing out parallels to the “Saturday Night Massacre” during the Nixon administration, when several federal prosecutors resigned in protest after then-President Richard Nixon , who was investigating the Watergate scandal. They also noted the rare streak of independence by Trump-appointed prosecutors against what were clearly unethical orders coming from higher-ups regarding a case under SDNY jurisdiction.
“What’s striking about this is not just how transparent what’s actually happening is; it’s Bove’s candid admission, in today’s letter, that ‘the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General’ take precedence over a Justice Department lawyer’s oath … to the Constitution,” , adding:
It would be one thing if Bove argued that the President’s (or Attorney General’s) interpretation of the Constitution takes precedence over that of an Interim U.S. Attorney. But that’s not even his argument. Rather, it’s that Sassoon…had no business raising to the Attorney General her view of what the law required in a case in which it conflicts with the political preferences of the President — indeed, that it was “insubordinate” for her to do so.
“Sassoon is widely regarded as not only a brilliant lawyer, but a staunch conservative with stellar credentials,” , noting that the former acting U.S. Attorney’s actions could ripple to other arenas within the case.
“The acting district court judge, Dale Ho, a relative newcomer to the bench, has the authority, under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48, to reject the prosecution’s request to dismiss a case,” Elliot wrote. “In practice, however, it is extremely rare for a federal court to exercise its powers to do so. Will Judge Dale Ho be the exception?”
“This is starting to make the Saturday night massacre look like a garden party,” . “The people with real responsibility, the AG & the acting AG are lined up with the WH, not the courageous prosecutors standing up for ethics and integrity.”
This article originally appeared in Truthout on February 14th, 2025
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