By Steve Neavling
Six senior Justice Department officials, including Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, resigned Thursday rather than follow an order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to internal Justice Department letters and people familiar with the matter, Reuters reports.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who was temporarily leading the case against Adams, stepped down after refusing to comply with Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s directive to dismiss the charges. Bove, a former personal defense lawyer for Donald Trump, called the case “weaponization” of the justice system and said it interfered with Adams’ ability to support Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“Your office has no authority to contest the weaponization finding,” Bove wrote. “The Justice Department will not tolerate insubordination.”
In her resignation letter, Sassoon accused Bove of offering to dismiss the charges in exchange for Adams’ help on immigration policy.
“Rather than be rewarded, Adams’s advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal,” she wrote.
Adams, who had pleaded not guilty to taking bribes from Turkish officials, denied any wrongdoing. His attorney, Alex Spiro, said, “The idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie. We offered nothing, and the department asked nothing of us.”
Sassoon’s resignation was followed by the departures of John Keller, the acting head of the Justice Department’s public corruption unit, and several other senior officials. The resignations drew comparisons to the 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre,” when top Justice Department officials quit rather than follow President Richard Nixon’s order to fire the Watergate special prosecutor.
“This is extreme political pressure by virtue of their high office against non-political DOJ personnel,” said Juliet Sorensen, a former federal prosecutor and law professor.
Sassoon warned in her letter that dismissing the charges would fuel fears that the Justice Department had been politicized.
“Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations,” she wrote.
