Manhattan's top federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, and five senior Justice Department officials resigned Thursday after she refused an order to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Ms. Sassoon, a Republican who was appointed acting chief of the federal office for the Southern District of New York, accused the Justice Department of seeking to dismiss the case in exchange for Mr. Adams's help with President Trump's immigration agenda. The prosecutor said she was "convinced" that the Democratic mayor committed the crimes he was accused of.
Ms. Sassoon said that before the Justice Department sought to dismiss the charges, prosecutors were prepared to charge Mayor Adams with destroying evidence and that he had instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the FBI.
"I am appalled by the hasty and superficial process through which this decision was reached," Ms. Sassoon wrote to Mr. Trump's new Attorney General, Pam Bondi, on Wednesday. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, had ordered the Adams case dismissed on Monday. He told Sassoon, in a letter accepting her resignation, that she was “unable to fairly and impartially review” the circumstances of the case. Mr. Bove placed the prosecutors in the case on administrative leave and said they and Ms. Sassoon would be subject to internal investigations. In his letter, also obtained by the AP, he says the Justice Department in Washington will file a motion to dismiss the charges against Mr. Adams and to stop the “targeting” of the mayor.
As of Thursday evening, the case against Mr. Adams was still active and no new documents had been filed.
The Justice Department's public integrity section, which was asked to take on the case, was also rocked by resignations. The section's acting chief, three deputy chiefs and a deputy assistant attorney general all resigned, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Mr. Adams pleaded not guilty last September to charges that he accepted illegal campaign contributions and bribes in the form of free or reduced-cost travel in exchange for exercising his influence.
Deputy Attorney General Bove said in a letter Monday that the case against Democratic Mayor Adams should be dismissed as soon as possible so he can help President Donald Trump's anti-immigration campaign and run for re-election.
"It is an unexpected and dangerous precedent to reward (Mayor) Adams' opportunistic commitments on immigration and other policy issues with the dismissal of a criminal indictment," Ms. Sassoon wrote.
Mr. Adams' lawyer, Alex Spiro, said Thursday that the claim that the request for the charges to be dropped in exchange for help in anti-immigrant efforts was a "total lie." "We offered nothing and the department asked for nothing from us," Mr. Spiro wrote in an email to the AP./ VOA (A2 Televizion)
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