The battle between New York federal prosecutors and President Donald Trump’s Justice Division continued Friday as one other prosecutor resigned over the order to dismiss Mayor Eric Adams’ bribery case.
Hagan Scotten, the assistant United States legal professional for Southern District of New York, blasted Deputy Legal professional Normal Emil Bove in a letter sooner or later after performing U.S. Legal professional for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon resigned over her refusal to observe by way of with the Justice Division’s request.
“In brief, the primary justification for the movement — that [former U.S. Attorney] Damian Williams’s function within the case by some means tainted a legitimate indictment supported by ample proof, and pursued beneath completely different U.S. attorneys is so weak as to be transparently pretextual,” Scotten wrote.
“The second justification is worse. No system of ordered liberty can permit the Authorities to make use of the carrot of dismissing prices, or the stick of threatening to carry them once more, to induce an elected official to help its coverage aims,” he added.
Scotten, an Military veteran who served in Iraq and clerked beneath Supreme Court docket Chief Justice John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh earlier than he was appointed to the Supreme Court docket, chastised the president and the administration.
“I may even perceive how a Chief Government whose background is in enterprise and politics may see the contemplated dismissal-with-leverage as a very good, if distasteful, deal,” he wrote.
“If no lawyer inside earshot of the President is keen to present him that recommendation, then I anticipate you’ll finally discover somebody who’s sufficient of a idiot, or sufficient of a coward, to file your movement. But it surely was by no means going to be me,” he added.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams speaks with members of the media as he arrives for an Grownup City Corridor at Sunnyside Neighborhood Companies Older Grownup Middle on Feb. 12, 2025 within the Queens borough of New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
The letter got here hours after what a number of former and present federal justice officers dubbed the “Thursday afternoon bloodbath,” when six individuals concerned with the case resigned and pushed again in opposition to the U.S. legal professional basic’s workplace.
Sassoon resigned Thursday over the Justice Division’s request to finish the federal bribery case in opposition to the mayor.
The Justice Division deliberate to take away the prosecutors dealing with the mayor’s case and reassign it to the Public Integrity Part in Washington, D.C.
Nonetheless, as quickly the Public Integrity Part was knowledgeable it might be taking up, John Keller, the performing head of the unit, and his boss, Kevin Driscoll, essentially the most senior profession official within the legal division, resigned together with three different members of the unit, in accordance with a number of sources.
Chad Mizelle, the chief of employees for Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi, pushed again in opposition to the defiant prosecutors in a press release Friday afternoon contending Adams’ prosecution was politically motivated.
‘The truth that those that indicted and prosecuted the case refused to observe a direct command is additional proof of the disordered and ulterior motives of the prosecutors. Such people don’t have any place at DOJ,” he stated.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has the ability to take away Adams from workplace, known as the Division of Justice’s strikes “unbelievably unprecedented” throughout an interview on MSNBC Thursday night time.
“This isn’t purported to occur in our system of justice,” she informed MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
On this July 31, 2023 file picture, Mayor Eric Adams, proper, N.Y. Governor Kathy Hochul, heart, and N.Y. State Legal professional Normal Letitia James are pictured throughout a press convention on the Metropolis Corridor Rotunda in New York.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Every day Information through Getty Pictures, FILE
Hochul, nevertheless, declined to debate the opportunity of eradicating the mayor.
“The allegations are extraordinarily regarding and critical. However I can not, because the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated response, like numerous different individuals are saying proper now,” she stated. “I’ve to do it good, what’s proper, and I am consulting with different leaders in authorities presently.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a longtime ally of Adams, stated in a press release Tuesday that he was convening with different Black clergy to debate the state of affairs however he already raised issues concerning the mayor’s allegiances.
“President Trump is holding the mayor hostage,” Sharpton stated.
4 distinguished New York Metropolis Black clergy members — the Revs. Johnnie Inexperienced, Kevin McCall, Carl L. Washington and Adolphus Lacey — wrote a letter Wednesday calling on the mayor to not run for reelection this yr.
“Eric Adams had each proper to show his innocence and many people had been keen to present him the good thing about the doubt, however that’s not what has occurred,” they wrote.
Adams, a former NYPD officer and Democrat who beforehand registered as a Republican, was accused by federal prosecutors of taking lavish flights and resort stays from Turkish businessmen and officers for greater than a decade.
He and his employees members additionally allegedly obtained straw marketing campaign donations to develop into eligible for New York Metropolis’s matching funds program for his campaigns, in accordance with the legal indictment that was issued in September.
In change, Adams allegedly used his energy as Brooklyn borough president and later as mayor to present the international conspirators preferential remedy for varied tasks and proposals, together with permits for the Turkish consulate regardless of hearth security issues, the indictment stated.
Adams pleaded not responsible, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claimed with none foundation that he was being politically focused by the Biden administration, despite the fact that the probe covers a few years earlier than Biden was in workplace.
Adams’ main opponents have known as for him to step down for the reason that indictment, as produce other New York Democrats, resembling Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams arrives for an Grownup City Corridor at Sunnyside Neighborhood Companies Older Grownup Middle, Feb. 12, 2025, within the Queens borough of New York Metropolis.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Pictures
The mayor, nevertheless, appeared on “Fox and Associates” on Friday with Trump “border czar” Thomas Homan and reiterated he was not solely staying in workplace however he would run for reelection as a Democrat. The deadline to alter events is Friday.
“Individuals had me gone months in the past, however, you recognize what, I’m sitting in your sofa,” Adams informed the hosts.
The mayor remained silent through the interview when Homan mentioned Trump’s deportation coverage and known as on Hochul to resign for not cooperating with the federal workplace.
Adams, nevertheless, did gentle up and smile when the “border czar” mentioned their partnership. The mayor introduced Thursday town would permit Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers into Rikers Island jail, a serious shift within the metropolis’s insurance policies.
“If he doesn’t come by way of, I’ll be again in New York Metropolis, and we gained’t be sitting on the sofa,” Homan stated with amusing. “I’ll be in his workplace, up his butt, saying, ‘The place the hell is the settlement we got here to?'”
Sassoon prosecutor warned in a letter that the shut relationship between the Trump administration and Adams crossed a line.
In her letter to Bondi, Sassoon repeatedly urged Justice Division management, together with Deputy Legal professional Normal Emil Bove, was explicitly conscious of a quid professional quo that was urged by Adams’ attorneys.
This undated picture, offered by the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace, Southern District of New York, exhibits Danielle R. Sassoon, interim U.S. legal professional for the Southern District of New York.
Southern District of New York through AP
Sassoon alleged Adams’ vocal help of Trump’s immigration insurance policies can be boosted by dismissing the indictment in opposition to him.
Sassoon’s letter detailed a January meeting with Bove and counsel for the mayor, the place she says Adams’ attorneys put ahead “what amounted to a quid professional quo,” after which Bove “admonished a member of my workforce who took notes throughout that assembly and directed the gathering of these notes on the assembly’s conclusion.”
“Though Mr. Bove disclaimed any intention to change leniency on this case for Adams’s help in imposing federal legislation, that’s the nature of the discount laid naked in Mr. Bove’s memo,” Sassoon wrote in her letter.
Bove accused Sassoon of insubordination and rejected her claims. Trump informed reporters Thursday he was not concerned with the Justice Division selections this week and claimed the SDNY prosecutor was fired, though he didn’t identify her.
Adams additionally denied the allegations Friday.
“It took her three weeks to report in entrance of her a legal motion. Come on, that is foolish,” he informed the “Fox and Associates” hosts.
He launched a press release later within the day reiterating his declare
Adams stated, “I wish to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I by no means supplied — nor did anybody provide on my behalf — any commerce of my authority as your mayor for an finish to my case. By no means.”
The dismissal, which is with out prejudice, that means it may be introduced once more, particularly after the November election, in accordance with Bove’s request, has but to be formally filed in court docket or reviewed by a decide.
ABC Information’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
