(AFP) – Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor resigned on Thursday after being ordered by the Justice Department to drop corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. Danielle Sassoon, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, submitted her resignation to Attorney General Pam Bondi, The New York Times and other news outlets said. Sassoon, 38, a Republican, was named interim US attorney by President Donald Trump’s administration while his nominee for the position, Jay Clayton, undergoes Senate confirmation.
Her resignation comes three days after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove — a former Trump lawyer — ordered Manhattan federal prosecutors to drop the corruption case against Adams, a Democrat. The New York Times said that in addition to Sassoon, two high-ranking members of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, which handles corruption cases, had also resigned. Bove, in a letter to Sassoon obtained by the newspaper, said he had accepted her resignation.
“This decision is based on your choice to continue pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case,” he said. “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.” The first sitting New York mayor to be criminally indicted, Adams pleaded not guilty in September to charges of fraud and bribery and has rebuffed calls to step down. Adams had asserted he was being punished for his criticism of then-president Joe Biden’s immigration policies. Bove, in an earlier letter to Sassoon asking for the case to be dropped, said the prosecution had “unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime.” Trump expressed solidarity with Adams last year, saying he was being prosecuted “for speaking out against open borders.”
– ‘Without fear or favor’ – Sassoon, in a letter to Bondi obtained by the Times, said the order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor.” “I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful,” she said. A graduate of Yale Law School and a member of the conservative Federalist Society, Sassoon led the high-profile 2023 prosecution of disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried.
The Justice Department, which Trump accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office with a number of high-ranking officials demoted or reassigned. Among those sacked were members of the office of special counsel Jack Smith, who brought two criminal cases against Trump.
© 2024 AFP
