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US Attorney Danielle Sassoon released a letter that she wrote to AG Pam Bondi explaining why she could not carry out the order of AG Pam Bondi to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams.
This was the part of the letter that caught my attention:
The rationale given by Mr. Bove—an exchange between a criminal defendant and the Department of Justice akin to the Bout exchange with Russia— is, as explained above, a bargain that a prosecutor should not make. Moreover, dismissing without prejudice and with the express option of again indicting Adams in the future creates obvious ethical problems, by implicitly threatening future prosecution if Adams’s cooperation with enforcing the immigration laws proves unsatisfactory to the Department.
….
I remain baffled by the rushed and superficial process by which this decision was reached, in seeming collaboration with Adams’s counsel and without my direct input on the ultimate stated rationales for dismissal. Mr. Bove admonished me to be mindful of my obligation to zealously defend the interests of the United States and to advance good-faith arguments on behalf of the Administration.
I hope you share my view that soliciting and considering the concerns of the U.S. Attorney overseeing the case serves rather than hinders that goal, and that we can find time to meet. In the event you are unwilling to meet or reconsider the directive in light of the problems raised by Mr. Bove’s memo, I am prepared to offer my resignation. It has been, and continues to be, my honor to serve as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.
Trump tried to spin this to reporters as the US Attorney being fired, but she quit because Trump’s AG, likely at Trump’s direction, went behind her back and collaborated with Eric Adams’s lawyer on a deal to drop the charges.
Observers have long been concerned that Trump would drop the charges in exchange for Adams agreeing to give the administration a free hand on immigration raids in the city.
Trump is showing the country what a weaponized and politicized DOJ looks like, and the behavior is so extreme and outside the norm that it is causing people within the department to resign and leave.
What do you think about Trump dropping the charges against Adams? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
