Conservative US attorney resigns after refusing directive from Trump DOJ
FILE PHOTO: Judge Lewis Kaplan and Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon appear during the court hearing for former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, at a federal court in New York City, U.S., February 9, 2023. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File Photo
Editors Note: This headline and photo have been updated.
The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ) top prosecutor in New York City just handed in a two-sentence resignation letter following orders to drop charges against Mayor Eric Adams.
NBC News reported Thursday that Danielle Sassoon — who was named acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York last month — refused an order from acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to drop the corruption case against Adams. Bove insisted that Adams be let off the hook so he could focus on addressing "illegal immigration and violent crime."
Sassoon's abrupt departure is particularly noteworthy given her conservative bona fides. In addition to being a member of the conservative Federalist Society, she also clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia — who was the most reliably conservative member of the High Court for decades.
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“Moments ago, I submitted my resignation to the attorney general,” Sassoon wrote in the email, according to the New York Times. “As I told her, it has been my greatest honor to represent the United States and to pursue justice as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.”
In the memo instructing the case against Adams to be dismissed, Bove suggested that the charges against the New York mayor were filed for political reasons, writing that it "cannot be ignored that Mayor Adams criticized the prior Administration’s immigration policies before the charges were filed."
Adams had been prosecuted by former Attorney General Merrick Garland's DOJ for alleged corruption and bribery. NBC reported that the New York mayor was indicted in September on one count of conspiracy to receive campaign contributions from foreign nationals and commit wire fraud and bribery, two counts of soliciting campaign contributions from foreign nationals and one count of soliciting and accepting a bribe. The center of the scheme involved Adams allegedly taking $100,000 worth of free airline tickets from Turkey, along with allegedly accepting stays at luxury hotels in Turkey. He pleaded not guilty.
Click here to read NBC's report, and click here to read the Times' article in full (subscription required).
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