CNN
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The morning after the prosecutor’s massive resignation, sparking a crisis within the Trump Justice Department, where Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove led a meeting with the Department of Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. His message: They had to select a career lawyer to file a firing of corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams, according to three people who were briefed at the meeting.
Bove poses no clear threat of anyone being fired for refusal, but the trajectory of Thursday’s resignation from New York prosecutors and the public integrity unit reveals the stakes of demand. did.
After meeting with Bove on Friday, public integrity lawyers met separately to discuss the strategy. Major resignation was one of the options considered, but ultimately they mostly cooperated in picking up one person to file a fire as a way to end the standoff, and two people explained.
At the end of Friday, Bove, along with prosecutors Ed Sullivan and Antoinette Bacon, will close the case after an extraordinary resignation from the Southern District of New York, and the public alignment section of the Justice Department, which is shaking the Trump administration’s foundations. I have entered into a potential application. It says it wants to end the “weaponization” of DOJ.
Over the past 36 hours, seven prosecutors in New York and Washington, including seven US lawyers set up by Trump in the Southern District of New York, and top career prosecutors overseeing public corruption cases, have resigned. Instead of carrying out the orders he had done, he resigned. The corruption incident against Democrat Adams. Prosecutors denounced Bove’s Monday’s order to remove accusations cited Adams’ role as mayor in helping the Trump administration fight illegal immigration.
The prosecutor who resigned in New York was not a Biden appointee. Daniel Sasson, a US lawyer for the Southern District who has been promoted to Trump, was written for the late Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia. Assistant U.S. lawyer, Assistant Hagan Scotten, was a prosecutor who resigned in a furious letter on Friday after being written for Secretary John Roberts.
“Assistant U.S. lawyers do not allow our laws and traditions to use prosecutors to affect officials elected in this way, much less unelected citizens. You know,” Scotten wrote in his resignation letter Friday.
“If your lawyer is willing to provide that advice in the president’s ear, then we hope that you will find someone who is a fool or a cowardly enough to submit your move.” writes Scotten. “But it never meant to be me.”
Interviews with more than a dozen officials in New York and Washington show that the lawsuit against Adams and his refusal to respond to requests to drop it became a flashpoint for the Trump Justice Department. Trump at his Senate 1st trial and Todd Blanche and Bove, who defended Trump in his criminal case.
Assuming that he is one of the most powerful positions in the division under Blanche, if Blanche is confirmed as assistant attorney general, he will be fired from the Trump criminal case and thousands of FBI agents. I’ve been at the forefront of reviews. We investigated the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th. Now he’s caught up in the middle of a standoff with a US law firm where he worked for 10 years before leaving in 2021.
Trump DOJ’s leadership has no doubts about what it wants.
“The decision to dismiss Eric Adams’ indictment is another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals who are not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts. ”
“The fact that those who indicted and charged the case refused to follow the orders directly is further evidence of the prosecutor’s impediment and impure motives,” he added. “For such individuals, there is no place in the DOJ.”
Bar and bag
The Public Integrity Section has seen targets on its back since Trump took office as the Trump administration stumbled the federal government’s ability to combat public corruption in its first few weeks. Senior administrators considered eliminating the unit. This was created to combat public corruption after Watergate.
After Susshorne resigned on Thursday, Bove turned his eyes to the public integrity unit and executed an order dismissing the Adams case. He resigned more.
The first came Kevin Driscoll, the prosecutor in the top career criminal division who oversaw the Public Integrity Section, and John Keller, who was appointed as the unit’s representative. After they resigned, the office’s prosecutors toasted their colleagues as they gathered at a nearby bar to depart, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Then another message came: Bove wanted to talk to three more prosecutors in the office.
They returned to the office and jumped on a video call with Bove. Bove informed them that the Department of Justice needs a career public attorney to file a fire in the case against Adams.
Prosecutors initially tried to talk about Bove from forcing them to sign the submission. When Bove insisted, the trio resigned on the spot, and those familiar with the argument told CNN.
Then they went back to the bar.
Last year, New York’s Southern District was the mayor’s first prosecutor in the city’s modern history, and brought public corruption charges against Adams. Adams pleaded not guilty and was scheduled to go to trial this spring.
Trump’s reelection changed everything. Three days before Trump was sworn in, Adams traveled to Mar Arago to meet up with Trump, sparking speculation about what would come in his criminal case. He also accepted a last-minute invitation to the inauguration.
Shortly after Trump took office, Adams’ lawyer approached the White House lawyer’s office and asked about Adams’ pardon, but one person was familiar with the matter. He said there was.
About a week later, Bove contacted Attorney Adams, Alex Spiro, to set up a meeting. He told him that the Justice Department is well versed in legal arguments and that the weaknesses of the case are clear, and one person is well versed in the issue. Bove is considering dismissing the charges, how prosecutors have affected Adams’ ability to do his job, and specific examples of Justice Department’s alleged weapons He added that he wanted to hear from them, said those familiar with the issue.
On January 31st, Bove convened a meeting in Washington. Bove was the only senior member of the Department of Justice. He was joined by Adams’ lawyers, Spiro and William Burke, as well as Scotten from SDNY and two other Sassoons.
Adams’ legal team argued that the looming criminal charges made it difficult for Adams to lead the city and prepare for trial at the same time.
In his resignation letter, Sussone wrote Adams’ attorneys “repeatedly urged the equivalent of Quidpro, indicating that Adams is in a position to support the department’s enforcement priorities only if the charges are dismissed.” It writes: She claimed that her colleagues took notes about the meeting but were forced to hand it over to Bove once conclusions were reached.
The mayor’s lawyer also raised recent actions by a former US lawyer for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams said.
Williams resigned from the US law firm in mid-December and launched a website with colour photos and links to reports.
On January 16, Williams wrote a city and state sales editor entitled “New York Government’s Sad State Indictment,” which Adams’s lawyers seized as part of the politicization of the case.
Spiro accused Williams of violating rules governing what prosecutors can say about the case. He raised it along with judge Dale Ho, who concluded that Williams was not violating the rules.
Biden’s appointee, Ho, decides on an application to dismiss the case.
After the January 31 meeting, Bove asked SDNY and Adams legal teams to submit more information in writing.
Adams’ attorneys sought a complete dismissal of the case. It highlighted the impact of the trial on Adams’ ability to lead the city and “his long-standing desire to face the immigration crisis head on.” The letter said if Adams takes office, his successor would become “a frequent and outspoken critic of Mayor Adams’ desire to protect New Yorkers by fighting the immigration crisis.”
“As his trial approaches, the mayor’s ever-present partner cannot accept that DHS needs to make New York City as safe as possible,” Spiro wrote.
He did so without prejudice when Bove issued an order to dismiss this week’s lawsuit. In other words, the lawsuit was revived in the future after the mayoral election in November 2025.
“The pending prosecutors have overly limited Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crimes that escalated under the policies of the previous administration,” Bove wrote.
His memo stated that the order was “issued without assessing the strength of the evidence underlying the case or legal theory.”
The day after being instructed to withdraw the fee, Sasson told Bove over the phone that she would not dismiss the case in writing to Bondi. She called for a “all hands” meeting in her office on Wednesday, but it was suddenly cancelled.
More than 24 hours later, Sasson submitted an eight-page resignation letter to Bondi. A while later, she told staff in New York that she had submitted her resignation, people familiar with the matter told her.
Last year, Bove and Blanche represented Trump in several criminal cases. Now, Trump’s criminal defense attorney is what he asks for from the Justice Department.
Blanche and Bove were skeptical of Adams’ prosecution from the start. In particular, whether prosecutors can prove that Adams intentionally violates the Campaign Finance Act. They believe they are dismissing the lawsuit by implementing Trump’s executive order to consider all cases of offensive prosecution and the president’s desire to promote his state partners’ political agenda. Those familiar with their ideas said.
Shortly after arriving at DOJ, Bove asked all U.S. law firms to see cases in the overflowing district, particularly public corruption and business cases, people said.
In a letter accepting Sussone’s resignation, Bove defended his decision to stop the lawsuit against Adams, claiming that Sassson had no right to ignore the policies of the President and Attorney General.
“You take the time to start the Department of Justice by suggesting that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a way that is inconsistent with the policies of a democratically elected president and the Senate accused Attorney General. I lost sight of the oath I had,” wrote Bove.
