Washington – On her first day as President Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondy promised to remove politics from criminal prosecution and restore “integrity and credibility” at the Department of Justice.
She established a “weapons work group” to identify cases where “departmental actions appear to be designed to achieve political objectives.”
However, it took less than a week for her top aide to send a message to the contrary. Politics, not law, called for the dismissal of New York Mayor Eric Adams’ charges on corruption.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that the Trump administration questioned “the strength of evidence or legal theory underlying the case,” but was necessary, in response to a New York prosecutor. And revealed that. The mayor’s help in suppressing illegal immigration.
The order that sparked an extraordinary uprising and the resignation of seven anti-corruption prosecutors has highlighted how the new administration can further politicize the Justice Department.
Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee called for an investigation by department inspectors.
“The Americans cannot afford the Department of Justice to arm its vast prosecutor’s agency with its vast prosecutor’s agency to force civil servants to support the president’s political projects,” said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill. said.
Conservative legal analysts were just as important. Ed Whelan called for Daniel Sussone to resign, a “act of courage and integrity” in social media posts. “Emile Bove could not have done this even worse if he had tried.”
A veteran Justice Department prosecutor who asked him not to name him said, “The long-term damage to the DOJ will be (immeasurable).”
The prosecutor is terribly uncertain about what to do. “Good people interested in public services will not be able to find a career of DOJ attractive,” he said.
Two prosecutors who left in protest had strong conservative qualifications and wrote harsh letters about their resignation.
“I understand that my duty as a prosecutor means enforcing the law fairly,” he said, “and former legal clerk of the late Supreme Court Judge Antonin Scalia, a conservative symbol. Sasson wrote. That does not mean dismissing the case as “it would be politically advantageous to the defendant or the person who appointed me.” She continued.
Hagan Scotten, the lead prosecutor in the case, is an Army veteran with three battle tours in Iraq and a Harvard alumnus, and trials of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh and John G. Roberts Jr. He is the former legal clerk of the office, both presidents appointed by the Republican Party.
He said the prosecution is not a tool to support political alliances or punish political enemies.
“In the end, I hope you will find someone who is a fool or a cowardly enough to submit your move,” he wrote to Bove. “But it never meant to be me.”
On Friday, a long-serving Justice Department lawyer agreed to sign a termination to avoid further dismissal and resignation.
A motion to dismiss the case will go ahead and decide how to proceed with our district judge Dale Ho.
Bove represented Trump last year at a New York trial over Trump’s payments and was appointed deputy attorney general when Trump was sworn in.
He sparked a rebellion on February 10 when he sent a letter to federal prosecutors in New York saying “You are being directed” to dismiss the pending charges against Adams.
“The pending prosecutors have unfairly 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.
He continued: it outweighs the need to prosecute criminal cases “to achieve immigration objectives established by President Trump and the Attorney General.”
It would not have been much surprising if Bove had questioned the case on legal basis. The Supreme Court overturned the verdict of public corruption if officials earned gifts and favors but did not take any significant “official acts” accordingly.
The indictment said Adams had been given a luxurious international trip paid by Turkish officials since he was president of Brooklyn’s Autonomous Region, and had been contributed to illegal campaigns from foreigners. It was not very clear what Adams did accordingly. The indictment filed in September said the mayor pressured the city fire station in 2021 to open a new Turkish consul building on time without fire inspections.
In an eight-page letter to Bondy, Sasson said Adams’ lawyer met with Bove and the prosecutor on January 31, “equid pros, who said the mayor could ‘support the execution priorities of the department.” I repeatedly urged things.” If the indictment is dismissed. ”
On Friday, the Mayor of New York appeared on Fox News alongside Trump’s border emperor Tom Homan.
“If he doesn’t get through, I’ll be back in New York City. We’re not sitting on the couch. I’m in his office, climbing up his ass and saying, “We’ve come to agree.” Where is it?” he said. “Homan said.
Bove accepted Sasson’s resignation and angeredly accused him of ignoring his duty of loyalty to the president and the Attorney General.
“The Department of Justice will not tolerate any disobedience and obvious misconduct reflected in the approach you and your office have taken,” he wrote.
His second letter described Adams’ indictment as “a politically motivated charge.”
In a first day memo to restore integrity to the Department of Justice, Bondi called for the department to return to “core values” and said, “No one acted with the right spirit and fair intentions.”
But by Friday afternoon, her chief of staff, Chad Mizzell, said the dispute over the Adams incident indicated the need to crack down on dissidents in the department.
The dismissal of the charges “returns to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals who do not pursue politically motivated witch hunts,” he said in a statement.
“The fact that those who prosecuted and charged the case refused to follow the orders directly is further evidence of the prosecutor’s impediment and impure motives,” he wrote. “For such individuals, there is no place in the DOJ.”
