Under immense pressure from Donald Trump’s Justice Department leadership, Washington prosecutors have made criminal corruption cases against New York Mayor Eric Adams, rather than having the entire public integrity office fired. I asked a federal judge to dismiss it.
Prosecutors Edward Sullivan and Antoinette Bacon filed a request Friday night to withdraw accusations against Adams, who solicited bribery, fraud and contributions to illegal foreign campaigns.
The move marks a week of chaos in the department that seven prosecutors, including representative U.S. lawyers for the Southern District of New York, head of criminal divisions and head of public honest departments, resigned in protest rather than dismissing the case. I’ve held it down. Political reasons.
And it faced opposition from New York prosecutors, urging the Justice Department to take him to the heels and forced the public integrity section to fire his name or be fired himself. , followed by an extraordinary showdown after Deputy Attorney General Bove.
The nearly one-hour meeting, which weighed whether the public consistency section would resign after agreeing that the dismissal in the Adams case was inappropriate, reached its peak with veteran career prosecutor Sullivan and co-workers. I agreed that I fell for the sake of that. Two people are well versed in this issue.
The decision gave the Justice Department what it takes to seek an end to the Adams case. Attorney General Pam Bondy later appeared on Fox News to say the mayor’s case was “dismissed today,” but his power lies with New York’s US District Judge Dale Ho.
Although Ho has limited ability to reject requests, he can order an evident hearing on why the department is ordering Adams to end the corruption case. Quid pro quo trading.
The Bureau’s rationale for dismissing the case was inevitably political. Bove had argued that Adams was being hampered from fully cooperating with Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The saga began on Monday. After Bove ordered the charges against Adams to be rescinded, Daniel Sasson, a US lawyer representing the Southern District of New York, said that Bove’s directions “are inconsistent with my ability and obligation to prosecute federal crimes.” I sent a noteworthy letter to the Attorney General who stated, without fear or favor.”
Sussone also wrote that the mayor’s lawyer “repeated as a Quid Pro Quo equivalent, indicating that Adams is in a position to support the department’s enforcement priorities only if the charges are dismissed.” , made a surprising accusation in her letter.
Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro, denied the charges, saying: We offered nothing and the department didn’t ask anything about us. We were asked if the incident had anything to do with national security and immigration enforcement, and we honestly replied that it was. ”
On Friday, Adams himself said in a statement: Never once. “
Susthorne, a conservative career prosecutor, revealed in her letter that her team was intended to further thwart the allegations of justice against Adams in recent weeks. For a good way, she accused Bove of scolding members of her team for taking notes at a meeting and ordering them to confiscate the notes.
Apparently Sassoon doesn’t agree to drop the case, Bove said that the Public Integrity Section at Washington’s Department of Justice headquarters takes over the case and demands it be fired. He said he was trying to finish it.
The move prompted a wave of resignation from career prosecutors. On Thursday, Bove returned to Sussone to criticize her for disobedience and placed EU, Hagan Scotten and Derek Wickstrom on administrative leave among her two.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Kevin Driscoll, the representative of the criminal division that oversees public integrity, resigns from John Keller, the representative of the Integrity Section itself. I have submitted it.
After Keller’s departure, Marco Palmieri became the third of the four vice chiefs of the Public Integrity Section to resign, and the team was clear except for three senior litigators who served under the vice chief. He left without any leadership.
By Friday, Scotter had resigned while on administrative leave. In Bove’s scathing responsibilities, he writes: Your movements. But it was never meant to be me. ”
