Earlier this week, the Justice Department directed Manhattan prosecutors to drop their bribery case against Mayor Eric Adams for reasons outlined as political, not legal, in nature. Rather than carry out the order, multiple officials with the Southern District of New York and Justice Department resigned, and a top prosecutor has revealed damning new details about both the agency’s request and Adams.
Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for SDNY, stepped down from her position Thursday after serving less than a month in the role. According to NBC News, Sassoon made no direct mention of the directive to drop the case against the mayor in her resignation letter.
It did not end there. ABC News reports that John Keller, the acting head of the Justice Department’s public-integrity section, and Kevin Driscoll, the top official leading the criminal division, also resigned. Their resignations came after they were informed the Justice Department intended to reassign the Adams case to the public-integrity section following Sassoon’s actions.
In a letter responding to Sassoon’s resignation, acting U.S. deputy attorney Emil Bove admonished her for her refusal to drop the case, claiming that she had “lost sight” of the oath that she took when she started at the Justice Department. Bove said that the prosecutors who worked on the case will be placed on administrative leave and that Sassoon, alongside them, will be investigated by the attorney general’s office.
It was a stunning rebuke of the Trump administration from Sassoon, a Republican who was serving as the assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York when she was tapped to lead the office. She previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and is a member of the conservative Federalist Society. Sassoon’s placement was always intended to be temporary, as Trump’s SDNY nominee, former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Jay Clayton, awaits confirmation.
Then, after her resignation was publicized, the New York Post reported on the existence of a letter from Sassoon to U.S Attorney General Pam Bondi laying out her concerns with Bove’s request. Sassoon wrote that the Justice Department’s move to dismiss Adams’s case so that he could assist the federal government with immigration enforcement amounts to a “quid pro quo.”
She also detailed a meeting in which Adams’s attorney effectively asked for that:
I attended a meeting on January 31, 2025, with Mr. Bove, Adams’s counsel, and members of my office. Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. Mr. Bove admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.
“Rather than be rewarded, Adams’s advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case,” she said.
Sassoon also revealed that her team was considering bringing a superseding indictment against Adams alleging that he obstructed the case by destroying evidence and instructing others to provide the FBI with false information. “Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged, I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations,” Sassoon said.
Regardless, Sassoon’s resignation likely clears the way for Adams’s case to be officially dropped by the federal government. In September, Sassoon’s predecessor, Damian Williams, indicted Adams on five federal counts, alleging that he knowingly sought illegal foreign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign. The mayor has long denied the charges against him, suggesting that he was being targeted in retaliation for his criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the migrant crisis.
Adams, who has sought and curried favor with Trump and his administration in recent months, praised the Justice Department’s intention to dismiss his case during an address Tuesday. “Now, we can put this cruel episode behind us and focus entirely on the future of our city. It’s time to move forward,” he said.
This post has been updated.
