Main: Danielle Sassoon (Southern District of New York). Inset: NYC Mayor Eric Adams reacts to indictment by suggesting he’s a victim of politically motivated persecution (Molly Crane-Newman/X).
The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigned in protest on Thursday after refusing to comply with a directive from the Trump administration to drop the federal criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a move that led to the resignations of several other top Justice Department officials.
In her eight-page letter to newly-confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi, Danielle Sassoon, the former acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, cited the influence Justice Antonin Scalia, whom she previously clerked for, as one of the reasons she felt compelled to refuse the order from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove. Bove previously worked as one of Donald Trump’s personal criminal attorneys before being appointed by the president.
“Mr. Bove’s memo, however, which directs me to dismiss an indictment returned by a duly constituted grand jury for reasons having nothing to do with the strength of the case, raises serious concerns that render the contemplated dismissal inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts,” Sassoon wrote.
“I clerked for the Honorable J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and for Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court. Both men instilled in me a sense of duty to contribute to the public good and uphold the rule of law, and a commitment to reasoned and thorough analysis,” she also said in the letter. “I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful.”
According to Sassoon, Bove proposed dismissing the charges against Adams “in return for” his assistance in cracking down on illegal immigration in Manhattan, one of the Trump administration’s primary objectives.
Quoting from Bondi’s own memo issued after she took office, Sassoon wrote that the Justice Department “will not tolerate abuses of the criminal justice process, coercive behavior, or other forms of misconduct,” before adding that the dismissal of the charges against Adams “for no other reason than to influence Adams’s mayoral decision-making would be all three.”
Adams was indicted in September 2024 on charges of bribery, wire fraud, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, and conspiracy to commit those offenses in connection with an investigation into Turkish donations to his mayoral campaign.
But in another bombshell revelation, Sassoon’s letter revealed that prosecutors had already proposed bringing additional charges of destruction of evidence against Adams.
“We have proposed a superseding indictment that would add an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that Adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the FBI, and that would add further factual allegations regarding his participation in a fraudulent straw donor scheme,” the letter stated.
Sassoon also wrote about a Jan. 31 meeting she and other members of her team attended with Bove and Adams’ defense attorney, Alex Spiro.
“Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed,” she wrote. “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.”
Sassoon concluded by saying she was “baffled” by the Justice Department’s decision and offered to meet with Bondi to discuss the case. In the event Bondi would not reconsider the directive, Sassoon offered her resignation.
Spiro responded to Sassoon’s letter in an email to Reuters denying the allegations against him and his client.
“If SDNY had any proof whatsoever that the mayor destroyed evidence, they would have brought those charges — as they continually threatened to do, but didn’t, over months and months,” he reportedly wrote. “This newest false claim is just the parting shot of a misguided prosecution exposed as a sham.”
Bove also responded to Sassoon’s resignation with a letter of his own, castigating her “apparent misconduct.”
“The Justice Department will not tolerate the insubordination and apparent misconduct reflected in the approach that you and your office have taken in this matter,” Bove wrote. “Your office’s insubordination is little more than a preference to avoid a duty that you regard as unpleasant and politically inconvenient.”
