As of this writing, seven high-level federal prosecutors have resigned in protest in response to orders from the Trump administration to quash the criminal investigation into former cop and Democratic Mayor of New York City Eric Adams. Resignations have taken place in the Southern District of New York and the Public Integrity Section in Washington D.C.
In a blatant example of “weaponizing” the Justice Department, Trump, through his Attorney General Pam Bondi and acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, has ordered the charges filed against Adams dismissed in return for his cooperation in carrying out Trump’s mass deportation operation. Notably, Trump has not issued a pardon and has ordered the charges dismissed without prejudice, therefore allowing the possibility of charges to be refiled against Adams should he cross Trump.
Some media commentators have referred to the mass resignations as the “Thursday afternoon massacre,” in reference to President Richard Nixon ordering the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox on October 20, 1973 during the Watergate scandal. Cox’s firing led to the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus (dubbed the “Saturday night massacre”) and Nixon’s eventual resignation less than a year later.
Among those who resigned last week was Trump’s hand-picked interim US Attorney in the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon. Rather than file the motion to dismiss, the 38-year-old Sassoon, a Yale Law School graduate and former clerk for the arch-reactionary US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, resigned on February 12.
In her resignation letter to Bove, Sassoon said the evidence against Adams “proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed federal crimes” and that the “reasons advanced by Mr. Bove in dismissing the indictment are not ones I can in good faith defend…” Sassoon noted that Bove was demanding leniency for Adams “solely because he occupies an important public position and can use that position to assist in the Administration’s policy priorities.”
Hagen Scotten, a US Army veteran, graduate of Harvard Law School and former clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts, resigned on Friday after Bove named him as someone who might be willing to dismiss the case against Adams. In his resignation letter to Bove, Scotten wrote, “I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
On Friday, Bove sat down with nearly 20 lawyers in the Public Integrity Section in Washington D.C and delivered an ultimatum that the case against Adams be dropped or they would all be fired. A senior official, apparently hoping to spare younger colleagues, signed onto the motion to dismiss.
There is no question that the effort to block Adams’ prosecution is solely motivated by Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda and has nothing to do with the “rule of law” or enacting impartial “justice.” In the motion to dismiss filed on February 14, Bove wrote that continuing the prosecution of Adams would “interfere with the defendant’s ability to govern in New York City, which poses unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies.”
Last September, Adams was formally charged with five federal counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, bribery and receiving illegal campaign contributions. Adams is accused of accepting illegal gifts, including flights on Turkish Airlines, hotel stays and expensive meals, in exchange for preferential treatment during his time as borough president and mayor.
Taking a page from Trump, Adams has alleged that the charges, filed under the Biden administration, are a politically motivated response to his critiques from the right of Biden’s immigration policies. In an interview with fascist Tucker Carlson following Trump’s inauguration, Adams claimed he was targeted for speaking out on the “onslaught of the migrant immigration policies, a failed border policy.”
Following the election of Trump, the New York Times reported that Adams was privately lobbying Trump for a full pardon in exchange for cooperating with the incoming administration’s planned mass deportation operation. After meeting with Trump’s fascistic “border czar” Tom Homan on Thursday, Adams offered up the notoriously inhumane Rikers Island jail complex to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to incarcerate immigrants and their families.
On Friday, appearing alongside Homan on Fox & Friends, Adams attempted, and failed, to alleviate concerns that he was advancing Trump’s fascist political program in exchange for avoiding criminal prosecution.
Homan said with a smile, “I came to New York City, I wasn’t going to leave with nothing. I did the last time and I told him, I’m not leaving until I got something.”
Making clear that an arrangement had been reached, Homan continued, “Now I got him on the couch in front of millions of people. He can’t back away from this now, right?”
He added, as Adams chuckled nervously, “If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on a couch. I’ll be in his office up his butt saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?’”
Adams, seeking to assure Homan and Trump that he would throw any number of immigrants under the bus to save his own hide, interjected, “I want ICE to deliver. I want ICE to deliver.” The Democratic mayor added, “We are gonna deliver for the safety of this city.”
While a motion to dismiss has been filed by Bove, a hearing must still be held in front of a judge, who could deny the motion. Whatever the immediate outcome, anger toward Adams and the Democratic Party continues to mount. In multiple media appearances, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has been asked if she is considering removing Adams as mayor.
Adams is thus far dismissing demands for his resignation and claiming he intends to run for reelection as a Democrat in the 2025 mayoral election slated for November 4.