Public courage is a scarce commodity. Politicians go the way the wind blows. Those holding unelected public office like to keep their heads down and go along to get along. Danielle Sassoon—who resigned yesterday as the top federal prosecutor in New York City—is a very rare exception.
On Thursday, after the Department of Justice’s acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove instructed Sassoon to drop her prosecution of New York City mayor Eric Adams, who had faced corruption charges, Ms. Sassoon resigned from her post as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In an eight-page letter—which you can read here and which historians will study—she details her reasons.
The story Sassoon tells is straightforward. There appears to have been an agreement between Mayor Adams’ counsel and the Trump administration for the DOJ to drop the case against him in exchange for Adams’ cooperation with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement priorities. Private benefit for public goods. There’s a word for that: corruption.
As Sassoon writes: “Adams is an American citizen, and a local elected official, who is seeking a personal benefit—immunity from federal laws to which he is undoubtedly subject—in exchange for an act—enforcement of federal law—he has no right to refuse.”
She explains that if the administration did not cease interfering in her prosecution of Adams, she would be forced to resign: “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 is no leftist/deep stater. She was appointed by Trump, and is a longtime member of the Federalist Society who clerked for Ronald Reagan appointees Judge Harvie Wilkinson III on the Fourth Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court.
As she explains in her letter, it is the virtues those judges taught her that informed her decision: “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. 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.”
The scope and nature of the interventions of the Trump Justice Department are shocking, and it appears those involved may have to answer for new offenses beyond the corruption charges. In a footnote, Sassoon reports that “Adams’ 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.”
It is true that just because a case can be successfully prosecuted does not mean that a case must be brought—and that other public interests can legitimately be balanced against it. Perhaps Bove believes that forgoing this prosecution in exchange for Adams’ help expelling many thousands of criminal illegal immigrants from NYC is a fair trade-off. But that logic, in Adams’ case, would permit public corruption and reward other bad behavior by public officials. It makes even less sense for an administration that was elected to end the lawfare that threatens to rip the country apart. Then again, criminal defense lawyers make strained arguments all the time, and that’s what Bove is essentially acting as here.
The officials overseeing the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, Kevin O. Driscoll and John Keller, also resigned Thursday. Bove had also ordered them to drop the case against Adams.
What’s happening in New York is alarming. If you voted for Donald Trump because you wanted to “end the witch hunts” and “restore the rule of law”—causes we passionately support—all of this should concern you.
Hmmm. Sassoon ignores the presumption of innocence that is supposed to guide our judicial system by publicly stating her confidence in Adams’ guilt. Is she also judge and jury?
I agree with the editors here and believe most derision should be aimed at Bove. But on another look at the rule of law let’s stay hyper focused on this: Biden was clearly cognitively impaired at inauguration and got progressively worse. I believe it’s fair to say he wouldn’t be able to hold a low level management post in a private sector organization. Yet the coordinated cover up and running of our country by an unelected cabal of White House functionaries is the stuff of a Tom Clancy novel. Where is the outrage and investigation into prehaps the biggest fraud perpetrated on the American people in our history!