The Trump/Musk Administration ordered the dismissal of the fraud and bribery case against New York Mayor Eric Adams. These charges alleged Adams risked the lives of New Yorkers by accepting Turkish bribes to pass a Turkish owned building without a proper fire inspection. In the directive to dismiss the case the Musk/Trump Administration openly linked the dismissal to Adams’ support for the Administration’s immigration policy.
The Trump appointed acting United States Attorney For the Southern District of New York has resigned in protest. You can read the resignation letter HERE.
If you respect justice, I urge you to read it. If you believe in the rule of law, I urge you to read it. If you know people who somehow believe the Trump/Musk administration is rooting out corruption rather than endorsing it, I beg you to convince them to read it.
There is much in the letter that is quote worthy. I will settle for this seminal point on p. 7:
"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 [political] considerations . . . I understand my duty as a prosecutor to mean enforcing the law impartially, and that includes prosecuting a validly returned indictment regardless whether its dismissal would be politically advantageous, to the defendant or to those who appointed me."
Sassoon has a deep conservative pedigree that you would think would prompt MAGA to love her. Trump appointed her to this position. She was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Scalia and a longstanding and highly respected member of The Federalist Society. However, she kept her integrity, her principles, and respect for the rule of law. That proved to be fatal in the Trump/Musk Administration.
In the interest of completeness and fairness, HERE is the Musk/Trump administration response accepting her resignation.
Suffice it to say that the response of the Trump/Musk administration makes clear that the administration disagrees with Ms. Sassoon's above characterization of her job. The administration's view is that Ms. Sassoon's job is to follow orders and do what she is told to do.
Further, the administration's letter threatens to discipline, and potentially fire, Sassoon's entire prosecution team because she stated the prosecution team agreed the case against Adams was sound in law and fact. They have all been placed on administrative leave of their duties indefinitely pending a further witch hunting investigation.
Major Update, 12:20 pm, 14 Feb.
The Assistant USAO for the SDNY, Hagan Scotten has resigned rather than participate in the dismissal of Eric Adams. He is at least the seventh attorney to resign over this issue. You can read his one page blistering resignation letter HERE.
Scotten briefly, but in devastating form, addresses the Musk/Trump DOJ’s justification for dismissal.
“the first justification for the motion—that Damian Williams’s role in the case somehow tainted a valid indictment supported by ample evidence, and pursued under four differentU.S. attorneys—is so weak as to be transparently pretextual. The second justification is worse. No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives.”
However, the conclusion is simply strongest exercise in lawyering courage I have ever seen.
“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.”
Wowsa.
