Something incredibly powerful happened Thursday: Integrity, courage and the rule of law stood up tall and proud amid a sea of corruption and cowards. The interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle R. Sassoon, who had been appointed by President Donald Trump just three weeks ago, resigned rather than follow Monday’s order from acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to dismiss an indictment against New York Mayor Eric Adams — a dismissal that Sassoon described as “driven by improper considerations.”
In a detailed letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, asking for a meeting (which was not granted) and for her to reconsider Bove’s order (also not granted), Sassoon explained that she could not fulfill her obligations under New York’s Code of Professional Responsibility for lawyers to act in good faith and with candor before a court, “because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged.”
Integrity, courage and the rule of law stood up tall and proud amid a sea of corruption and cowards.
Bove’s next move was to place the assistant U.S. attorneys who handled the case at the line level on administrative leave and transfer the case to the Public Integrity Section at the Department of Justice in Washington where, he believed, prosecutors would be more willing to do his bidding and seek the dismissal. But once again, Bove underestimated the integrity of DOJ career prosecutors. The integrity section’s acting chief (also appointed by Trump) and all of the deputies, except one on leave, as well as the senior career official in the criminal division resigned as well.
While these resignations are truly heroic, the reaction to Bove’s memo is not surprising. So many of us (except apparently Bove and another SDNY alum, soon to be deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche) could see immediately that Bove’s order to dismiss its case was an improper use of the levers of criminal power at the Justice Department. While on rare occasions, prosecutors dismiss a case brought by a duly empaneled grand jury if, for example, there is an insurmountable problem with the evidence, or a major change in the law, that is not what Bove was demanding. Instead, it seems clear that this missive was designed to get Adams to cooperate with Trump’s immigration plan and also keep the mayor under his thumb; that is why they chose the forced dismissal instead of a pardon, which Trump could have easily issued with the stroke of a pen.
Sassoon quite clearly calls this political deal out in her letter to Bondi: “Adams has argued in substance — as Mr. Bove appears prepared to concede — that Adams should receive leniency for federal crimes solely because he occupies an important public position and can use that position to assist in the Administration’s policy priorities.”
Any career DOJ prosecutor with an ounce of integrity, who has taken an oath of office to serve the constitution, knows that the criminal justice system should never be used for political favor, political leverage or as a “quid pro quo.” I will go out on a limb and say that most career federal prosecutors would have refused to stand up in front of a federal judge and ask for dismissal in these circumstances, understanding the damage it would do to the DOJ, the SDNY and their personal integrity.
As Sassoon so eloquently said, the presiding judge would clearly see that the “criminal process is being used to control a political figure.” Sassoon and five other career prosecutors said loudly and proudly, we are not going to be the ones to ask a federal judge to sign off on that.
On Friday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten, an Army veteran who clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts and was one of the line attorneys handling the Adams case, resigned, stating in a letter to Bove that any assistant U.S. attorney “would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials.” Scotten added, “If no lawyer within earshot of the president is willing to give him that advice, then 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.”
Any DOJ prosecutor with an ounce of integrity knows that the criminal justice system should never be used for political favor or as a ‘quid pro quo.’
I am not by any means taking away from Sassoon’s and the other lawyers’ incredible bravery and courage. Quite the contrary. To do this in the face of the lies, obfuscation and hypocrisy makes them all, in my opinion, patriots and heroes. That Sassoon did this as a credentialed star of the conservative Federalist Society who clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and other conservative judges (as she mentions in her letter) shows courage most members of the Republican Party today have not shown. Rather, I say all of this is not surprising, to help people understand how outrageous, unethical and out of line Bove’s conduct and demand is.
To wit, Sassoon noted in her letter to Bondi that during a meeting at Main Justice between the SDNY team, Adams’ defense lawyers and Bove, one of the SDNY team members took notes — as any self-respecting prosecutor would. Bove “admonished” the note-taker and “directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.”
This is disturbing conduct by a DOJ official, a strange thing to do if there is nothing wrong with your conduct, and the type of thing most prosecutors would look at as evidence of a guilty conscience.
So, what happens next?
I suspect Trump’s DOJ leaders will find someone willing to stand before Southern District Judge Dale Ho and make this disingenuous argument to dismiss the case (even if Bove has to do it himself). The judge does not have wide latitude to deny the actual motion to dismiss but has discretion to conduct an inquiry to determine whether dismissal is in fact in the public’s interest.
Thanks to Sassoon’s letter, we now know that SDNY was actually planning to add new charges against Eric Adams for obstruction — yet another reason the directive to cease the case is so wrong.
While ultimately a federal judge cannot force the department to proceed with a case when it does not want to do, any credible federal judge (which Ho certainly is) will want to get to the bottom of the negotiations and machinations that led to the attempted use of the levers of DOJ for a political, transactional deal. That could prove even more embarrassing for the department and Bove.
For today, the rule of law and integrity has shown its power and strength in the halls of the SDNY and the Department of Justice. Let’s hope it’s contagious.
