‘It was never going to be me’: How Trump’s DOJ sparked a crisis and mass resignations over the Eric Adams case – CNN
Source: CNN
The morning after the mass resignation of prosecutors sparked a crisis inside the Trump Justice Department, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove led a meeting with the Justice Department’s public integrity section. His message: They had to choose one career lawyer to file a dismissal of the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to three people briefed on the meeting.
Bove didn’t make an explicit threat to fire anyone for refusing – but Thursday’s trail of resignations from prosecutors in New York and the public integrity unit made clear the stakes of the demand.
After Friday’s meeting with Bove, the public integrity lawyers met separately to discuss a strategy. A mass resignation was among the options that was considered, but in the end, most coalesced around picking one person to file the dismissal as a way to end the stand-off, two of the people briefed said.
Late Friday, Bove, along with prosecutors Ed Sullivan and Antoinette Bacon, entered the filing that could end the case after an extraordinary wave of resignations from the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department public integrity section that’s shaken the foundation of a Trump administration that says it wants to end the “weaponization” of DOJ.
Over the past 36 hours, seven prosecutors in New York and Washington – including the Trump-installed acting US attorney in the Southern District of New York and the top career prosecutors overseeing public corruption cases – have resigned rather than carry out the order to dismiss the corruption case against Adams, a Democrat. The prosecutors have decried Bove’s Monday order to drop the charges – which cited in part Adams’ role as mayor helping the Trump administration combat illegal immigration – as a bargain amounting to a “quid pro quo.”
The prosecutors who resigned in New York were not Biden appointees. The acting US attorney for the Southern District, Danielle Sassoon, who was elevated by Trump, clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. And Assistant US Attorney Hagan Scotten, a line prosecutor who resigned in a blistering letter Friday, once clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts.
“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, in this way,” Scotten wrote in his resignation letter on Friday.
“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,” Scotten wrote. “But it was never going to be me.”
Interviews with more than a dozen officials in New York and Washington show how the case against Adams – and the refusal to accede to the demand to drop it – has become a flashpoint in a Trump Justice Department that’s led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who represented Trump at his Senate impeachment trial, and Todd Blanche and Bove, who both defended Trump in his criminal cases.
Bove, who will assume one of the most powerful positions in the department under Blanche, should Blanche be confirmed as deputy attorney general, has been at the forefront of the firings of prosecutors from the Trump criminal cases and the review of thousands of FBI agents who investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Now he’s caught in the middle of a standoff with the US attorney’s office where he worked for a decade until leaving in 2021.
The Trump DOJ leadership is leaving no doubt as to what it wants.
“The decision to dismiss the indictment of Eric Adams is yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts,” Justice Department chief of staff Chad Mizelle said in a Friday afternoon memo.
“The fact that those who indicted and prosecuted the case refused to follow a direct command is further proof of the disordered and ulterior motives of the prosecutors,” he added. “Such individuals have no place at DOJ.”
The public integrity section has seen a target on its back since Trump took office, as the Trump administration has gutted the federal government’s ability to fight public corruption in its first weeks. Senior administration officials have considered eliminating the unit, which was created after Watergate to combat public corruption.
After Sassoon resigned on Thursday, Bove turned to the public integrity unit to carry out his order to dismiss the Adams case. He was met with more resignations.
First came Kevin Driscoll, the top career criminal division prosecutor who oversaw the public integrity section, and John Kelle
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