NEW YORK (news agencies) — The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan resigned Thursday rather than obey a Justice Department order to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
The resignation of Danielle Sassoon, a Republican who was the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, was confirmed by a spokesperson for the office.
Her resignation came days after a senior Justice Department official directed New York prosecutors to drop the case against Adams, who was accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions and bribes of free or discounted travel from people who wanted to buy his influence.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said in a memo Monday that the case should be dismissed so that Adams, a Democrat, could help with President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and campaign for reelection.
Justice Department officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Adams’ attorney, Alex Spiro. A spokesperson for the mayor did not immediately respond.
The Justice Department’s decision to end the case because of political considerations, rather than the strength or weakness of the evidence, alarmed some career prosecutors who said it was a departure from longstanding norms.
While Bove had directed that the case be dismissed as soon as “practicable,” days went by with no public statements or actions by the prosecution team in New York.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that she would “look into” why the charges had yet to be dismissed.
Sassoon, a former clerk for the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia who is a member of the conservative Federalist Society, was not the one who brought the case against Adams last year. The prosecutor who did, former U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, stepped down after Trump’s election victory.
Sassoon had only been tapped to serve as acting U.S. Attorney on Jan. 21, the day after Trump took office.
Her role was intended to be temporary. Trump in November nominated Jay Clayton, the former chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to the post, an appointment that must be confirmed by the Senate.
The office she led, the Southern District of New York, is among the largest and most prominent prosecutor’s offices in the U.S., with a long track record of tackling Wall Street malfeasance, political corruption and international terrorism.
It has a tradition of independence from Washington, something that has earned it the nickname “the sovereign district.”
During Trump’s first term, the office prosecuted both the president’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, and his strategic adviser, Steve Bannon, in separate cases. Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance charges. Trump ended the federal fraud case against Bannon by pardoning him, though nearly identical charges were then brought by state prosecutors.
Sassoon joined the U.S. attorney’s office in 2016. In 2023 she helped lead the fraud prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. More recently, she had served as the office’s co-chief of criminal appeals.
Adams was indicted in September on charges that while he worked as Brooklyn Borough President, he accepted over $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks such as expensive flight upgrades, luxury hotel stays and even a trip to a bathhouse.
The indictment said a Turkish official who helped facilitate the trips then leaned on Adams for favors, including asking him to lobby the Fire Department to let a newly constructed, 36-story diplomatic building open in time for a planned visit by Turkey’s president.
Prosecutors said they had proof that Adams personally directed political aides to solicit foreign donations and disguise them to help the campaign qualify for a city program that provides a generous, publicly-funded match for small dollar donations. Under federal law, foreign nationals are banned from contributing to U.S. election campaigns.
As recently as Jan. 6th, prosecutors had indicated their investigation remained active, writing in court papers that they continued to “uncover additional criminal conduct by Adams.”
Bove said in his memo that Justice Department officials in Washington hadn’t evaluated the evidence in the case before deciding it should be dropped — at least until after the mayoral election in November.
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