Mayor Adams’ ability to govern was seriously compromised by a “politicized” prosecution — “directly endangering the lives of millions of New Yorkers” — President Trump’s Justice Department blasted Thursday while accepting the bombshell resignation of Manhattan’s US Attorney.
Interim US Attorney Danielle Sassoon unexpectedly quit in a scathing letter that prompted a furious response from the DOJ’s No. 2, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove.
Bove — who had ordered Sassoon in a Monday memo to dismiss the corruption case against Adams — ripped her as having “no authority” to contest the DOJ’s finding that the investigation and prosecution into the mayor was “weaponized.”
“The Justice Department will not ignore the fact that the timing of charges authorized by a former U.S. Attorney with apparent political aspirations interferes with Mayor Adams’ ability to run a campaign in the 2025 election,” he wrote to Sassoon, referring to her predecessor, former Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams.
Sassoon, in her resignation letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, had argued that the weaponization concerns were “not a basis to dismiss an indictment returned by a duly constituted grand jury.”
The leader of the Southern District of New York — who took over on an interim basis just a few weeks ago — also charged that Adams and the newly-installed DOJ were clearly involved in a “quid pro quo” offer to help Trump’s immigration agenda in exchange for his case being dropped.
“Rather than be rewarded, Adams’s advocacy should be called out for what it is: an improper offer of immigration enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case,” she wrote, explaining why she could not in “good faith” cave to the demand to kill the Adams case.
But Bove shot back that the feds were responsible for “keeping people safe across the country” and that the pending case against the mayor had posed a danger to New Yorkers.
“As a result of the pending prosecution, Mayor Adams is unable to communicate directly and candidly with City officials he is responsible for managing, as well as federal agencies trying to protect the public from national security threats and violent crime,” he wrote, as he accepted her resignation.
“Mayor Adams has been denied a security clearance that limits his access to details of national security issues in the City he was elected to govern and protect. He cannot speak to federal officials regarding imminent security threats to the City. And he cannot fully cooperate with the federal government in the manner he deems appropriate to keep the City and its residents safe,” Bove noted.
“This situation is unacceptable and directly endangers the lives of millions of New Yorkers.”
His directive to drop the case “reflected a determination by the Justice Department that these public safety risks greatly outweigh any interest you have identified,” he told Sassoon.
“It is not for local federal officials such as yourself, who lack access to all relevant information, to question these judgments within the Justice Department’s chain of command.”
Sassoon, a Republican, wrote that Adams’ lawyers “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo,” at a Jan. 31 meeting in Washington DC with Bove, “indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.”
Bove, formerly one of Trump’s lawyers in his hush money case, “admonished” a Manhattan prosecutor who took notes during the meeting and demanded that those notes be collected at the end of the sit-down, she added.
“It is a breathtaking and dangerous precedent to reward Adams’s opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment. Nor will a court likely find that such an improper exchange is consistent with the public interest,” she wrote.
“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 added.
The outgoing prosecutor, a former clerk for conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, also slammed Bove for comparing Adams’ case to that of convicted Russian arms dealer Victor Bout, who then-President Joe Biden agreed to release in exchange for WNBA star Britney Griner during his presidency.
“It is difficult to imagine that the Department wishes to emulate that episode by granting Adams leverage over it akin to Russia’s influence in international affairs,” she wrote.
Sassoon also revealed in the letter that Manhattan feds were prepared to bring a new bombshell indictment charging Adams with destroying evidence and telling people to lie to the FBI.
Bove, in his own letter, accused Sassoon of pressing on with a “politically motivated prosecution” in spite of Main Justice’s orders.
He wrote that all four public corruption prosecutors leading the case against Adams have been placed on “administrative leave”and are being investigated by the US Attorney General’s office in an internal probe that could lead to their “termination.”
The Manhattan federal prosecutors’ office has a centuries-old reputation of independence from officials in Washington, DC. It’s often referred to as the “Sovereign District.”
But those days of independence are over, declared Bove, himself a former alum of the office’s terrorism division.
“No US Attorney’s Office is a separate sovereign,” Bove told The Post in a statement.
“I concluded earlier this week that the prosecution of Mayor Adams must be dismissed in order to prioritize national security and public safety over continuing with a case that has been tainted from the start by troubling tactics,” Bove added.
“There is no room at the Justice Department for attorneys who refuse to execute on the priorities of the Executive Branch — priorities determined by the American people. I look forward to working with new leadership at SDNY on the important priorities President Trump has laid out for us to make America safe again.”
Adams’ defense attorney Alex Spiro called the quid pro quo claim a “total lie.”
“We offered nothing and the department asked nothing of us,” he said.
Spiro claimed that the government hadn’t brought a new indictment after months of delays because of a lack of “evidence” — despite Sassoon’s letter insisting such evidence does exist, and that her office was prepped to bring new charges.
“If SDNY had any proof whatsoever that the mayor destroyed evidence, they would have brought those charges—as they continually threatened to do, but didn’t, over months and months.”
The dueling multi-page missives emerged just hours after Adams cozied up to Trump’s border czar Tom Homan and promised to finally allow ICE agents to return to Rikers.
Trump, asked about the back-and-forth at a press conference Thursday, claimed “I know nothing about it” and insisted he had not directed his DOJ to order that the case against Adams be dropped.
Veteran financial crimes prosecutor Matthew Podolsky will replace Sassoon, who was named as interim SDNY chief last month while the president’s pick to lead the office, Jay Clayton, awaits confirmation, a SDNY spokesperson said Thursday.
Sassoon and other Manhattan federal prosecutors had been working for days, sources told The Post, to determine how to reply to Bove’s Monday memo, which noted that the demand to ask a judge to toss the case had nothing to do with the strength of the evidence against Adams.
Adams has pleaded not guilty to an indictment charging him with fast-tracking the opening of the Turkish consulate in Manhattan in exchange for $123,000 worth of travel perks.
Bove had told SDNY that the prosecution should be dropped because it inappropriately hampered Adams’ ability to lead the city and to help Trump with his immigration agenda, Bove claimed.
He also argued, without providing hard evidence, that the case was brought against Adams due to his criticism of Biden over the border crisis.
The office as of Thursday night had still yet to cave to the DOJ’s demand to ask Judge Dale Ho to toss the case.
One law enforcement source predicted that more Manhattan prosecutors would be forced to resign if the Justice Department keeps pressing on to kill the Adams case.
“She is not the only one that wasn’t happy,” the source said, referring to Sassoon.
“I don’t think she will be the last one to resign from that office.”
It also emerged Thursday that two veteran corruption prosecutors at Main Justice had resigned after being ordered to take over the case from the Manhattan feds.
Trump’s DOJ will likely eventually find someone to follow its orders and ask the judge to toss the case, but it’s unclear how long that would take, former prosecutor Duncan Levin told The Post.
“They are going to have to find somebody who is going to walk into court to dismiss it,” he said.
“At some point, presumably, they will find some warm body to put in that job who will rubber stamp the absolutely unsupportable gobbledygook.”
— Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Priscilla DeGregory
