The resignations of prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York this week are playing in the press as typical “resistance” to Donald Trump. They’re far from that, and the real story speaks well of the prosecutors but sends a rotten message to any lawyer who might want to join the Trump Administration.
The story begins with the memo this week by acting deputy attorney general Emil Bove instructing the Southern District to drop criminal charges without prejudice against New York Mayor Eric Adams.
The memo cited two grounds for dismissal: The prosecution was an example of lawfare because Mr. Adams had criticized President Biden’s immigration policies, and Mr. Trump needs Mr. Adams to help on immigration enforcement.
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The Trump transition had recently made Danielle Sassoon the acting U.S. Attorney until Mr. Trump’s nominee is confirmed.
But Ms. Sassoon had watched the prosecution of Mr. Adams and didn’t agree with the Bove memo.
We know from sources close to her that she agonized over how to respond. She decided to send a memo to newly confirmed Attorney General Pam Bondi explaining her views, and seeking a meeting to discuss the matter.
Ms. Sassoon is a member of the Federalist Society and clerked for two conservative pillars of the judiciary, Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. She led the prosecution of crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried and is a rising star in conservative legal circles.
Her memo to Ms. Bondi explained in detail that the prosecution wasn’t a case of weaponized politics and why it is improper to dismiss a case based on a quid pro quo for policy cooperation by Mr. Adams.
“Because the law does not support a dismissal, and because I am confident that Adams has committed the crimes with which he is charged,” Ms. Sassoon wrote, “I cannot agree to seek a dismissal driven by improper considerations.”
If the meeting with the AG didn’t take place, Ms. Sassoon said she’d resign. This is how a public official is supposed to behave when disagreeing on policy or ethical principle. If you can’t in good conscience follow instructions, you should offer to resign so your bosses can do what they want.
That’s where this should have ended. We should add that we believe Mr. Trump, as the President who supervises the Justice Department, has the right to order a prosecution dismissed. If he thinks cooperation on immigration matters more than fighting political corruption, he can make that call, however unwise.
But Mr. Bove didn’t leave it there. He responded with a blistering letter to Ms. Sassoon that threatened her career and those of assistant U.S. Attorneys who worked on the Adams case. “The [assistant U.S. Attorneys] principally responsible for this case are being placed on off-duty, administrative leave pending investigations by the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Professional Responsibility, both of which will also evaluate your conduct,” Mr. Bove wrote.
An investigation because she resigned on principle? Really?
One of the assistant attorneys who worked the Adams case, Hagan Scotten, responded with his own resignation letter to Mr. Bove: “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.”
Mr. Scotten is a Special Forces veteran and winner of two bronze stars who clerked for then Judge Brett Kavanaugh on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and Chief Justice John Roberts on the Supreme Court.
