New York (AFP) – A top prosecutor who brought corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams resigned on Friday, saying only a “fool” or a “coward” would comply with a Trump Justice Department demand to drop the case. Hagan Scotten, an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, is the latest federal prosecutor to quit this week in protest over the extraordinary request. Scotten’s boss, Danielle Sassoon, the acting US attorney, submitted her resignation to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday after being asked to drop the case against Adams.
Several members of the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, which handles corruption cases, have also resigned this week after refusing to dismiss the Adams indictment. Pressure has been mounting on the Democratic mayor to resign or for New York Governor Kathy Hochul to remove him as leader of the largest US city. Adams, who pleaded not guilty in September to charges of fraud and bribery, has denied allegations he asked for the case to be dropped in exchange for enforcing President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. “I want to be crystal clear with New Yorkers: I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case,” he said, adding that it was time to “put this difficult episode behind us.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Friday, Trump said he knew “nothing about the individual case” but it looked to be “very political” coming ahead of Adams’s November reelection bid. The president also said the federal prosecutors who resigned were “mostly people from the previous administration” who were “going to all be gone and dismissed.” Sassoon, the acting US attorney, is a Republican and was actually appointed by Trump to the position while his permanent nominee awaits Senate confirmation. A graduate of Yale Law School and a member of the conservative Federalist Society, Sassoon led the 2023 prosecution of disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried. Scotten, a decorated US Army veteran and Harvard Law School graduate, was a former clerk to conservative US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
– ‘Unbelievably unprecedented’ – Department of Justice chief of staff Chad Mizelle said the decision to drop the Adams indictment is “yet another indication that this DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts.” “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,” Mizelle said in a statement. “Such individuals have no place at DOJ.”
In asking for the charges against Adams to be dropped, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove said the prosecution was restricting the mayor’s “ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration and violent crime.” Scotten sent Bove a blistering resignation email, which was published online by multiple news outlets. “No system of 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,” Scotten said. “Our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials,” he said. “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,” he said. “But it was never going to be me.”
Hochul, the New York governor, in an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, denounced the Justice Department’s interference in the Adams case calling it “unbelievably unprecedented.” “The Bondi administration in that Department of Justice is already showing they’re corrupt,” she said. Asked if she would remove Adams as mayor, Hochul said: “The allegations are extremely concerning and serious, but I cannot, as the governor of this state, have a knee-jerk, politically motivated reaction.” The Justice Department, which Trump has accused of unjustly prosecuting him, has been the target of a sweeping shakeup since the Republican took office and a number of high-ranking officials have been fired, demoted, or reassigned.
© 2024 AFP
