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For decades, people have known that Donald Trump is a sleazy operator. More recently, it's become clear that his fellow New Yorker Eric Adams is also a sleazy operator. Maybe it's something in the water. Or the pizza. In any event, sleaze tends to attract sleaze, and recent news makes clear the extent to which Trump and Adams are a match made in heaven (or, probably more accurately, somewhere a bit south of heaven).
On Monday, deputy AG Emil Bove, a former prosecutor who aggressively pursued Jan. 6 cases at the Southern District of NY before he became Trump's consigliere and toady, ordered Danielle Sassoon, the interim U.S. Attorney for SDNY, to drop all charges against Adams in the feds' ongoing corruption probe. However, and this is critical, she was ordered to drop the charges without prejudice. That means they could be refiled, which therefore keeps the Sword of Damocles over Adams' head, so as to guarantee his fealty to Donald J. Trump. Sassoon had been appointed to the interim position by Trump just last month. She's been with SDNY since 2016, is a former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and current member of the Federalist Society. In 2023, she successfully prosecuted Sam Bankman-Fried, who received a 25-year sentence.
In his order, Bove conceded that his request was completely unrelated to the strength of the case, admitting that he had not even looked at the evidence or the charges. Instead, he gave an explicitly political reason for conditionally dropping the charges: so that Adams could be pressured to step up his cooperation with Trump's immigration sweeps and to make sure everyone on Adams' staff said only nice things about the Don. On Wednesday, she sent a strongly worded letter to AG Pam Bondi, accusing Bove and Adams of a quid pro quo. Rather than comply with Bove's illegal order, on Thursday morning, Sassoon resigned.
Bove then attempted to transfer the case to the Public Integrity Section in Washington, which handles corruption cases. However, the acting chief of that section, John Keller, and the acting head of the criminal division, Kevin O. Driscoll, also resigned. So, what did Bove do in response? He threatened to prosecute Sassoon and placed the other principal AUSAs responsible for the case on administrative leave, despite confirming in the order to drop the case that it "in no way calls into question the integrity and efforts" of those prosecutors and of Sassoon.
Meanwhile, no request for dismissal of the case has yet been filed. Given that the judge has to approve the request, if it ever does get filed, it's safe to assume he'll look even more askance at a clear effort to leverage a criminal prosecution for political purposes. The #2 at SDNY, Matthew Podolsky, will presumably take over until Jay Clayton, Trump's nominee for U.S. Attorney, is confirmed, at which point this will all be dumped in Clayton's lap. It will be interesting to see how Podolsky responds if Bove orders him to submit the request to dismiss.
Needless to say, while this unlawful pressure campaign is generating a lot of headlines, it won't lead to Trump's impeachment. But it's worth noting the courage and integrity of the men and women at the Department of Justice who are doing their best to take a stand for the rule of law and to call attention to the illegal actions of Bove and others leading the Department. It has to be painful to leave a job they had taken such pride in, and served so faithfully, under these circumstances. In an e-mail, Sassoon said, "It has been my greatest honor to represent the United States and to pursue justice as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York." Bove should remember that, as Judge Beryl Howell pointed out in her order granting a FOIA request for records related to the classified documents case, "While the Supreme Court has provided a protective and presumptive immunity cloak for a president's conduct, that cloak is not so large to extend to those who aid, abet and execute criminal acts on behalf of a criminally immune president." He's not going to be prosecuted anytime soon, but the statute of limitations on federal corruption charges is 5 years while, last we checked, Trump's term runs only 4 years.
As to Adams, he's got plenty of problems to worry about. As we note, it is far from certain that a judge will sign off on a deal that is plainly corrupt. And even if Adams does overcome that hurdle, his dirty laundry has now been aired for all to see (and smell). That includes Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY), who has the power, under New York State law, to remove Adams with cause. If he is kicked out of office, his usefulness to the Trump administration ends, and maybe the federal charges come back to life (or maybe the dismissal order never gets filed in the first place). On top of that, there could be state charges against him. So, he's got no particular reason to rest easy right now. (L & Z)