Top federal prosecutor, DOJ official quit after refusing order to toss Eric Adams case

A top federal prosecutor in New York and a senior Department of Justice official resigned Thursday after refusing a DOJ order to dismiss the pending criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams.

Emil Bove, a high-ranking DOJ official, in a letter Thursday said the DOJ was taking over the Adams case and will file a motion in Manhattan federal court to dismiss the charges against him.

Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was the first to refuse to toss the case against Adams, who was indicted last fall, and who soon sought to curry favor with President Donald Trump, NBC News reported.

Sassoon told Bove, that the SDNY prosecution team responsible for Adams’ case agreed with her decision not to dismiss the case, according to a letter by Bove to her, which was obtained by NBC News.

Bove in that letter said the prosecutors on that team have been placed on administrative leave pending investigations by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, to determine if they should be fired or disciplined.

After the 38-year-old Sassoon refused to dismiss the case, the matter was reassigned to John Keller, the acting head of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, who also refused to dismiss the case and then quit, NBC reported.

The Public integrity Section oversees cases involving bribery of public officials.

The New York Times reported that a third person, acting DOJ criminal division chief Kevin Driscoll, also resigned Thursday.

The criminal case against Adams has not been dismissed as of Thursday afternoon.

Adams was indicted in September by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on charges related to alleged bribery, fraud and a decade-long campaign contribution scheme.

On Monday, Bove, who is a former criminal defense lawyer for Trump, ordered Sassoon to dismiss the case against Adams.

Bove’s scathing letter Thursday to Sassoon acknowledged her resignation and her refusal to follow his order.

“This decision is based on your choice to continue pursuing a politically motivated prosecution despite an express instruction to dismiss the case,” Bove wrote in the letter, which was obtained by NBC.

“You lost sight of the oath that you took when you started at the Department of Justice by suggesting that you retain discretion to interpret the Constitution in a manner inconsistent with the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General,” Bove wrote.

Sassoon told SDNY staff in an email, “Moments ago, I submitted my resignation to the attorney general,”

“As I told her, 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. It has been a privilege to be your colleague, and I will be watching with pride as you continue your service to the United States.”

Sassoon had been the lead prosecutor at the fraud and conspiracy trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the former head of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried was sentenced last March to 25 years in prison.

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