Politics & Government
Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Resigns Days After Being Ordered To Drop Case Against Eric Adams
The judge in the case, Dale Ho, has yet to receive a request from prosecutors explaining a new position.
February 14, 2025
Interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon resigned four days after President Trump’s Justice Department ordered her to dismiss the corruption indictment pending against Mayor Eric Adams, officials confirmed Thursday.
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On Monday, Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove sent a highly unusual edict to Sassoon, declaring that Adams’ indictment on bribery and campaign finance fraud changes must be terminated because it was interfering with Adams’ ability to help Trump’s top priority initiative of deporting migrants.
The judge in the case, Dale Ho, must still sign off on such a request, and prosecutors are required to provide some explanation for their change of position. As of Thursday no such motion had been filed with the court.
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Sassoon’s resignation came a day after newly arrived Attorney General Pamela Bondi was asked why the dismissal hadn’t yet been requested at an unrelated press briefing. Bondi said she’d be looking into it.
Acting Attorney General James McHenry appointed Sassoon to run the Southern District of New York’s U.S. attorney’s office Jan. 21, a month after Damian Williams, the federal prosecutor who brought the case against Adams, stepped down. Sassoon, a member of the conservative Federalist Society, had previously clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
In ordering Sassoon to end Adams’ case, Bove acknowledged that he hadn’t addressed the merits of the case, linking the decision to his position that it was brought too close to the June 24th primary in New York when the mayor is running for re-election.
But the memo also took the unprecedented step of linking the decision to a policy initiative of the president, quoting one of Trump’s executive orders and voicing “particular concern” about “the impact of the prosecution on Mayor Adams’ ability to support critical ongoing federal efforts to protect the American people from the disastrous effects of unlawful mass migration and resettlement.”
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