Trump denies meddling in Eric Adams case as prosecutors stop

Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, exits court in New York on Oct. 5, 2023.

Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Thursday denied instructing the Department of Justice to dismiss a criminal prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Trump’s denial came as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and five senior DOJ officials in Washington, D.C., resigned over an order to toss out the case against Adams, which was issued by a top DOJ official who previously represented Trump in his own criminal case.

“I didn’t,” Trump said at the White House when asked by a reporter if he requested the dismissal for Adam’s case.

“I know nothing about it. I did not,” Trump added.

Emil Bove, the high-ranking DOJ official who ordered the dismissal, said the DOJ would take over the case from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and file a motion in Manhattan federal court to dismiss the charges against Adams.

Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was the first prosecutor to refuse to dismiss the case against the mayor, who sought to curry favor with Trump after being indicted last fall.

Sassoon in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi strongly disagreed with Bove’s order and the rationale for it. She said Adams’ lawyers at a meeting with her and Bove had repeatedly “urged what amounted to a quid pro quo” in which the mayor supported Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts in exchange for the case’s dismissal.

“The idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie,” Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro said in a statement. “We offered nothing and the department asked nothing of us.”

Sassoon also said her prosecutors had been prepared to seek an indictment of Adams on additional charges related to his alleged destruction of evidence and his instructing others to do so and provide false information to the FBI.

Within hours of Sassoon resigning, Adams announced that he would sign an order allowing federal immigration officers into the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City.

“This is a deal made with the devil to try to roll back our city’s longstanding sanctuary laws and policies — policies that allow all New Yorkers to live freely while improving everyone’s public safety,” said Murad Awawdeh, CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, in a statement.

“Eric Adams has no integrity,” Awadeh said. “He just made himself complicit with the Trump administration’s detention to deportation pipeline in exchange for a Department of Justice promise to squash the five-count federal corruption charges against him.”

Sassoon, 38, told Bove that the prosecution team responsible for Adams’ case agreed with her decision not to dismiss the case, according to a scathing letter Bove sent her Thursday, which NBC News obtained.

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 Sassoon refused to dismiss the case Thursday, 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.

Acting DOJ criminal division chief Kevin Driscoll also resigned Thursday after refusing to accept the Adams case.

At least three other senior officials in the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section quit after that following a meeting with the deputy attorney general.

Acting Chief of the Public Integrity Section John D. Keller.

Source: Department of Justice

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 decadelong campaign contribution scheme.

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

NBC on Thursday obtained a letter from Sassoon in which she wrote, “I attended a meeting on January 31, 2025, with Mr. Bove, Adams’ counsel, and members of my office.”

“Adams’s attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with Department’s enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed,” Sassoon wrote.

“Mr. Bove admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting’s conclusion.”

Bove, in his own 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.

“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.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kevin Driscoll.

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

Bove’s letter says that he had directed Sassoon to dismiss the prosecution of Adams “based on well-founded concerns regarding weaponization, election interference and the impediments that the case has imposed on Mayor Adams’ ability to govern and cooperate with federal law enforcement to keep New York City safe.”

The letter says the DOJ’s investigation of Adams “was accelerated after Mayor Adams publicly criticized President Biden’s failed immigration policies.”

“Based on my review and our meetings, the charging decision was rushed as the 2024 Presidential election approached, and as the former U.S. Attorney appears to have been pursuing potential political appointments in the event Kamala Harris won that election,” 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.