The Department of Justice, in seeking to suspend Mayor Adams’ corruption case, is committing a clear violation of the rule of law, the rule that keeps prosecutorial decisions free of politics. The federal courts must push back to protect the application of impartial justice.
So far several upstanding career Department of Justice prosecutors in New York and Washington have resigned in protest. Good for them and may their sacrifices be honored.
The case at hand concerns the five criminal charges against Adams that the White House wants to be temporarily put aside for blatantly political purposes, but what is at stake is much more significant than one case and one defendant, even if he is the mayor of the country’s biggest city.
New York lawyer Emil Bove, who was one of President Trump’s criminal defense attorneys and is now principal associate deputy attorney general, is handing out the orders, but Attorney General Pam Bondi and Trump himself are not unaware of the terrible machinations.
The de facto DOJ No. 2 as acting deputy attorney general, Bove wrote a memo on Monday to Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon directing her to suspend the case against Adams for two reasons, neither of them valid.
Bove claimed that former U.S. Attorney Damian Williams had acted improperly and that Adams was needed to help the Trump administration with immigration enforcement. Williams did nothing wrong and the prosecution of Adams can’t be traded for his assistance on a political matter.
Sassoon correctly refused and Wednesday wrote to Bondi explaining in detail why the case, due for an April trial, should not be postponed and said that she would resign if Bondi and Bove forced the matter. The next day, Thursday, Bove replied to Sassoon, accepting her resignation and reiterated his warped reasons why the case should be dismissed without prejudice, meaning that it can be resumed later on.
Bove then transferred the Adams case to D.C., where several career prosecutors in the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section also resigned in protest. Also walking away was Hagen Scotten, the lead attorney in Manhattan on the Adams case, in a blistering resignation letter aimed at Bove and the corruption of the process of justice.
Sassoon and Scotten warned that the power to prosecute, or not to prosecute, must never be used for partisan political objectives. They are not soft on crime members of the left wing resistance to Trump. They are both career prosecutors who clerked for conservatives on the U.S Supreme Court. Sassoon for the late Antonin Scalia and Scotten for Chief Justice John Roberts.
But look at the garbage thrown at them by Chad Mizelle, Bondi’s chief of staff, who said that “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. Such individuals have no place at DOJ.” There should be no place at DOJ for the likes of Mizelle.
Having signed the dismissal motion himself, Bove filed the papers Friday night before Manhattan Federal Judge Dale Ho. Based on Sassoon’s letter, Ho should reject the motion and let the case proceed as normal.
