Skip to content
Latest
Our Best Stuff From a Week of Turmoil at the Justice Department
Go to my account
General

Our Best Stuff From a Week of Turmoil at the Justice Department

Several lawyers resign over an order to dismiss the case against New York Mayor Eric Adams.

Department of Justice headquarters building. (Photo by J. David Ake/Getty Images)
By
Scroll to the comments section

Hello and happy Saturday. On Thursday, the Trump administration, through the Office of Personnel Management, advised federal agencies to shrink their workforces by laying off probationary employees—workers who hadn’t been on the job long enough to secure civil service protections. A decision that could leave up to hundreds of thousands of people jobless might normally dominate headlines, but the biggest news of the week was about a series of voluntary resignations.

Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned on Thursday after Emil Bove III, the acting deputy attorney general, ordered her office to dismiss bribery and fraud charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. In his order, Bove did not cite any issues with the case against Adams but wrote that the investigation hindered the mayor’s ability to assist with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. 

But in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi the day before her resignation, Sassoon wrote that Adams’ lawyers had, “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that Adams would be in a position to assist with the Department’s [immigration] enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed.” She also highlighted that the order to dismiss the case “without prejudice,” meaning that it could be brought again in the future, “creates obvious ethical problems, by implicitly threatening future prosecution if Adams’s cooperation with enforcing the immigration laws proves unsatisfactory.”

Sassoon was not the only Department of Justice employee to resign over the order. Bove transferred the case to the Justice Department’s Office of Public Integrity, and five lawyers in that department resigned before veteran prosecutor Edward Sullivan agreed—under pressure and after lawyers in the office considered a mass resignation—to sign the dismissal order. A seventh lawyer, assistant U.S. attorney Hagan Scotten, sent a blistering resignation letter on Friday:

Any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way. If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.

On Advisory Opinions, Sarah Isgur and David French discussed Sassoon’s background, noting that she clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and compared the resignations to the 1973 “Saturday Night Massacre” in which Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus resigned rather than fire Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox.

In Boiling Frogs, Nick also highlighted Sassoon’s background and noted that her sacrifice stands in contrast to those who have willingly done Donald Trump’s bidding to advance their careers. 

That’s the résumé of a future attorney general or appellate judge, possibly a Supreme Court justice. Given her youth and intellect, my guess is that Sassoon stood a real chance of landing on the federal bench before Trump’s term was up. All she had to do was follow the example of J.D. Vance, Elise Stefanik, Marco Rubio, and a million other soulless Republican lowlifes by agreeing to prioritize his interests over her commitment to liberalism.

…

Her willingness to place liberal principle over her own ambition is like a long drink of water during an endless trek through the desert. Amid a national pandemic of moral cowardice, she and the others who resigned rather than carry out Bove’s drug deal turned out to be immune. They lit their careers on fire because they deemed that preferable to being derelict in their ethical duties. However much you admire them, it’s not enough.

The fallout from this story will undoubtedly continue, and we’ll have more as it does. Thank you for reading and have a good weekend.

Join Dispatch Premium

(Illustration by Noah Hickey/Photos via Getty Images)

Why J.D. Vance Is Wrong About the Catholic Church’s Mission

and
“Vance’s argument seems to be that the church has a responsibility to support, in an undefined sense or manner, the policy positions of the government of the United States. The weight of the witness of scripture, the history of the church’s conflict with states, and the American Catholic experience are decidedly against this approach. The relationship between religion and the state has been vexed throughout history. Prophets and kings have often had difficult relationships. The Lord Jesus Christ himself proposed the most elegant solution when he commanded that we, ‘Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s’ (Matthew 22:21).”
(Photo Credit: Jim Steinfeldt/Getty Images.)

The Horseshoe Politics of Higher Education

“The most important fault line in the higher ed wars is not between the progressives and the conservatives, but between the ideological purists and the principled liberals. Americans have become accustomed to thinking of political society along a simple left-right spectrum. But increasingly, both in the higher education sector and broader American society, we can plot individuals along two dimensions: commitment to an ideological tribe and a commitment to the liberal tradition. Horseshoe politics happens when ideologues care more about outcomes than procedures. And liberal democracy cannot survive without a shared commitment to upholding the procedures and norms essential to a just system that protects the rights of minority factions.”
(Photo by NBC Television/Getty Images)

A Half-Century of ‘Saturday Night’

We’re losing our shared experience of TV and, with it, the reason for Saturday Night Live to really exist. There was once a thrill at the idea that on any Saturday night, a hilarious, outlandish, unpredictable moment might happen in real time, broadcast to the entire country, watchable on the same TV set on which your parents watched the weather report. But anyone with a phone and an internet connection can go live at any time, or post short-form comedy videos as quickly as they can make them on platforms over which the creators have much more control. Can SNL, the expensive product of a major media company with 50 years of legacy behind it, keep adapting to this world?

And here’s the best of the rest:

Rachael Larimore's Headshot

Rachael Larimore

Rachael Larimore is managing editor of The Dispatch and is based in the Cincinnati area. Prior to joining the company in 2019, she served in similar roles at Slate, The Weekly Standard, and The Bulwark. She and her husband have three sons.

Gift this article to a friend

Your membership includes the ability to share articles with friends. Share this article with a friend by clicking the button below.

Please note that we at The Dispatch hold ourselves, our work, and our commenters to a higher standard than other places on the internet. We welcome comments that foster genuine debate or discussion—including comments critical of us or our work—but responses that include ad hominem attacks on fellow Dispatch members or are intended to stoke fear and anger may be moderated.

With your membership, you only have the ability to comment on The Morning Dispatch articles. Consider upgrading to join the conversation everywhere.

Related Content

The Latest