By Luc Cohen and Sarah N. Lynch
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Three senior Justice Department officials, including Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor, have resigned after a top official ordered the dismissal of corruption charges against New York City’s mayor, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
The departures mark the latest sign of resistance from career Justice Department officials to Trump’s efforts to overhaul the agency to end what he calls its weaponization against political opponents. Critics say Trump’s changes threaten to subject criminal prosecutions to political whims.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, the Trump administration’s recent pick to temporarily lead the office prosecuting New York Mayor Eric Adams, resigned her post on Thursday without giving a reason, a spokesperson for the office said.
John Keller, the acting head of the Justice Department’s public corruption unit, also resigned, two people familiar with the matter said. Kevin Driscoll, a senior official in the department’s criminal division, has also resigned, one of the people said.
A Justice Department official confirmed the resignations. It was not immediately clear who would take Sassoon’s place.
The resignations come after acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove on Monday ordered Sassoon to drop corruption charges against Adams, a Democrat who has forged ties with Republican President Donald Trump, in what former prosecutors called a sign of political interference.
According to a person briefed on the matter, Sassoon refused to comply with the directive to dismiss the case, and Trump’s administration then directed Keller’s office to do so. Keller resigned rather than comply, the person said.
Since Trump began his second term in the White House on January 20, the new administration fired more than a dozen prosecutors who pursued criminal charges against Trump in two cases brought in 2023, paused all civil rights and environmental litigation, and ordered criminal investigations of state and local officials who interfere with his hardline immigration initiatives.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, in her first day on the job last week, issued a directive stating that Justice Department lawyers who decline to appear in court or sign briefs would be disciplined and possibly fired.
SOUTHERN DISTRICT HAS TRADITION OF INDEPENDENCE
The Southern District of New York, known for bringing high-profile cases on financial crimes, public corruption and national security, has long been known for its independence from the Justice Department in Washington.
Last September, Sassoon’s predecessor Damian Williams – a Biden appointee – charged Adams with accepting bribes from Turkish officials as part of a string of high-profile corruption cases – including the trial conviction on bribery charges of former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, also a Democrat.
Menendez is appealing.
Adams pleaded not guilty and has argued the charges were brought as retaliation for his criticism of Biden’s immigration policies. Trump, whose two federal cases were dismissed after his election victory but who was convicted on separate state-level charges, has expressed sympathy for Adams.
In a memorandum to Sassoon ordering Adams’ case be dismissed, Bove said the directive had nothing to do with its merits. Instead, he wrote that the case was distracting Adams from helping Trump crack down on illegal immigration, one of the Republican president’s top priorities.
A half-dozen former SDNY prosecutors told Reuters this week that the order from Bove, himself a former SDNY prosecutor who also served as Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer, raised questions about whether the office can remain independent of political pressure during Trump’s second White House term.
“The U.S. Attorney must have concluded that she could not dismiss these charges while also carrying out her oath of office,” said Harry Sandick, a former SDNY federal prosecutor. “She displayed courage and a respect for the traditions of the office by declining to follow an order that she apparently viewed as unjust.”
Prosecutors in the Southern District have not yet filed a formal motion seeking to have the case dismissed three days after Bove’s Monday order that the case be dropped.
Driscoll, who has been with the department for more than two decades, oversaw the criminal division’s money laundering and asset recovery and public integrity sections.
Keller has been with the department since 2010. He only became the acting head of the public integrity section recently, after the former chief Corey Amundson resigned when Trump-appointed officials tried to reassign him to an immigration-focused unit.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Additional reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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