DOJ’s Adams Order Cues Showdown With Wall Street Prosecutors

The Trump Justice Department’s order that Manhattan federal prosecutors drop the corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams sets up an early showdown over the independence of the government lawyers who police Wall Street.

Along with white-collar crime, the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York has long pursued public corruption cases against both Republicans and Democrats. Most recently, it won a bribery conviction against former US Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who was sentenced last month to 11 years in prison.

Eric Adams

Photographer: Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg

But in his Monday directive, Acting US Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove backed the mayor’s position, shared by President Donald Trump, that his indictment was linked to his criticisms of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. Bove’s order now puts interim Manhattan US Attorney Danielle Sassoon in a difficult position. She can defend her office’s conduct by resigning or follow orders, perhaps leading others to resign.

Trump has said the Justice Department should be focused on his priorities, and his appointees have moved quickly to remove or reassign federal prosecutors. But the Southern District is the nation’s highest-profile and most prestigious US attorney’s office. It’s often called the Sovereign District due to its tradition of autonomy from Washington.

Emil Bove

Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

Former federal prosecutors said Bove’s order and other moves by the Trump Justice Department had sent an unmistakable signal.

“I think the independence of the Southern District is diluted, as is that of all the other US attorney’s offices in the country,” said Michael Weinstein, a former assistant US attorney now in private practice.

A spokesman for the Southern District declined to comment.

Bove said his directive “in no way calls into question the integrity and efforts of the line prosecutors responsible” for the Adams case. He placed most of the blame on former Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams. In a court filing last month, Sassoon said that the Adams investigation began before Williams’ appointment by President Joe Biden. Williams didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Williams led an aggressive push to bring both high-profile corruption and white-collar cases. Under Williams, the Southern District brought multibillion-dollar fraud cases against Archegos Capital Management founder Bill Hwang and FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Sassoon played a major role in the Bankman-Fried trial, undertaking a devastating cross-examination of the onetime cryptocurrency mogul.

In 2020, during Trump’s first term, then-US Attorney Geoffrey Berman said he was forced out after pushing back against political pressure from the Justice Department. A bid to replace Berman with then-Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton never advanced.

Clayton is once again Trump’s choice to be Manhattan US attorney, and he will replace Sassoon if he’s confirmed by the Senate. In contrast to 2020, the nomination of Clayton, a longtime corporate lawyer, has largely been seen as non-controversial.

Adams, 64, was charged in September with accepting illegal campaign contributions as well as luxury travel upgrades in return for political favors, dating back to when he was Brooklyn borough president. At a Tuesday press conference, he again denied any wrongdoing and said it was time to “put this cruel episode behind us.”

To contact the reporters on this story:
Ava Benny-Morrison in New York at abennymorris@bloomberg.net;
Bob Van Voris in federal court in Manhattan at rvanvoris@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Anthony Lin at alin364@bloomberg.net

Peter Jeffrey, Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou

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