Washington – The first day as Prosecutor General of President Trump, Pam Bondi promised to withdraw policy from criminal proceedings and restore the “Integrity and credibility” of the Ministry of Justice.
It has established a “working group on armaments” to identify cases where the “conduct of the department seems to have been designed to achieve political objectives”.
But it took less than a week to his first deputy to send the opposite message: that politics, not the law, called to reject the indictment of a great jury towards the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, on accusations of corruption.
The interim vice-prosecutor, Emil Bove, clearly indicated him in correspondence with prosecutors in New York when he wrote that the Trump administration did not question “the force of evidence or the legal theories on which The case is founded “but that he needed the mayor’s help in his repression of illegal immigration.
The order, which sparked an extraordinary rebellion and the resignation of seven anti-corruption prosecutors, highlighted the way the new administration could further politicize the Ministry of Justice.
The Democrats of the Senate of the Judicial Committee called for an investigation by the Inspector General of the Ministry.
“The American people cannot afford to ensure that the Ministry of Justice armed their vast prosecution authority to force civil servants to help any political project of the president,” said Sen Richard Durbin (D-ill.) .
Conservative legal analysts were also strongly critical. Ed Whelan called the resignation of Danielle Sassoon, American lawyer in New York, “an act of courage and integrity” in an article on social networks. “Emil Bove could not have managed this worse if he had tried.”
A prosecutor of the Ministry of Justice Veteran who asked not to appoint said: “The long -term damage to the doj will be (incalculable).”
Prosecutors are afraid and uncertain about what to do. “Good people interested in the public service will no longer find an attractive DOJ career,” he said.
Two of the prosecutors who resigned to protest have solid conservative diplomas and wrote scathing letters of resignation.
“I understand my duty as a prosecutor to signify the application of the law impartially,” wrote Sassoon, a former clerk of the law for a conservative icon, the late the Supreme Court Antonin Scalia. This does not mean rejecting a case if it “would be politically advantageous for the accused or for those who have named me,” she continued.
Hagan Scotten, the main prosecutor of the case, was an army veteran with three tours in combat in Iraq, a graduate of Harvard Law and former clerk of the Brett judge Mr. Kavanaugh and the chief judge John G. Roberts Jr. , both appointed by republican presidents.
He said prosecution is not a tool to help political allies or punish political enemies.
“I expect you that you may find someone who is enough for a fool, or enough coward, to submit your request” rejecting the case against Adams, “he wrote to Bove. “But it was never going to be me.”
On Friday, a prosecutor of the long -standing justtious justice agreed to sign the dismissal to save other layoffs and resignations.
The request for rejection of the case is now brought before the American district judge Dale Ho to decide how to proceed.
Bove represented Trump last year during his trial in New York on Hush Money Payments, and he was appointed assistant attorney general as Trump oath.
He sparked the revolt on February 10 when he sent a letter indicating to the federal prosecutors in New York “You are directed “ To reject the ongoing accusations against Adams.
“The current prosecutions unduly restricted the capacity of the mayor Adams to devote total attention and resources to illegal and violent immigration that increased under previous administration policies,” Bove wrote.
He continued: “achieve the immigration objectives established by President Trump and the prosecutor General Bondi” prevails over the need to continue a criminal case.
It would have been less surprising than Bove questioned the case for legal reasons. The Supreme Court canceled the corruption verdicts of the public if an official took gifts and favors but has not taken important “official laws” in response.
The indictment said that since Adams was president of the Brooklyn district, he had made international luxury trips paid by Turkish officials and received illegal contributions from foreigners. It was less clear what Adams had done in response. The indictment made in September said that the mayor had put pressure on the city’s fire service in 2021 to open a new Turkish consular building without fire inspection.
In an eight -page letter to Bondi, Sassoon said that an Adams lawyer had met Bove and the prosecutors on January 31 and “exhorted several times which was equivalent to a counterpart” in which the mayor “could help with The priorities to apply the ministry only if the indictment was rejected.
Friday, the mayor of New York appeared on Fox News with the border of Tsar Tom Homan of Trump, who seemed to confirm that they had concluded an agreement.
“If he doesn’t go, I will be back in New York and we won’t be sitting on the sofa. I will be in his office, in his buttocks, saying: “Where does he devil is the agreement in which we arrived?” Said Homan.
Bove accepted Sassoon’s resignation and wradded him of ignoring his duty of loyalty to the President and the Attorney General.
“The Ministry of Justice will not tolerate the insubordination and the apparent misconduct reflected in the approach that you and your office have adopted”, ” He wrote.
His second letter described the Adams accusation act as a “political motivation”, apparently because it appeared under the Biden administration.
In his memo of the opening day on the restoration of integrity to the Ministry of Justice, Bondi called for a return to the “fundamental values” of the ministry and declared: “Person who acted with a fair spirit and simple intentions has no concerns. “
But Friday afternoon, his chief of staff Chad Mizelle said that the dispute on the Adams affair shows the need to repress dissidents in the department.
The dismissal of the indictment shows: “This Doj will return to its main function to continue the dangerous criminals, not pursuing hunts with witches with political motivation,” he said in a statement.
“The fact that those who charged and continued the case refused to follow a direct command is additional proof of the disorderly and rear motivations of prosecutors,” he wrote. “These people do not have their place at Doj.”