Danielle Sassoon, assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, exits court in New York, US, on Thursday, Oct. 5, 2023.
Stephanie Keith | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A top federal prosecutor in New York and a senior Department of Justice official resigned Thursday after refusing a DOJ order to dismiss the pending criminal case against Mayor Eric Adams.
Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was the first to refuse to toss the case against Adams, who was indicted last fall, and who soon sought to curry favor with President Donald Trump, NBC News reported.
After the 38-year-old Sassoon refused, the matter was reassigned to John Keller, the acting head of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, who also refused to dismiss the case and then quit, NBC reported.
The New York Times reported that a third person, acting DOJ criminal division chief Kevin Driscoll, also resigned Thursday.
The criminal case against Adams has not been dismissed as of Thursday afternoon.
Adams was indicted in September by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on charges related to alleged bribery, fraud and a decade-long campaign contribution scheme.
On Monday, Emil Bove, a top-ranking DOJ official who is a former criminal defense lawyer for Trump, ordered Sassoon to dismiss the case against Adams.
“Moments ago, I submitted my resignation to the attorney general,” Sassoon told SDNY staff in an email, according to an official cited by NBC.
“As I told her, it has been my greatest honor to represent the United States and to pursue justice as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York. It has been a privilege to be your colleague, and I will be watching with pride as you continue your service to the United States.”
Sassoon had been the lead prosecutor at the fraud and conspiracy trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, the former head of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried was sentenced last March to 25 years in prison.
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