The office’s corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams was to be dropped, according to Danielle Sassoon, who had only been in her position for three weeks when she wrote a letter to the newly confirmed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, stating that she could not follow the order.
In a letter that was acquired by The Associated Press, Sassoon stated that the order to dismiss the charges given by Bove would go against her oath to defend the law.
She expressed her deep worry over the mandate, stating that it clashes with her obligation to pursue federal offenses impartially and present good-faith arguments in court.
A message for comment was not returned by Sassoon. But in her letter, she hinted at some facts about her decade of public service that explain her resignation and reveal the identity of the former federal prosecutor who was in the news for going against the new Department of Justice.
Could you tell me Sassoon’s qualifications?
According to her profile on the Department of Justice website, which was removed Thursday, Sassoon, 38, graduated from Yale Law School in 2011, having attended Harvard College in 2008.
An article Sassoon authored while on a legal scholarship in London, according to a biography linked to it, states that in 2009 she worked as an international law clerk for Justice Hanan Melcer of the Israel Supreme Court. Sassoon recounted her grandmother’s ordeal as a Jewish adolescent escaping persecution in Syria, Lebanon, and, finally, Italy in 1947 in an editorial she penned while enrolled at Harvard.
In addition to the late Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court, Sassoon clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III of the Fourth Circuit in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In a 2016 eulogy for the late judge, who was a vocal supporter of the conservative faction on the court, Republican Sassoon referred to Scalia as “the real deal.”
Peeking beyond the veil of power may be an awaking experience at times. What you see is a lack of principle and intellectual weight, as well as corruption and egotism. “Spending time in private with Justice Scalia strengthened my respect for the legal system and my belief in the judicial system,” she said in her homage to Scalia that was featured on the SCOTUS blog.
In her letter opposing the order to dismiss charges against Adams—a Democrat who has curry favor with President Trump’s administration in part due to immigration matters—Sassoon also referenced Scalia.
According to Sassoon, Adams’ legal team was engaging in a political “quid pro quo” by offering to release the mayor from impending punishment in exchange for his enforcing Trump’s immigration policy. Adams’ lawyers rejected any notion of a quid pro quo as their client pleaded not guilty to the allegations.
Can you tell me Sassoon’s record while serving as an assistant US attorney?
Prior to being appointed as an assistant US attorney in the Southern District of New York in 2016, Sassoon worked as a litigation lawyer and adjunct law lecturer at New York University after clerking for Scalia. Based on the biography from the former DOJ, she was a member of the Violent and Organized Crime Unit and her concentration was on cases involving racketeering and murder.
Among her notable cases is the one involving Lawrence Ray, a father who was found guilty of trafficking and other charges after forcing a group of college students into prostitution while residing in his daughter’s dorm room. The cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty of bilking clients out of billions of dollars, was also cross-examined by Sassoon. The convictions of both individuals are being appealed.
Her most recent position was as co-chief of the office’s Criminal Appeals section, according to her profile at the Department of Justice. Notable among the many honors bestowed by the agency recently is the 2024 FBI Director’s Award for Exceptional Criminal Prosecution.
Although she did not file the original charges against Adams, she was named the district’s acting US attorney on January 21. Democratic former U.S. Attorney Damian Williams filed such charges but resigned following Trump’s reelection.
What comes up after this?
The resignation of Sassoon was accepted by interim Attorney General Emil Bove in a scathing letter on Thursday, following an astonishing stalemate that lasted for days. Both the case prosecutors and Sassoon are now under investigation, according to Bove, who put them on paid administrative leave.
Following Sassoon’s departure from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it remained uncertain whose agency would conduct the investigation and the potential fines that may be at risk.
Upon Sassoon’s resignation, the position of acting U.S. attorney was filled by Matthew Podolsky, who had been in the office for ten years. Jay Clayton, a former chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Trump’s last choice for the position, is still awaiting confirmation.
There have been a small number of departures from the department’s public integrity branch, and no requests to dismiss the charges against Adams have been filed as of Friday afternoon.