Trump DOJ: List of prosecutors and officials quitting in protest
On Friday, federal prosecutor Hagan Scotten became the seventh official to resign in protest at the Justice Department, which has sought to drop corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Newsweek contacted the Department of Justice and Mayor Adams for comment on Saturday outside of regular office hours via online media inquiry form and email respectively.
Why It Matters
Critics argue the Trump administration’s efforts to dismiss the charges against Adams, a Democrat, is a politically motivated response to his support for the president’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.
Adams was indicted in 2024 on charges of fraud and bribery after allegedly accepting more than $100,000 in luxury gifts and illegal campaign contributions from Turkish officials and businesspeople in exchange for opening a consulate in New York without proper fire inspections. He has strongly denied any wrongdoing in the case.
What To Know
On Wednesday, Danielle Sassoon resigned as acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York rather than agreeing to drop the Adams case as the Justice Department leadership was seeking. She said Adams’ legal team “repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo” which would see the mayor support Trump over immigration if the corruption case went away.
Alex Spiro, Adams’ lawyer, denied the accusation commenting: “The idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie. We offered nothing and the department asked nothing of us.”
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove had ordered prosecutors to drop the charges against Adams in a two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Bove said the decision was not based on “the strength of evidence” in the case, but because it has “improperly interfered” with Adams’ reelection campaign and was distracting from the mayor’s efforts to assist in the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
John Lamparski/Harvard Law School/Southern District of New York/Getty
Bove then reportedly sought help getting the case dismissed from the department’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, which oversees all federal public corruption cases.
This sparked the resignations on Thursday of John Keller, the acting head of the office, and Kevin Driscoll, one of its leading prosecutors.
According to Reuters, three other deputies in the Public Integrity Section, Rob Heberle, Jenn Clarke, and Marco Palmieri, also resigned from the department on Thursday.
On Friday, Scotten resigned with a highly critical letter saying: “No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives.”
What People Are Saying
In his resignation letter to Bove, Scotten wrote: “Any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.”
“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”
A spokesperson for new Attorney General Pam Bondi said: “This DOJ will return to its core function of prosecuting dangerous criminals, not pursuing politically motivated witch hunts.”
Conservative attorney Ed Whelan, writing in National Review on Friday, said Scotten “should get a prize for Awesome Resignation Letter.”
What’s Happens Next
On Friday the Justice Department formally filed a motion to dismiss the corruption cases against Adams. It will now be up to a judge whether to grant the motion or not.
