beauvais had left the u.s. attorney's office and became a member of trump's criminal defense team in 2021. in 2023, beauvais teamed up with trump's defense lawyer, todd blanche, in the hush money case. trump was found guilty and is appealing the conviction. now, beauvais is leading a new justice department effort called the weaponization working group. according to a memo beauvais wrote, the fbi actively participated in what president trump appropriately described as a grave national injustice by investigating the january 6th u.s. capitol riot. beauvais is expected to be named principal associate deputy attorney general in trump's justice department. he's hardly waiting until that role to make an impact. this week, beauvais ordered federal prosecutors to drop federal corruption charges against new york city mayor eric adams. >> it was done at the direct directive of of amel. so that case should be dropped. >> the move to drop the case resulted in the resignation of acting u.s. attorney for new york's southern d

beauvais adams, counsel and members of my office. a quid pro quo, indicating that adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. mr. beauvais admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of the notes at the meeting's conclusion in just the last hour. mayor eric adams posted that he had met with trump border czar tom homan, and will be issuing an executive order regarding ice operations in new york city. as for amiel beauvais, he has accepted the resignation of the person heading s.d.n.y. that's acting u.s. attorney danielle sassoon. and in his response to her, says that other prosecutors who worked on the cases have been put on administrative leave for also refusing to dismiss the case. we should point out that two other attorneys at doj who were asked to dismiss the case from main justice from the public integrity unit, have also resigned today, joining our coverage from outside the southern district of new yo

so sassoon basically writes a letter to beauvais. she says, i can't do it in good conscience, like i cannot uphold my oath to the constitution, my professional duties, and walk into court and do this. i'll resign. instead, sassoon is now gone. the case has not been dropped. things get even more complicated from here. listen up. so after sassoon resigns, the case is then transferred to the doj's public integrity section, based in washington. beauvais clearly being like. screw these people in the southern district of new york. we'll do it here at main justice. well, guess what happened. that section's acting head. a guy named john keller also refused to drop the case. he also resigned. the case was then transferred yet again to kevin driscoll, the acting head of the justice department's criminal division. driscoll two refused to drop the case. he resigned as well. after that, three more senior members of the doj's public integrity section. these are the people that investigate corruption. resigned as well after meeting with beauvais ab

beauvais might take the stand. this isn't going away. and the big point is the framing of it, that christie second point that he has admitted has proven we're not doing this for the reasons d.o.j. does everything, the facts and the law, they've got nothing to do with it. whether or not they prove this quid pro quo, it screams out and this is where she starts her letter. you've asked us to violate the dna of the of the department of justice. i can't do it. >> yeah, that's the district judge, james, who? of course, in the fifth circuit, appellate judge dale ho, who has this case. >> in new york city, in new. >> york city, southern district. and we'll have to essentially, someone's going to have to come before him. >> i mean. >> again. part of what. she's saying here is like and it's really well written, this letter, but part of what she's saying is, like. >> you, first of all. >> we all read that letter, which. >> was shockingly corrupt on. >> its face. >> the mayor's going around. >> today doing the deal in front of us. >> a. >> la a pris

beauvais adams, counsel and members of my office. adams attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. mr. beauvais admonished a member of my team who took notes during the meeting and directed the collection of the notes at the meeting's conclusion. i mean, that's pretty right there. and you're telling lawyers they can't take notes. that's what they do. and then taking them, seizing them soon doesn't stop there. when she's telling what happened, she reveals a stunning new allegation against mayor adams, writing, quote, we have a proposed superseding indictment, meaning one that's even bigger with more charges than the one already out there. that would add an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the fbi, and that would add further factual allegations regarding his participation in

beauvais.and it means he's he's on a leash. i mean, it means that he would be under control because then she she implies this in her letter, which i have here as well, that essentially he would be constantly monitored for compliance with the administration's wishes. so that i find alarming. also, this reinterpretation of how you uphold your oath to the constitution, at least in this letter by mr. beauvais. beauvais pronouncing his name, is that you must adhere to what the president wants in his policies. i don't i'm not a lawyer, but i don't think that's what the constitution says. >> it doesn't say that there is a chain of command, that if the and the attorney general is the boss of u.s. attorneys. so if the attorney general tells you to do something, you are supposed to do it. but she didn't say she wasn't going to do it. she resigned, understanding that it would be in conflict with her ethics, her morals, and the reason that she became a prosecutor, which was to fight the bad guys. and now i

and the question now is will beauvais himself move to dismiss this case? will he get other prosecutors in washington, d.c., to file that paperwork, or will it prompt other resignations? that is still a question that remains unclear at this time. but, you know, adams is set to go to trial in april. so unless beauvais or someone else intervenes here, that case will go forward. but it seems that beauvais will make some additional steps in order to dismiss that case. you know, but the southern district is known for its independence. the ripple effects of this are really still unknown. will this extend to any other cases? you know, is this going to prompt additional resignations from that office? and remember, new york does some of the most serious prosecutions in the country. >> jake and kara, correct me if i'm wrong and i'm sorry for putting you on the spot, but danielle sassoon, who resigned. she's conservative. right? she's a federalist society, clerked for antonin scalia. right? >> that's right. jake. i mean, she is someone that the trump administration pu

why isn't a meal beauvais going? >> emil bove should be the one to go. he's the one who cut the deal with alex spiro, the lawyer for eric adams. he is the one who ordered his team to drop the charges. he's the one who then sent the memo to say. i'm now going to investigate the prosecutors who have resigned. so he broke it. he owns it, and yet he's going to send others into court, because i think it'd just be really embarrassing if he's the one getting dressed down by judge dale ho. it's going to be ugly, but it's going to be warranted because you're not supposed to do this. this is a blatant quid pro quo. i mean, don't don't trust me on that. just look at the memo that beauvais sent. he said the quiet part out loud. he said, so. >> why would pam bondi the new attorney general allow this? dave, i mean, you've worked with her. you vouched for her, her confirmation hearing. nothing would go beyond her purview. why? why would she allow what you say is an obvious quid pro quo? >> i don't think she's being served well by the deputy attorney general, who was no

beauvais's menu. now, we just heard mayor adams deny quid pro quo.mil beauvais has denied it, too. but that said, what do you just make of the allegation? and do you see this going anywhere? i mean, considering the fact and we just saw this with this meeting being called, that it is a meal. beauvais and his boss, pam bondi, who are the ones calling the shots? >> yeah, i want to respond directly to that point, chris, because the remarks that eric adams made are so classic because no one says this out loud, no one says, i am offering you a bribe. i would like you to enforce president trump's immigration agenda in new york city. and in exchange, we will dismiss these charges. that's not how it goes. instead, they have a conversation. they talk about what you know. here's what we want. here's what you want. they go their separate ways. so the idea that danielle sassoon is on the spot going to say, i believe this is bribery taking place. it didn't happen then. it didn't happen until that letter came directing her to dismiss the charges. and there's a foot

beauvais. >> there is definitely hope.an expectation by any means, but those of us who knew todd cannot reconcile the person that he was. and i say was because he doesn't appear to be that person anymore. and what is happening now? and that he would not only stand by but condone it. i mean, if you're coming into the administration now watching everything that mr. beauvais does and in particular this to todd's old office, that he too revered and has all the same principles that you're seeing. danielle sassoon in scotland talk about. i mean, todd was no different from them. there was hope that he would say, you know what? i'm not going to take this position. i'm not saying it's a realistic hope, but when i tell you how many people have said, do you think maybe this is the breaking point for todd? and i used to hold out a little sliver of hope, and i don't really anymore. but i would love to be proven wrong. >> there's so much about hope and despair and there and the fine sort of edge of the knife that you walk when you when

beauvais himself will sign it, but doj has to submit a paper to the court saying we want to dismiss. here's why. but then the judge has to sign off. i'm telling you right now, a judge is not going to sign off on this. i don't i'm not big on predictions. there's no way a judge signs off on this. then you get into a situation. what happens? because doj is going to say, all right, judge, but we're not sending anyone to prosecute the case. so it's going to be a showdown ahead on this. >> john miller i mean have you seen anything like this recently or in recent decades? >> i don't know what i mean. you'd have to go back to, you know, the saturday night massacre of watergate, where nixon ordered the firing of the watergate prosecutor and the attorney general wouldn't do it. so he was fired and the deputy attorney general. and so it went till they found robert bork, the solicitor general, who said, i'll fire him. um, but i mean. this in an ongoing criminal matter and a public corruption case. >> here's the i mean, it's a high profile involving the mayor of new york. >> here's the thing, tho

and while there was no explicit threat during the meeting with beauvais. sources say that people were aware of what it could mean. those prosecutors in new york who wouldn't sign it if they didn't resign, they were placed on administrative leave. now, during this meeting with the prosecutors, they agreed. well, they thought at one point they might do a mass resignation, but then they agreed it would be better to have one of them agree to sign their name and to end this crisis. now, we haven't seen the papers yet, although the attorney general, pam bondi, was on fox earlier, she said she did expect the motion to dismiss to be filed today. again, we have not seen it yet. that will be the next step and then it will be in the judge's hands for him to decide how he wants to handle this. does he call a hearing, bring everyone in to discuss what has been playing out publicly before he makes this ultimate decision. he does not have that many options, but he could definitely make this uncomfortable for the justice department. jake. >> all right. thanks so much. let

senator, like, do you think the acting deputy attorney general, emile beauvais, should resign? >> well, i do. a lot of good that'll that'll accomplish. i mean, the reality is trump won the election, and it's astonishing because he did it even though he motivated the violence that occurred on january 6th. he pardoned people who beat up cops. unbelievable. >> he pardoned. >> a drug dealer who was into sexual solicitation of minors and allowing that to happen. he got elected. he won this fair and square decision people made. he won the house and he won the senate. so our tools are limited. this is the governmental actions under the former president trump. our job is to reveal as much as we can to the american people. what's up? what's so concerning to me is that trump. >> was good. >> at understanding and connecting with the emotional anxiety that people have about affordability, but his policies are going to intensify the wealth transfer to the billionaires. i did not hear him in his inauguration say anything about childcare. i didn't hear him say anything about the brutal cost o

prosecutor. >> given that beauvais is making about why they should not have done this. prosecution is really almost preposterous. what he's saying, guys, is that he's not able to carry out his jobs and duties. and and eric adams lawyers went to the department of justice and said because of these cases, he's not able to carry out his duties. he would be more able to work with you on immigration and other things, which. but if you actually look at what beauvais said, he is saying that any elected official now, let's say the mayor, the governor or senator, whoever, if they're under investigation, cannot carry out or under charges, cannot carry out their duties. so the department of justice has always had prosecutions, he said, within 60 to 90 days. it's sort of an unwritten rule, but they don't go after elected officials right around the time of an election because it does look political. that's what he's saying, sort of here. this happened last i mean, this happened like months and months and months and months ago. the primary is not for many more months. so the argument

earlier today, we had additional people at the justice department in washington who, uh, met with beauvais. he was pressuring them to file this dismissal. pamela, they all left this meeting, went for a strategy session. and at the end of that, our understanding is at least one person has decided to sort of fall on their sword and do the motion to file this dismissal. dismissal. now, we still have not seen that show up in the docket in the southern district of new york. of course, pamela, the next step is for a judge to actually take action on that motion. pamela. >> right. >> uh. >> we'll be waiting. >> to see how this. >> plays out. evan. >> stand by. jeff zeleny. >> is at the white house. jeff. president trump spoke out about the adams case and the fallout a little while ago. tell us about that. >> pamela, for the second straight day, the president said he had no knowledge or involvement in the decision to remove charges from the new york mayor. of course, underscoring all of this is this administration's, um, wish to have a better relationship. in fact, helping hand on immigration cases

why wouldn't why has nobody yet stood up and said, i will do this for you and bill beauvais? >> first of all, nobody who's left in the public integrity unit knows anything about this case. everyone who worked on this case, and this was an investigation that dates back to 2021. everyone who was involved in the investigation with whatever agents were involved, those people are all gone. whoever signs this filing will also theoretically be responsible for going to a hearing before judge dale ho in the southern district of new york, and explaining why this deal was cut and why they believe it's in the interest of justice. you can imagine that nobody who wasn't involved with the case, much less anyone who was, would want to stand behind this and say that a dismissal without prejudice that somewhat hinges on the result of a new u.s. attorney being confirmed, but also on the results of the november election that's expressed in the memo from beauvais on november 10th. i'm sorry, on february 10th, nobody who's left would want to sign that because they have to stand up and defend it in

beauvais did as well. >> and beauvais did as well. and so technically this case still has not been dropped as far as i know. >> it hasn't. and look the. >> other shoe is going to drop when. >> they have to go before a judge and explain why they're dismissing the case. in other words. >> they've got to find someone to. >> drop. it first. they got to find someone to drop it. then they're gonna have to go to the judge and explain the circumstances. so this isn't over yet. >> can the judge say no? >> so. well, ultimately, the judge can say no. although, as a practical matter, that would be exceedingly unusual. i mean, if the justice department is saying we're not going to prosecute, we're not going to prosecute. >> you ran into this issue during the first trump administration, where bill barr dropped the case against mike flynn, and the judge really made it excruciatingly difficult and embarrassing for doj. he kind of put them through the wringer. but in the end, he did accept. at one point he thought, or he said he discussed appointing a

who didn't hold back in his letter to trump's acting deputy attorney general, emil beauvais, writing, 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. he also wrote. but 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 and the doj finally found someone to formally file the motion to dismiss the case. ed sullivan, a trial attorney with the public integrity unit who is nearing retirement. he officially did that in just the last hour. it still requires a federal court judge to approve the decision before the charges can be dropped, but it came only after beauvais gave the remaini

beauvais adams, counsel and members of my office. adams attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. mr. beauvais admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. end quote. yesterday, danielle sassoon reported to the world what she believed to be a quid pro quo meeting between eric adams team and the trump administration to help trump with his immigration enforcement priorities here in new york city. and this morning, the border czar, tom homan, said this of adams. >> if he doesn't come. >> through. >> i'll be back. >> in new york city and we. >> won't be sitting on a couch. i'll be in his office up, up his butt saying, where the hell is the agreement? we came to. >> quid pro quo. we've come full circle from the first impeachment of donald trump for trying to extort ukraine's then president ele

there was nothing in emil beauvais's representation of donald trump in that courtroom that gave me the slightest reason to disrespect his work in that room as a criminal defense lawyer. in fact, i thought emil bove did a better job in that courtroom than the lead defense counsel, todd blanch, who donald trump has nominated for a position in the justice department that requires senate confirmation. bove formerly served for previously served as a federal prosecutor in the southern district of new york, where he was, we discovered this week and enthusiastic supporter of the investigations and prosecutions of the january 6th attackers at the capitol. now that he is working in donald trump's justice department, he has made it his personal mission to search out, find and attempt to fire any fbi agent or federal prosecutor who worked on any of the january 6th prosecutions, which he personally enthusiastically supported inside the justice department before he left the department in 2022. today, the acting u.s. attorney in the southern district of new york, 38 year old danielle sassin, resigned

there's also information about the meetings between beauvais and adam's lawyers on the dismissal. the times says it was upfront, extraordinary shattering of how these things work, with records revealing beauvais talked to adam's lawyers and wanted to, quote, refine their approach until they landed on a highly unorthodox argument. the case itself hindered his ability to address immigration. i'll tell you one thing on that before i show you more saying that a sitting politician, government official is hindered in their job by a case is. >> duh, obvious. >> and that's not a democrat or republican thing here. this happens to be a democratic mayor. you might recall senator menendez, a democratic senator. you might recall other republicans. george santos having a political job doesn't ever give you carte blanche to break the law. indeed, there's a public integrity section of the doj to deal with the public integrity of primarily public officials. so that statement right there is incriminating because it's just made up. one of the outgoing doj lawyers called it obviously pretextual, whic

what does the reporting on beauvais?eauvais. >> has. >> been the face of this effort to go after these january 6th case. agents and support employees. he's the one signing the memos demanding the information. and it turns out that he actually played. >> a pretty. >> important role in new york city in overseeing. efforts to hunt down january 6th defendants in the weeks and months after. >> the capitol riot. >> and i talked to. >> people. >> who worked with him who said he never expressed any qualms about the investigation. in fact, he was an aggressive participant. in it. he helped the fbi get arrest warrants and to monitor people's phones. and he was up all night. in the case of one high profile defendant they arrested in manhattan. now, through a spokesperson, he is saying essentially that he did come to believe that in other districts, there was some overzealousness going on in the way these cases were prosecuted, but that he acted with integrity. he makes no apologies for his work on january 6th, but it wasn't widely

deputy attorney general emile beauvais ordered federal prosecutors in new york to drop five criminal counts, including bribery, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national from adams case last night. adams has repeatedly denied all the allegations. beauvais included in his memo that adams indictment limited his ability to cooperate in trump's immigration crackdown. but in a footnote that only seemed to be missing a winking emoji. the doj wanted everyone to know they don't expect anything for this merciful gesture. i quote them here in the footnote. as mr. beauvais clearly stated to defense counsel during our meeting, the government is not offering to exchange dismissal of a criminal case for adams assistance on immigration enforcement. kristy greenberg served as an assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, where she was deputy chief of the criminal division. and she joins me now. as a legal matter, if i go to a politician, he's going to give me a good municipal contract. i have a suitcase of cash. i give him the suitca

beauvais, mayor adams, counsel, and members of my office. mayor adams attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. mr. beauvais admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. and finally, there's this quote. as you know, our office is prepared to seek a superseding indictment from a new grand jury. under my leadership, we've proposed a superseding indictment that would add an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that mayor adams destroyed and instructed others to destroy evidence and provide false information to the fbi. and that would add further factual allegations regarding his participation in a fraudulent straw donor scheme. so she's like, no, we're not dropping this. also, you want to talk about this quid pro quo thing and check my footnote in terms of your behavior here. but also we h

so the next step is does beauvais himself sign it? he is an alumni of the southern district of new york, which also makes this extraordinary. or does he get someone else to do it? but that doesn't end there, because the judge is going to have to sign off on this. and as sassoon explains in this letter, they are opening the department up to some embarrassment here because the judge is very likely going to have a hearing, haul them in and ask them what grounds? what legal grounds? does he have to actually agree to this dismissal? and you know, we saw, remember, general michael flynn, his case. there was issues with that too. a similar thing came up here. and ultimately trump pardoned him because it got so messy within the courts. >> again, they do not cite legal reasons for dismissing or not prosecuting this case. i mean, that's what's so stunning here. in his response, going after sassoon after she resigned. also just worth looking into as we go forward on this. thank you so much for your reporting on it. all right. this morning, evacu

but he said fbi leadership refused to identify that group of employees, prompting beauvais to accuse fbi leadership of insubordination, according to a memo obtained by cnn. this comes a week after beauvais sent a memo instructing the fbi to provide information on all current and former bureau employees who worked on january 6th investigations at any time. but yesterday, beauvais attempted to clarify fbi employees who simply followed orders won't be fired. he said in an email, however, if anyone acted with, quote, corrupt or partisan intent, they could still face consequences. the former deputy director of the fbi, andrew mccabe, rejected that idea that these kinds of agents exist within the bureau at all. >> the idea. >> that the fbi. contains some group of rank and file agents who are radical, left leaning partizans who are out there ignoring the directions given to them by their supervisors in order to target republicans is fantasy. it is a fever dream. >> all right. joining us now is phil mudd. he is a former cia counterterrorism official and former fbi senior intelligence adviser

uh, by beauvais to try to get them to fall in line. that did not happen. as i understand. uh, one of the men in the public integrity section who was about close to retirement age or, uh, position, he decided to step forward so the others wouldn't suffer, uh, that he was ready to, to take the heat. uh, and this is all going to come out before judge ho when they have to explain what went on behind this request for dismissal. >> and so when that happens, as we've watched all of this play out, you know, we're talking about what the justice department is going to look like under trump. there has been so much focus on that, understandably, because of the first term. what does what has happened this week tell you about what the next four years could look like? >> well, i think there's going to be a further purge of prosecutors. that's what they want. i'm sure they were delighted to see this play out at the white house. uh, some of the senior people there, this is exactly what they want to get rid of, are people who won't say yes and do exactly what they want. they don't want peop

number one, beauvais could have just looked at this case and said, i've examined this case, take. >> more than a week or. >> two, take a little time and say, i've looked at this case very carefully. i've concluded the evidence is too thin. the legal theory maybe doesn't apply. therefore we're going to dismiss it. we would have been debating that fairly one way or the other, but it would not have been this kind of all encompassing scandal. or of course, by the way, donald trump also could have just. >> issued a pardon. we would have criticized that pardon. >> but it also would have saved doj a heck of a lot of damage. >> that would have been the easiest thing. >> and look, we read the. >> motion that was. >> filed this evening on the motion to dismiss that was signed by emil bove. it's only like three pages long. i mean, he doesn't lay out all the arguments that he lays out in his longer letter. >> but what a judge. be aware of everything that's been going on. i mean, that's what the judge is going to see. but like, did they take this into consideration? the letters and the resignatio

beauvais signs that motion in that was made last night in the.strict of new york to drop this case, along. >> with. >> two other career. prosecutors who, you know, hard to know exactly what their. >> motives were, but. >> it sounds like he was really exerting quite a lot of pressure at doj to get somebody to step up. otherwise, he was threatening to fire all of them. so under extreme coercion. >> it. >> sounds like he got two other people to sign on to this. but ultimately he filed a notice of appearance. he's going to have to stand up in court and. defend why this is actually in good faith. >> and it's so. >> plainly not. i mean, you see, really with danielle sassoon and hagan scotten versus emile beauvais, who also was at the southern district of new york, really. >> a tale of two. >> s.d.n.y prosecutors. you have the one side where they are backing up their prosecutors, backing up their team. >> they are sacrificing. what would have been a really easy. >> path for them to potentially get really plum positions. >> is judicial. appointments and

in his memo, beauvais called their employment subversive for federal prosecutors.s association disagreed, denouncing the purge as outrageous, writing, quote, if true, these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by president trump and his support for fbi agents dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the bureau's ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats, and will ultimately risk setting up the bureau and its new leadership for failure, end quote. now trump's fbi pick kash patel, gave this shocking answer yesterday in his senate confirmation hearings. he thinks the fbi ultimately reports to trump. >> who is the director of the fbi, work for mr. patel. >> senator, thank. >> you for. >> that question. the immediate. >> report for the director of the fbi is into the office. >> of the deputy attorney general. >> then that report is taken into the. >> office of the attorney general. >> and ultimately. >> the white. >> house and the chain. >> of

i want to point out to you that yesterday, in writing a letter to danielle sassoon, emile beauvais, who is now the deputy acting, the acting deputy attorney general, essentially said to her after she refused to dismiss the case herself, he was yanking the case away from the entire southern district of new york and assigning it to main justice, the public integrity unit there, where, as you know, five prosecutors resigned last night. >> and of course, after those resignations, what happens if no one within that sector of the government says they will do the justice department's bidding? i know it's back under main justice's umbrella now, but what if main justice doesn't have anyone to carry it out either? >> well, the public integrity unit, according to our colleague ryan riley at nbc news, has about 25 to 30 lawyers in it. my understanding, from talking to two sources this morning is that those lawyers are gathered together and discussing what it is that they are going to do next. one of my sources said that they are trying to show solidarity, meaning show solidarity with those who have

attorney in d.c., who represented defendants in january 6th in the case of beauvais, though, there's a you know, i talked to some of his former colleagues who are very surprised at his role here, in part because, you know, after january 6th, he helped lead the effort in new york. he was a lawyer at the southern district of new york, and he pushed for agents and prosecutors to be involved in these cases, helped approve some of the legal process. so for him to now be part of this weaponization group that is reviewing these cases seems like a bit of a conflict of interest, or at least an appearance one. >> yeah, i highly doubt that his work on those january 6th cases is going to be reviewed as as part of this. and evan, we're learning that the new doj's leadership, their relationship with trump has caused some tensions within the department. tell us about that. >> well, yeah, i mean, obviously they in some of the meetings behind the scenes, some of the people like beauvais, for instance, have raised that their orders are coming directly from people in the white house, people like stephe

the president's acting deputy attorney, emile beauvais, said the charges had to be dropped, in part because they were hampering his. ability to tackle what he called illegal immigration and violent crime. among those who stepped down the southern district of new york's top prosecutor, danielle sassoon, who expressed her alarm to attorney general pam bondi in a letter wednesday. sassoon described a meeting she attended last month with doj officials and adams legal team. quote, adams's attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. adams responded in an interview this morning. >> my attorney. >> alex ferrari, one of the one of the top trial attorneys in the country. imagine him going inside saying that the only way mayor adams is going to assist in immigration, which i was calling for since. >> 2022. >> is if you drop the charges. that's quid pro quo. that's a crime. it took her three. she took it. took her three weeks to report in front of he

we know that, uh, beauvais convened a meeting of the remaining lawyers in the public corruption section here down in washington, and basically told them, find someone who's going to file this. and so we expect we understand that there was a meeting of all the public integrity lawyers, dozens of them, trying to decide whether they were going to resign en masse. and they finally decided that there is going to be one person who is going to fall on their sword, and they are going to file this dismissal. now, late this afternoon, we also heard from chad mizelle, who is the chief of staff of pamela bondi, the attorney general. she's traveling in munich and said she expects this to be done today. i'll read you just a part of what mizelle said in his statement. he said the fact that those who indicted and prosecuted the case refused to follow a direct command is further proof of the disordered and ulterior motives of the prosecutors. such individuals have no place at doj. and by the way, he also said, jake, that this was a politically motivated witch hunt. so, of course, you know, that's the ki

well, beauvais explicitly laid out what those are, and his letter telling prosecutors to stand down on this case. he wrote the case would hurt the mayor's ability to carry out trump's immigration crackdown. he even said the decision to end it had nothing to do with the strength of the evidence. one big question tonight how far up the chain did this go? cnn's kevin liptak asked trump directly whether he was involved. >> did you personally request the justice department to drop that case? >> no, i didn't know nothing about it. i did not. >> now, more than four minutes later, after several other questions, he turned back to our reporter and said this. and it was unprompted, by the way. >> that u.s. attorney was actually fired. i don't know if he or she resigned, but that u.s. attorney was fired. >> four minutes now, trump has long made his disdain for career prosecutors loud and clear. but this is not some. how does he phrase it? some left leaning prosecutor who is biased against him? her credentials are sound, says soon clerked for the supreme court. justice antonin scalia. never someone

beauvais's comparison to the viktor bout prisoner exchange, which was quite expressly a quid pro quo,but one carried out by the white house and not by the prosecutors in charge of bout's case. miss sassoon notes in her in a footnote here. and this is like, actually maybe the most explosive thing in the entire thing. this is a footnote. she says, quote, i attended a meeting on january 31st, 2025 with mr. bovÉ. mayor adams's counsel and members of my office. mayor adams's attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. mr. bovÉ admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. and finally, there's this quote. as you know, our office is prepared to seek a superseding indictment from a new grand jury. under my leadership, we've proposed a superseding indictment that would add an obstruction conspiracy count based on evidence that mayor adams destroyed an

beauvais assisted in the search for rioters as a manhattan federal prosecutor. who. ryan riley, he covers the justice department and federal law enforcement for nbc news. ryan, what more do you know about this? and what do you make of this change of heart he might be having? >> yeah. >> you know, i mean, you know, even for someone. >> who worked. >> in the southern district of new york, which is sort of a notoriously hard. charging district, sometimes jokingly. referred to as the sovereign district of new york for its independence from the justice department. the suggestion that s.d.n.y. should have taken over the investigation of an attack on the u.s. capitol. >> in. >> d.c. was a pretty bold move, but that's what he was proposing here. you know, some of the criticism that we've seen in the years since is that the notion that essentially, prosecutors in these cases saw this as a way to sort of build their career? they saw this. i've heard the line used that of the equivalent of their of their nine over 11, right, that these were they knew this was going to be this m

one, on the behalf of beauvais, who's the acting deputy attorney general of the united states, he's saying, look, i've got concerns that these cases because i think that they were weaponized by the prosecutor at the time, the u.s. attorney, damian williams, who was appointed by the biden administration. and on top of that, we have some priorities as it pertains to immigration enforcement in new york city. we need mayor eric adams not to be under indictment. we need his security clearance back, and he needs to help us out because the justice department looks at it, at least the leadership does these days and says, we have our goals, we have our missions, we have the things that we need to do, and this is what we're going to do. and they don't really care what tom winter or chris jansing or anybody on the street necessarily thinks. as far as the tactics they take to get there, they just believe that they need to get there and that these are valid causes. so that's their perspective of it. obviously, federal prosecutors are here in new york, have a very different perspective of it and say, yo

and i think the thing that is taking, i would suspect emile beauvais, pamela bondi and the white houseby surprise is, you know what? there are a lot of people in this country who act out of principle. final point on this, you remember i keep on raising this. we had a trial of paul manafort. we had a sort of strong republican, and she said, i left my maga hat in the car. i told the judge that i was going to base my verdict on the facts and the law, and that's what i did, because there are people in this country who will act out of principle. >> yeah, she found out she was on this program. she was just exactly what you're hoping a juror would be. andrew weissmann, thank you very much for starting us off tonight. the most important testimony delivered in congress this week was from a former usaid was from a former usaid official, sara charles, who experience advanced technology in the buick envision. (♪♪) equipped with the largest-in-class ultrawide 30-inch diagonal display and google built-in compatibility, innovation is at your fingertips. buick. exceptional by design. for more than a d

hours earlier, the number two official emailed beauvais, escalated his conflict with the acting directore fbi, accusing him of insubordination after they resisted his efforts to identify agents who had investigated january 6th. they appear dead set on either investigating or firing anyone that worked on bringing the criminals to account. that helped the president with his coup. >> right. and this is in some ways the scariest part of the agenda. this is the wholesale endorsement of violence as a tool in politics. because if you really look at democracies that have vanished, violence has always been a tool of the would be autocrat. and over and over again, they are telling you that they are going to do everything possible to immunize anyone who uses violence on trump's behalf, and they are going to target and persecute anyone in law enforcement that tries to hold accountable anyone that is engaged in violence on donald trump's behalf. that is essentially a green light to anyone who goes out and tries to use violence to disrupt a protest against donald trump, or to try to harm or hurt a pol

but when beauvais told her to do this, to dismiss the case, and when danielle sassoon refused, this is part is really chilling to me. emil bove then fired back with a letter that evan just referred to that said, fine, everyone around you is going to be put on administrative leave too, and now we're going to investigate you not criminally, but through our inspector general, which is the in-house ethics watchdog. so that is sending an unmistakable and i think, chilling message, which is get on board with the political agenda here or be punished. >> and it's amazing because she was prosecuting an allegedly corrupt democrat who is kissing up to trump. um, it's it's really remarkable you couldn't write this. if you put this in a screenplay, people would be like, that's too broad. that would never happen. elie honig thanks so much. appreciate it. all right. more now on our political lead. there's major movement this afternoon as president trump looks to fill his cabinet. the senate judiciary committee voted to advance kash patel's nomination to be fbi director. this is now headed to the sena

event you are unwilling to meet or to reconsider the directive in light of the problems raised by beauvais'smo, i'm prepared to offer my resignation. it has been, and continues to be, my honor to serve as a prosecutor in the southern district of new york. very truly yours. danielle sassoon, u.s. attorney, southern district of new york. the hero was silent, but everybody could see it there. apparently, pam bondi declined to meet with danielle sassoon because today emil bove sent a new letter to danielle sassoon saying, quote, your resignation is accepted. he also says that assistant prosecutors on the case are to be put on administrative leave immediately. and he says the mayor adams case is going to be transferred to the justice department in dc because of her, quote, insubordination at s.d.n.y. but again, this this did not go the way they intended. once they transferred the case to main justice, they ran into more problems. when the top two officials overseeing the public integrity unit at main justice also promptly resigned. they said, we're not doing it either, they said. we also will not

beauvais. >> well, that meeting allegedly happened one day before patel said this at his confirmationng. >> i don't know what's going on right now over there, but i'm committed to you, senator, and your colleagues, that i will honor the internal review process of the fbi. >> a spokesperson for patel told cnn durbin's letter was relying on, quote, anonymous sources and secondhand gossip to push a false narrative, unquote. now, all this is happening before a vote on thursday to advance patel's nomination. with me now, national security attorney mark zaid, representing fbi employees involved in litigation over the efforts to punish bureau employees. he's also the co-founder of whistleblower aid. mark, good to see you again, my friend. i mean, senator durbin's claims that patel was involved with the purge, um, patel denies that. that's a very serious accusation, though. >> it is. and thanks, as always, for having me on. look, we have been focusing on this ourselves. i have been asking sources inside the fbi to see if we could confirm this. i had received the same information about stephen