. >> charges against new york mayor eric adams. the doj scrambling to get someone. >> to. >> sign off on the. >> dismissal after a seventh prosecutor quit in protest. also this. >> hour, vice president. >> jd vance. >> meets with ukrainian. >> president volodymyr. >> zelenskyy in. munich after. >> berating european. >> leaders and likening. >> them to. >> cold war. >> tyrants. >> vance turning on allies who are increasingly worried about president trump's push. >> for peace with vladimir. putin. and angry. >> protests as the trump administration. >> fires federal. >> employees by the thousands. health care workers are. >> now being. >> targeted in a move being dubbed the valentine's day massacre. welcome to our. >> viewers in the. >> united states and around the world. will blitzer is off. >> i'm pamela. >> brown and. you're in the situation room. >> and we. >> begin with the intensifying battle over the integrity of the u.s. justice department under president trump. we're standing by to see if the doj is able to take a key step fo

adams isn't off the hook. he's essentially been given ten months to perform for his freedom to perform for donald trump. and what might the trump administration want from the mayor of america's largest city? well, from the justice department memo ordering s.d.n.y to drop the charges, quote, the pending prosecution has unduly restricted the mayor's ability to devote full attention and resources to illegal immigration. oh, i see, sure, sure enough. got it. and sure enough, today eric adams met with donald trump's point man on mass deportations, and mayor adams promptly announced that he's going to start allowing federal immigration agents into the city's biggest jail complex. even though there is a city law explicitly against that. interesting how much he wants to please donald trump right now, right? i wonder why that is. but here's why. today was a six resignation day at the us justice department. because even though the acting deputy attorney general, trump's personal lawyer, emil bove, ordered that the charg

and now that adams has the time, i'm sure he's bringing a new laser focus to the job. >> mayor adamsull, managing the day to day business of the city. >> how are you? >> today, he's taking some time for some r&r. angela performed a ten minute laser hair removal procedure. adams spoke with me exclusively during the process. >> when i'm able to come into the community and say, okay, we did this policy, we get these millions of dollars, and now let's go see the results. >> jordan: you don't have to do an interview right now! i mean, should we go? this feels like a private moment for you. i thought i wanted more transparency in my government, but now i'm thinking perhaps some secrecy is for the best. so while eric adams might waste his work day getting pampered at local businesses, we're doing the hard work to get to the bottom of this story, starting with our very own grace kuhlenschmidt. grace! [cheers and applause] grace, what's the latest? >> jordan, the adams administration is happy to avoid federal charges, but it complicates his re-election campaign, because democrats may punish h

adam'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 priorities. only if the indictment were dismissed. i remain baffled by the rushed and superficial process by which this decision was reached, based on our understanding of the facts. is she right? >> you know, jim, i'm. i'm a former assistant u.s. >> attorney. >> and i have covered the justice department for a long time. there has never been. anything like what the justice department did with the eric adams case. um. miss sassoon is exactly right. um, this process whereby a pending case was dismissed not because the evidence was sufficient. insufficient, not because the prosecutors did something wrong, but because the defendant is of some political use to the president is just something that is a perversion of what the justice department is supposed to stand for. and it is completely understandable why there have been resignations in protest. >> i wonder what the consequences are because we've already seen this justice department. well, drop

with adams? et cetera.ring to future efforts by this doj, which is in power for four years to do, quote unquote, revenge prosecutions? et cetera. >> you know, that's a great question, ari. and when i start out at the beginning of the show and i talked about the tragedy, that's another dimension to it, because the southern district of new york has built up a tremendous well of goodwill and trust with the judiciary, so that an assistant u.s. attorney who walks into that courtroom and says something most every single judge banks on exactly every word. and this throws a wrench in that works. and i think that the judges, given what is they're seeing going on here for every you know, it's this is normal to think that that's going to cause them pause and to be more skeptical of what those assistant u.s. attorneys are saying. and i think that's that's a sad tragedy. yeah. >> all really good points david kelly across this breaking story. such an experienced voice. thank you. al sharpton sticks around. we have more c

so jackson, adams. and then the third place vote getter, william crawford, have their names submitted to the house. well, there are a couple of interesting wrinkles here. one crawford had suffered a very debilitating stroke. the previous year. in fact, a lot of people believe that he was close to death and was on his deathbed and would never recover. so he's really not a viable option. and the other interesting wrinkle is that henry clay, who came in fourth. he is going to have his name submitted for the presidential election in the house. but he is of the house. and so, therefore, he has a lot of to shape and direct potentially what happens in the house in the early part of 1825. adams and clay meet together alledly, according to jackson means at least they strike a agreement in which adams agrees to appoint clay' secreta o state. if clay will work in the house to win him that house election and so win the house election takes place on adams wins a lot of jack soni and supporters like to that meeting a

now a flurry of democrats are calling on adams to step down.alling on new york governor , democrat kathy hochul, to remove him from office. which she would have the authority to do. for doj officials, the so-called thursday afternoon massacre continued today. the line prosecutor who handled the adams case quit with a defined message refusing his motion to dismiss the case. he wrote "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. reportedly he was able to find a doj lawyer willing to sign the motion this afternoon. for the pbs news hour, william brangham. >> joining me to discuss the people within the department of justice is jessica roth. former federal product user -- prosecutor for new york and professor at the cardozo school of law. welcome back to the news hour. off. it looks like the department of justice found someone willing to move forward with dismissing the charges against mayor adams. what happens now? is a judge required to accept the dism

adams's attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating that adams would be in a position to insist with the 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 end, at the meeting's conclusion. taking notes in meetings is what lawyers do. they take notes during phone calls. they take notes all the time. you want your lawyer taking notes all the time. why do why did emil bove fear those notes? in his reply to daniel sasson today, emil bove claimed that he seized those notes because he's afraid of leaks. in that case, no trump lawyer in the justice department can ever be taken. notes. according to the above rules on notes. danielle soon revealed that there was more to come in the case against eric adams. we have proposed a superseding indictment 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 f

beauvais, with eric adams, counsel and members of my office. eric adams. 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. andrew weissman there is a similar footnote in volume two of robert mueller's obstruction volume. don mcgahn tells the story either he or his chief of staff, annie donaldson, tell a story to mueller's investigators on the obstruction side about how donald trump didn't like lawyers who took notes, and he kept saying, why are you taking notes? what are you writing down? why is that significant? >> there is no reason in god's green earth for the person who is the deputy attorney general to say to federal prosecutors at a meeting that they cannot take notes and they need to if they have to collect them, if there is nothing going on in that meeting that you're not em

i think it's that he did want leverage over adam. it reminds me, i think i said this yesterday of the mafia case. i did. >> then. >> as the. >> vice president. >> picks. >> a fight with. >> european allies, new. >> republican outrage. >> over rookie mistakes on the. >> world stage. >> president trump. >> will not allow. anyone to turn. >> uncle sam. >> into uncle sucker. >> and four weeks into. >> the second. >> term. >> the evidence. >> that the. >> trump power. >> grab can be stopped. >> we have breaking news. donald trump has ceded control of the presidency. >> to elon musk. >> when all in. >> starts right now. >> good evening from. >> new york. >> i'm chris hayes. >> we are right now in the. >> midst of the biggest scandal at the. >> department of justice. since watergate in the 1970s. so far. seven prosecutors have. >> quit the doj. >> in protest. >> of trump's corrupt. >> deal with new. york city's. democratic mayor eric adams. >> in what can. >> really best. >> be described as a blatant quid. >> pro quo. >> the charges in mayo

adding rather than be rewarded. >> adams advocacy. should be. >> called out for. >> what it. >> is an. >> improper offer. >> of immigration. enforcement assistance in exchange for a dismissal of his case. now a lawyer. >> for. >> mayor adams. >> denies those allegations. saying in part, the idea. >> that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie. >> we offered. >> nothing and the. department asked nothing of us. >> but i got. >> to say, that's complicated by. >> the letter. >> that he himself sent to sassoon back on monday, which we covered on the show, in which he ordered her to drop the charges explicitly so that adams can more effectively enforce trump's immigration policy. because. as beauvais argues. >> the pending. >> prosecution has. >> unduly restricted mayor. >> adams ability to. >> devote full. >> attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime. >> that escalated. >> under the policies of the prior administration. crime, by the way, is down in new york considerably over the last few years. now. >> realizin

in exchange for adams cooperation with his plan, something adams has seemingly been angling for. i mean, as we all watch this happen, right? he flew down to mar a lago to meet trump last month. so when beauvais ordered the charges to be dropped this week, it seemed nakedly obvious what was happening. and now we know trump's own prosecutor thought exactly what we did. you may be wondering, where was the mayor of new york? where was he today as all this unfolded? well, i'll tell you what he's doing. he was doing exactly what donald trump wants him to be doing. first, adams met with trump's so-called border czar earlier today. shortly after, in a reversal of the city's long standing sanctuary city policies, adams announced this afternoon he would allow trump's federal ice agents into the rikers island prison complex. and trump's border czar isn't exactly hiding the fact that he told adams to do so. >> so i don't know if today was some good things. i left today with a plan to incorporate some other things we're putting in place. i'm asking give us a presence back in rikers island. th

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 a fraudulent straw donor scheme. so then the acting attorney general, emil bove, responded to susan w

adams. feds drop case so he can fight migrant crime we need him alive.in the corner see that plus? prosecutor resigns in protest. that is an image of danielle says sown. she is the interim u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york she did not think she should be ordered to drop the charges so she resigned and essentially said they dropped the charges for quid pro quo. we'll drop your charges but you got to help us with the migrant crime in new york city. she quit. and then two people in the public integrity unit at the doj quit. three others after that. so, the whole suggestion is this was a deal that adams struck with the trump administration, okay. we're going to get you off the hook meeting with tom homan. we can refile those charges any time we want so you better help us. >> brian: lt. governor delgado position on adams the new york deserves a mail accountable to the people not to the president. the acting attorney general said i'm not saying he is innocent or guilty, it's not about the case it's how this effects the election. this seems li

this feels like it is bigger than just eric adams. >> this goes way beyond adams.es really to the justice department as a whole, and make no mistake, in my view, the deputy attorney general was trying to send a message throughout the justice department that people need to follow the orders and if they don't follow the orders, they need to leave the department. >> maurice: and scott, those 93 federal prosecutors around the country you mentioned, how are they reacting to all of this tonight? >> reporter: maurice, this commanded their attention all day. they watched. they exchanged text messages. this is all so disorienting for them. there are a couple hundred public corruption cases prosecuted in states across the country each year. sheriffs, school administrators, mayors accused of misconduct. it's unclear if they have to check with the white house now before some of them prosecute the case in front of them. >> john: scott, how does this adams business end from the justice department standpoint? >> reporter: just after the doors closed here tonight, john, they final

eric adams, when he ran, he was more progressive.me more moderate because he has seen how expensive it is to house these illegal migrants in new york city. and he said he wants to find common ground and work with this new administration because new york city has been forced to shoulder the burden of a national humanitarian crisis. he said 230,000 migrants have come to our city at the cost of $7 billion with little help from the previous administration. >> brian: what is happening is adams is on the outs, you know, he was indicted. that was lifted. and because of that, the district attorney has stepped aside. >> steve: u.s. attorney. >> brian: u.s. attorney i should say stepped aside. so she left yesterday. okay? now, yesterday, the governor was on another network said she is considering getting rid of adams. she could fire him. >> steve: she could. >> brian: fire him as mayor. if aoc had her way yesterday she called on adams to leave. they don't like each other. we will probably ask him correctly. that's how it is. there is another s

so is adams's. but asked tonight about this entire affair and trump pleaded ignorance about it. >> the u.s. attorney has resigned over the doj's request to drop the case into eric adams. did you personally request the justice department to drop that case? >> know nothing about it. that u.s. attorney was actually fired. i don't know if he or she resigned, but that u.s. attorney was fired. >> we are pleased to welcome roy wood jr. back to the table in our fifth seat. the second season of have i got news for you premieres this saturday. but we're going to start with the two lawyers at the table here, one of whom i should, i should disclose, is a friend of mayor adams. but jeffrey toobin, this is extraordinary because in part, so many now of these u.s. attorneys and federal lawyers have said, i'm not touching this. i think we're up to five resignations now of people who have been asked to drop these charges and won't do it. >> this is a travesty. what has gone on? eric adams was indicted. he was charged

quoting now, adams has argued in substance, and mr. bove appears prepared to concede that adams should receive leniency for federal crimes solely because he occupies an important public position and can use that position to assist in the administration's policy priorities. what's more, she recounts a meeting at which she suggests that bove did not want anyone having a record of what was actually discussed. quoting again from her letter, 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. bove admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. so it seems like they confiscated the attorney's notes. that wasn't the only bombshell from sassoon, who, we should note, has some very conservative credentials. she's listed as a contributor to the conservative federalist society, and she clerked for the la

adams y su abogado niegan que hubieran ofrecido el intercambio.nd. >> ice we'll be back on rikers island to deal with the criminal aspect of investigation. they also going to be embedded in our game and criminal task force on. >> crÍticos afirman que adams estÁ violando la polÍtica santuario de la ciudad. >> estamos rotundamente opuesto a cambiar las leyes santuarios. entonces Él Él no puede hacerlo sin el concejo municipal. >> adams anunciÓ el cierre de seis albergues para inmigrantes. dijo que le instruyÓ a sus agentes que no entorpezcan las labores de ice y afirmÓ que ninguna otra municipalidad ha lidiado con el peso de 230.000 personas que llegaron solo con lo que llevaban puesto. >> new workers aren't safe and eric adams is going to keep new york safe. >> los neoyorquinos no estaban seguros, pero ahora adams va a asegurar la ciudad, dijo hoy en la cadena fox. la nueva secretaria de justicia apoyo del gobierno republicano a un alcalde que los demÓcratas de nueva york, dicen ya no consideran de los suyos. cristina londoÑo noticias telemundo. >>

eric adams. manhattan's u.s.orney daniel sassoon forcefully telling trump's new attorney general, pam bondi, that the deal to drop the charges was an improper offer and quite expressly a quid pro quo being carried out by the white house. so that's happening, and we'll have much more on it coming up soon. but we begin tonight with the bait and switch. even as grocery prices are soaring, despite trump's promises to lower them starting on day one of his second presidency, there is heightened fear and anxiety across the country as elon musk, the world's richest unelected south african oligarch who despite his own questionable immigration story, has used his twisted version of twitter to weaponize anti-immigrant hysteria, anti-semitism and even racist science, and bought his way into the oval office, where he quite literally stands over the elected president of the united states. and he's now taking a buzzsaw to american democracy and gutting services that millions of americans rely on, burning our government to the g

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 elect zelensky to hurt joe biden's successful 2020 presidential campaign in exchange for security assista

the latest to quit top adams prosecutor, hagan scotten clerked for chief justice john roberts. he's a decorated combat veteran and was a rising star in the prestigious southern district. in fact, still up on the justice department website, six pages of press releases on important cases he's been involved with, including the successful corruption prosecution of the fbi's former new york head of counterintelligence. in his resignation letter today, scotten took the acting deputy ag to task, calling out bove, who has been at the center of this legal storm, for seeking the dismissal of charges against mayor adams. but in a way that could revive them if adams doesn't do the administration's bidding, he writes, quote, 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 goes on, 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 el

and the case against adams goes away. what does that do to the file as sochi was describing at doj, the prosecutors that helped put these cases together and then potentially also other politicians out there that may be taking calls from folks overseas seeking to offer them all sorts of luxurious gifts. >> it. the chilling effect cannot be overstated when you have people who are being fired either. mass firings, as suggested at the fbi, directed by the white house, or selected firings across doj of prosecutors who worked on cases involving donald trump. what you have at the end of that is a public integrity section that is not going to take on cases that may touch officials who are connected to power in washington, which is exactly what they exist for at their highest level. fbi agents who were not going to want to work on national security matters or matters involving political corruption. you're basically degrading these agencies, turning one into the the ministry of justice and the other into the secret police. if you c

the corruption case against new york mayor eric adams. the formal motion filed by a career prosecutor in washington after a stand off in new york with prosecutors who refused to go along. the lead earn penning a blistering resignation letter laying into trump-appointed doj brass saying the case was distracting adams to his full attention on immigration and crime. writing no system of ordered liberty can allow the government to dismiss charges or bring them again to induce an elected official to supports it policy objectives. if no lawyer is willing to give him that advice i imagine you will. the pressure adams faces on full display as the mayor and trump's border czar appeared this morning on fox. >> if he does not come through i will be back in new york city. i will be in his office up his butt saying where the hell is the agreement we came to. >> adams pushing back on the idea of any quid pro quo saying i want to be crystal clear with new yorkers saying i never offered nor did anyone any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to

over adam.t reminds me, i think i said this yesterday of the mafia cases i did. you know, it's much better to have someone who you can kind of pull the puppet strings on than to have someone who just owes you a favor. and that is what what he bought here. and i think for trump and frankly, for beauvais who has done it's not this is not an isolation, right. everything he has done has been about exerting control over the department of justice through the white house and the political arm and saying there is no separation anymore. and what these prosecutors have said is, yes, there is. when you go below the ranks there. so the people who are corrupted are the people at the top. >> but go ahead. >> it's one of the rev about think about it for a second. you know, donald trump for a long time, you've obviously been in new york a long time. what do you think it means to donald trump to finally have leverage over the mayor of new york city in the arc of his life? >> it means everything. i mean, donald t

as eric adams, the defendant and mayor of new york, laughs along. now, that resignation i mentioned said, quote, adams attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo. and during the meeting, the deputy ag, as i mentioned, then admonished a member of the doj prosecution team who was taking notes and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. that matters because it is both unusual and incriminating. you don't seize your own notes from your own teammates like you did something wrong, unless you're worried you did something wrong. and these are all lawyers. they all know how things work. but remember, in a proper and honest prosecution, when you have a meeting, you always take notes because you want to have very clear record evidence. they have an open case against this defendant. they have we now know a second indictment plan that was going to allege other obstruction by this defendant adams. and so you're going to be very meticulous when the doj, the people in charge start gathering up notes to, i guess, hide or d

adams gets his case dismissed. and in exchange, trump gets to have the mayor of new york city under his thumb for as long as he can hold on to city hall for his immigration priorities and whatever else he wants. so that's what this is about. and it's just a shame that after all of these years, even through the first four years of trump's presidency, s.d.n.y. managed to hold on to its independence. and it's gone now. and, you know, as you mentioned, the memo even admits it's not about the substance of the case. it's not about what adams did. it's about the president and what the president wants. so i think it's it's a real shame. and, you know, the reasons given in the memo are laughably ridiculous, to be honest. so i just think it's a very good day. >> now, of course, we don't have any proof or evidence that there is a quid pro quo that he agreed i will do x. in fact, one of the reasons that mayor adams has said in the past, um, why he feels he was persecuted, john, is because he had gone against and bucked the sys

eric adams en peligro.renuncia del alcalde de nueva york senalado de ofrecer favores al gobierno de trump a cambio de que el departamento de justicia abandonara el caso que en enfrentaba por corrupcion. >> never traded my power as an official.>> el se defiende. el papa francisco, hospitalizado por una bronquitis. el vaticano cancela su agenda hasta el lunes, pero dice que esta de buen humor. y en el dia del amor y la amistad. un trasplante de corazon. >> he vuelto a poder hablar sin sofocarme.>> nos trae un mensaje de esperanza. >> noticias telemundo. con julio vaqueiro. . >> buenas tardes. el sur de california enfrento la tormenta mas intensa en mas de un ano. las lluvias provocaron deslaves e inundaciones en una zona que apenas hace un mes enfrentaba incendios devastadores. hoy las autoridades revisan los danos y la comunidad enfrenta los es estragos por la lluvia. edgar munoz recorrio las zonas afectadas. preparo este reporte. espectacular rescate se realizo esta madrugada.>> una pareja que se quedo atra

the dramatic promise trump's border czar made on live tv about what would happen to mayor eric adams if he didn't keep his word. >> sweeping government layoffs hit thousands of federal workers, including staff overseeing the nuclear stockpile. the president warning more cuts are coming. >> torrential rains triggering mudslides in southern california, sweeping a car into the ocean with a driver still inside. >>> plus, the major winter storm threatening millions this weekend. >> now developments in that deadly midair collision. the black hawk helicopter was flying too high, but the pilots might not have known. >> ukraine on edge after a dramatic drone strike at the chernobyl nuclear plant. the world leaders stunned by mixed messages fromom the u.s. over the war as president zelenskyy tells us in an exclusive interview, they have a low chance of surviving without u.s. support. >> pope francis hospitalized with bronchitis. the latest on the 88-year-old's condition. >>> and live from new york, it's almost saturday night. we take you inside studio 8-h to celebrate a show that has kept us l

whether adams was guilty was beside the point. the justice department said it decided the case should be dismissed without assessing the strength of the evidence. instead, officials said they wanted adams focused on accomplishing the immigration objectives established by president trump. that u.s. attorney appointed by the trump administration a conservative clerk for the late supreme court justice antonin scalia warned the doj was setting a breathtaking and dangerous precedent. just as we came on the air tonight, david, the justice department did file its motion to dismiss the adams case, calling it necessary and appropriate. a federal judge will still need to sign off. david? >> david: aaron katersky with us tonight. >>> we turn in the meantime to the massive layoffs playing out today of government workers. thousands of them at multiple federal agencies, including the department of education, the cdc, and veterans affairs. and tonight, abc news learning that hundreds were laid off at the national nuclear security administration.

adam boehler good friend of mine. mike waltz good friend of mine and the president, the secretary of state rubio and of course steve witkoff amazing work that they just did to bring these to bring mark foley out. but the moment is very special. and i think i've said it before that it almost feels too personal to watch when an american comes down a ramp from a plane and steps foot on u.s. soil for the first time in years, and you watch them collide in with their loved ones, or else meet a senior official like the president. and it's very emotional. it's very personal. and there are times when i almost felt like i didn't want to watch, because you're witnessing something that was so special. and yet i watched every time because, you know, you work for these moments. and the job that adam's taken, it's a tough job. it's going to be very emotionally draining and physically taxing. and so to watch those victories that you get every now and then, they'll recharge the batteries. and and that's important because the job goes

eric adams, acting u.s.new york danielle sassoon announced her resignation in a brief statement to colleagues. according to a senior official. sassoon appealed wednesday to attorney general pam bondi and expressed her alarm at being ordered to drop the case. >> according to. a blistering. >> letter obtained by nbc news. she wrote that she attended a meeting on january 31st with emil bove, the acting u.s. deputy attorney general. adams, attorney, and members of her office, quote, 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. bove admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. >> the attorney. >> for mayor adams, alex spiro, denied the allegations in a statement that reads in part, quote, the idea that there was a quid pro quo is a total lie. we offered nothing

situation with mayor adams. clearly, the options have changed a lot with the decision by the court, because now we're told that if you follow my policies, you don't have to go on trial. that's a danger to everyone. you were in congress to say that nine months was too close to a primary. everybody in congress is running again. in nine months. you only serve two years. so i'm going to be meeting with a lot of them. and i speak at yale tonight. they said you were busy, so i'm going to fill in for you at yale political union tonight. >> yeah. >> all right. very good. well, they traded up, that's for sure. that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. thanks for watching. >> right now on ana cabrera reports. new warnings of a constitutional crisis just weeks into trump's second term. a series of judges pumping the brakes on president trump's breakneck efforts to remake the federal government. but will his team try to defy those orders? plus, a big break for the mayor of the big apple.

mayor adams has now agreed to let ice agents on rikers island and into nypd intelligence briefings. it came just days after a justice department memo that ordered his case be dismissed. but with the possibility it could be brought back acting u.s. attorney daniel sassoon resigned thursday night saying this all appears to be part of a quid pro quo. she alleges adams attorney repeatedly promised cooperation on immigration in exchange for the trump justice department. moving to make the charges go away. then a wave of additional federal prosecutors also resigned, all refusing to dismiss the case against adams, which they described as solid appearing friday morning on fox news with white house border czar tom homan. mayor adams as going after violent criminals in the country illegally is just the right thing to do. and neither he nor his attorney ever made any illegal promises. it took a 3 weeks to report in a criminal action. come on. this is but during the same sit down, there was eyebrow raising moment. we're home and made a thinly veiled threat against the mayor. if he doesn't come

adams does.it's the department's effort to wield that hammer of justice over a defendant's head and to threaten them with criminal prosecution. um, if they don't agree with them. and so it's not this case. just this case we're worried about. it's the little guy. it's the other defendants. it's other people out there who may not be elected mayor to this large city, but who are out there in the community, uh, who may very well get this same treatment. and that's why this is a terrible precedent to go forward. >> it's really interesting point, michael. thank you so much. former mayor bill de blasio. we appreciate your time as well. thank you. and vice president vance meeting with ukrainian president zelenskyy after a series of mixed messages from the trump administration about how it's planning to approach russia's war on ukraine, we'll have more on that just ahead. >> still, fighting bronchitis. we'll take you live to rome to get the latest on his condition. and later, why the kennedy center cancel

adams strongly denied. >> those allegations today in. >> a statement, and this morning, adams defended himself on fox news alongside what appeared to be almost like his handler. trump's border czar, tom homan. take a listen. >> 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. >> 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? >> unbelievable. >> adams has. >> pleaded not guilty to. >> all of those federal charges. >> but there's something that. >> we want to emphasize here. >> the motion. >> seeks dismissal without prejudice. that means that federal prosecutors could seek to reinstate the. charges against eric adams at any time time. for instance, if he were to stop cooperating with trump's. immigration policies. >> now, that. >> is a carrot and a stick. with that, let's bring in our lead off pa

adams has pleaded. not guilty to all of those federal charges. >> but there's something. >> that we want to emphasize here. the motion seeks dismissal without prejudice. that means that federal prosecutors could seek to reinstate the charges against eric adams at any time. for instance, if he were to stop cooperating with trump's immigration policies. now, that is a carrot and a stick. with that, let's bring in our lead off panel. katie benner, pulitzer prize winning correspondent for the new york times, molly. >> jong-fast. >> special correspondent for vanity fair and an msnbc contributor. and barbara mcquade, a veteran federal prosecutor and former united states attorney for the eastern district of michigan. her new book, attack from within how disinformation is sabotaging america, is out now. i am speechless. rarely happens as the three of you know me so well with what's transpiring. i'm relieved to have the three of you here. barb, let's start with you. you know the law. you know the process. let's

we're expecting to hear from adams in just moments. plus, the president is meeting right now with the king of jordan at the white house, in part to sell his redevelopment plan for gaza after saying all hell will break out if every remaining hostage isn't freed by this weekend, and democrats roll out their strategy to counter the wave of actions by the white house and elon musk. good day. i'm ali vitali in washington, and there are growing concerns among legal experts that the nation could be entering a constitutional crisis. this, as a federal court says president trump, is ignoring a binding legal order. a federal judge in rhode island said the administration is refusing to release frozen federal funding in defiance of last month's directive. it's one of several legal roadblocks facing the white house. the president's federal buyout deadline was delayed by a judge, while a federal judge here in d.c. reinstated an ethics watchdog who alleged the president illegally fired him. those, of course, are just some of the setbacks causing trum