daniel sassoon. not that anyone in the department has a political sort of brand or character, but but she is from a conservative. she she got to the justice department through a very conservative pathway. >> yes. >> and i mean, take a step back for just. >> a. >> second here. the this letter. >> by emile bove, which i have to say is a. >> wild document. >> i mean, a. >> wild we will read the whole. thing on the air. >> it has a. >> kind. >> of unhinged. >> quality to it. like you can hear him. >> like banging. >> the keyboard. >> as he writes. you know. >> how dare you? >> basically, how dare you? >> the theory of the case. here is that the biden justice department was weaponized. >> against its political enemies. the biden justice department. >> whose u.s. >> attorneys prosecuted. >> a senior. >> democrat from new. >> jersey and convicted him, and the democratic mayor of the biggest city in america. this is the theory of weaponization with this tortured. >> nonsense about it. >> had to do with. >> s

after mlb ordered daniel sassoon to have the case dismissed. daniel sassoon knew how her letter would be received by the attorney general. she knew that her letter was filled with brave defiance, principled defiance of emil bove and donald trump's desires. and so the last line of daniel sassoon's letter to the attorney general says, in the event you are unwilling to meet or to reconsider the directive in light of the problems raised by mr. bova's memo, i am 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. it turns out danielle sassoon's last act as the us attorney for the southern district of new york was to write an eight page indictment of emil bove. her letter says, quote, the evidence against adams is proves beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed federal crimes. and that to ask a judge to dismiss the case would be, quote, inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good faith arguments be

and danielle sassoon is. >> right. >> he would.both be protecting her rightly, from any investigation and getting to the bottom of. >> what appears. >> to be a really a. >> quid pro quo. >> deal here. and so the judge has enormous power here to do the right thing and to get to the bottom and accord everyone their due process rights. in doing that, because everyone has the ability, you know, to be heard. and to cross-examine. and before the judge makes a decision. >> explain to me. at any point, prosecutors can choose not to prosecute something. the department of justice can decide not to do something. but there's some question about why this all came about. emil beauvais's letter to danielle sassoon and team suggests that there was these charges were political in nature, and they interfered in the fact that eric adams was running for election again and the things that he needed to do. tom homan suggests this is a deal to get an agreement, as he calls it, to get eric adams to do the administration's bidding as it relates to immigrat

attorney daniel sassoon on her decision to resign. her commitment to integrity and the rule of law reflects the finest traditions of the southern district, united states attorney's office and the department of justice. the department's announced intent to investigate miss sassoon and some of the career prosecutors who served alongside her is a stark departure from those traditions, and that should concern everyone committed to the pursuit of justice without fear or favor. end quote. leading off our discussion tonight is andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel and former chief of the criminal division of the eastern district of new york. he's also an msnbc legal analyst. andrew, thank you for being with us. this is quite something. this is a story that started about eric adams, maybe a story a lot of americans weren't really covering, a guy who got himself into a whole lot of hot water and was facing charges into a showdown about justice and fairness and politics. i have to say this has this has blown up in the last 48 hours in a

as a result, you saw the obviously the resignation of danielle sassoon. somebody who always wanted this job had been a career prosecutor, somebody who was appointed by the trump administration to take this position on an interim basis, pending the confirmation of who they'll ultimately have in that office, is the us attorney, jay clayton. so it's really a challenge for the southern district. then they put the other prosecutors on leave and then the public integrity section where the case was transferred. to those prosecutors. five of them say, we're not in for this either. we've resigned. so i just checked the docket as you were starting the program. there's still nothing on there. there's nothing that's been filed. this case has not been dismissed. there's nothing on there that tells us anything about anything where this case exists. if you see me glancing at my phone, it's because i'm just waiting and looking at different texts that are coming in. there's still nothing new. so where this goes today, i'm not sure where it goes. i think the ultimate thing

danielle sassoon and her team, what the trump justice department wants them to do. you mentioned something before about the roiling inside of the justice department. certainly, we're all talking about it. this is a big topic here this morning. and what could be going on there? my analysis of the situation, based on my reporting and the people that i've talked to, is they don't care. nobody lost sleep last night at the justice department that danielle sassoon resigned or anybody else. >> the only. >> person who resigned. >> i mean, there were. >> six people altogether who resigned. >> it does not. we have to recalculate our thinking on this justice department. they have mandates. they have focuses. they have things that they want to achieve. and as the president's executive order said, you're either going to faithfully execute what we lay out for you and represent this administration in court or you're out. and that's their thought process. i'm not making a judgment on it. i'm just telling you that's the thought process and that's the world that they live in. so in a

and by the way, when danielle sassoon refused to do it. and you're right, by the way, to note that she's a conservative. not only did was she a federalist society member, she penned an op ed against joe biden a few weeks ago, just sort of gratuitously criticizing joe biden's pardons. 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, th

the resignation letter, to be clear, for danielle sassoon, the acting u.s.y for the southern district of new york. >> is only two. >> sentences in length. we're told. >> it does not. >> specifically address the directive that you referenced. >> from the. >> justice department in beauvais, who is the current acting deputy attorney general, to drop this case without prejudice, meaning that it could be called again at some point in the future. and the letter specifically discusses that. >> so there. >> were no plans for sassoon to resign. now there are no plans for sassoon to resign prior to this letter. so while she doesn't specifically reference it, it is very difficult to look at this letter as anything other than a i'm not going to do this. and the office. a couple of things have come up over the past couple of days. first, let's talk about sassoon. this is an individual who went toe to toe with sam bankman-fried, cross-examined him, and by all accounts really tuned him up when he was on the defense stand in his own defense in that case. and obviously he wa

her name is danielle sassoon. she wrote this remarkable memo to pam bondi, trump's newly confirmed attorney general. she said, quote, i deem it necessary to the faithful discharge of my duties to raise the concerns expressed in this letter with you and to request an opportunity to meet to discuss them further. the reasons advanced by the acting deputy attorney general, mr. bove, for dismissing the indictment are not ones i can, in good faith defend, as in the public interest and as consistent with the principles of impartiality and fairness that guide my decision making. mr. bove proposes dismissing the charges against adams in return for his assistance in enforcing federal immigration laws. analogizing to the prisoner exchange in which the us freed notorious russian arms dealer viktor bout in return for an american prisoner in russia. such an exchange with adams violates common sense beliefs in the equal administration of justice. the justice manual and the rules of professional conduct. adams has argued in subst

danielle sassoon, u.s. attorney, southern district of new york.e 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 go to court to ask the court to drop these charges against mayor adams. the top two people in the department said that at main justice and then three more people in that department resigned as well. so as of tonight, the justice dep

danielle sassoon refused to dismiss the case. now, the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of adams case is roiling new york politics, with a number of local leaders calling for adams to resign or for the governor of new york to use her powers to dismiss him. but perhaps more importantly than what's going on here in new york, is the battle lines that are being drawn outside of this city. the extraordinary revolt within the department of justice about the dismantling of the justice department's independence to do its job. remember, president trump ran on a campaign of retribution and promised to, quote, investigate the investigators. many are questioning whether beauvais, the president's former personal lawyer who is now the acting deputy attorney general, has the right to interfere with the work of the southern district of new york, the ny. it's often referred to jokingly as the sovereign district of new york because of the way in which it maintains its independence. and more broadly, this is a question of whether the executi

new acting deputy attorney general, emil bove, a former attorney for president trump, ordered danielle sassoon to dismiss the charges against adams. bova's memo to sassoon laying it out raised eyebrows in that he said the doj reached its determination, quote, without assessing the strength of the evidence. now, instead, bove said that the case, which was supposed to go to trial this spring, would have distracted the new york mayor and mayor adams from supporting the federal government's crackdown on migrants. now, on this broadcast monday night, law professor jessica roth paraphrased the argument that bove was making. >> it's because we want mayor adams to be able to pursue the president's immigration policies unfettered by worrying about this prosecution, and also because we think that the prosecution itself was in some ways politically tainted when it was brought from the outset. >> now, roth went on to call that highly unusual. but tonight, the resignation letter by danielle sassoon goes further, and it is blistering. quoting now, adams has argued in substance, and mr. bove appears prepared

danielle sassoon has absolutely no incentive to lie about this. none whatsoever.y know her. i worked with her. i believe her. it just again, and there are multiple prosecutors there that are in the room. i know the others as well. these are not people who are going to make up something like that. so i think really judge ho needs to look at that. and then if in fact, judge ho determines that that did occur. one, it's hard to see how this case gets dismissed, even though he doesn't have a whole lot of options here to continue a case if the prosecutors don't want to. but it's hard to say that with leave of court, this would be in the public interest if really it was just this quid pro quo for the abuse of prosecutorial power to be used to influence politics. that's that's not what we're supposed to do in those roles. but he should ask those questions, make those factual findings. and then i think in terms of the mayor, there's a real question for governor hochul. if judge ho makes the finding that that quid pro quo did happen, then, you know, i don't see how she does

attorney danielle sassoon in her resignation letter. language than danielle sassoon did, describing his location as, quote, up his butt and quote, if he doesn't carry out the policies to your powerful declaration that the department has been corrupted, what happens next? >> that's an excellent question. look, i think first of all, we have to see what happens with this case. as christi mentioned earlier, i do not think judge ho is just going to rubber stamp this. so for pam bondi to say the case is about to be dismissed, you know, is presumptuous that the judge does not have a lot of discretion to actually deny the motion to dismiss, but there is a lot of discretion to do an inquiry and just bring even more facts to light and, frankly, to make. beauvais todd blanch, who you know, is about to take his position, or miss bondi herself to come to the southern district of new york and explain in front of a judge, perhaps under oath, you know, what, what has transpired here? even even more than what has been reported. but to make them answer f

attorney for new york danielle sassoon. acting deputy attorney general emil bove, who is trump's former personal lawyer, then tried to turn to two other senior prosecutors at doj headquarters. they wouldn't play ball, either. we're hearing as many as three other prosecutors have also resigned. and you know that phrase that popped up a lot the last, i don't know, what, eight years? quid pro quo. it's back. soon. sent a scathing resignation letter to ag pam bondi, saying that she was baffled by the decision to try to drop that case and she didn't pull a single punch. she accuses the administration of politicizing the doj, weaponizing it. sound familiar? well, she says she can't really make a straight face, good faith argument to support. why her office the s.d.n.y. despite their belief in the strength of the case and their ability, they believe to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, why they would then dismiss a case because it was politically inconvenient for a mayor, or because that mayor might prove politically advantageou

now the first to quit, danielle sassoon said much the same thing when she resigned on thursday. but she also went further, alleging that bovi's order was part of a quid pro quo to get him to help with president trump's immigration crackdown. she described it as a breathtaking and dangerous precedent. adams responded just this morning. >> think about that. think about my attorney, alex spiro, 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 that it took her three. she took it took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action. come on, this is silly. >> bovey issued his own blistering rebuttal, accusing sassoon and her entire office of weaponizing the case against adams. he said she was insubordinate for refusing to drop it, but as of now, he hasn't found anyone either in new york or washington willing to do it. barbara mcquade is a former u.s. attorney, universit

danielle sassoon, the interim u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, quit instead and alleged in her resignation letter to the attorney general that adams lawyer and the justice department were pushing for what amounted to a quid pro quo, having the mayor assist on immigration if his charges were dismissed. appearing on fox news earlier with trump's border czar, the mayor denied that accusation. >> 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 us three. she took it took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action. come on, this is silly. >> msnbc news msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin joins me now. and, lisa, we said this at one point. it was just danielle sassoon saying this was not something she would undertake as a prosecutor on behalf of the s.d.n.y. there's a second prosecutor now echoing that. right. >> that's right. and w

and so i was literally just about to publish a piece talking about the fact that danielle sassoon still't done this and what might be her calculus. when we received news that she had, in fact, resigned, the choice was stark. for her, it was either resign or be fired, or carry out the wishes of the department of justice. there was no other strategy that a savvy person could figure out to navigate this. she is a savvy as they come, but she had the backs of her line. prosecutors who felt that this was a righteous case that needed to be tried. >> yeah. >> let's go back to that. this is this case, the case against mayor adams. it's a corruption case. this pause on the corruption case, not not a full ending of it, because the trump administration has said that they they can bring it up again. they can look into them again. you know, if he doesn't become mayor again or if he's they imply that if he doesn't cooperate with them on immigration policy, they could look into it again. explain what mayor adams was charged with. >> well, mayor adams was charged with a slew of different things tied to

yet, that's what danielle sassoon tried to do thursday when she resigned as acting u.s.istrict of new york. she wasn't just refusing to do as the president's man ordered to drop charges against mayor eric adams who had promised to help the administration. her resignation letter makes clear that she was rejecting something deeper, the abandonment of honor, duty, and the public commitment to which she had committed her career, her conscience, and taken an oath three weeks before. it's a similar oath to the one taken by elected lawmakers, executive branch employees, and those who serve the public. for the rest of us who don't take an oath, we often lack the courage implied in those words to be a barrier between power and abuse, between expediency and principle, between what's easy and what's right, most of us aren't faced with such stark moral choices. many who are turn their heads hoping attention moves quickly on. it takes courage to stop the train or jump off. but as they say, courage is contagious. sassoon's deputy resigned writing "i expect you will eventually find som

daniel sassoon sassoon's letter pointed out that they were ready to re indict him to bring obstructioncharges. interestingly, the same kind of charges trump faced in florida, you know, basically urging people to destroy evidence, lying to the fbi, you know, obstruction. >> other people. so that's why you. >> love. >> each other. >> people within the new york apparatus, within his office have resigned, have been under investigation. let's not forget, we got the text messages from his aide being like, these are the flights the mayor wants. honestly, they're just playing in our faces. and i'm. i guess i'm with michael. please, people of new york, please put us out of our misery come election time. don't do it to us again. lord, don't. >> it's a george. they contemplate that we need you to stick around, okay? because we want to continue the conversation after a quick break about a whole bunch of stuff, and you're a part of it. so stick around, folks. the weekend stick around, folks. the weekend on msnbc. —hi! —hi! ♪♪ chocolate fundraiser. ♪♪ with the chase mobile app, things move a little

one daniel sassoon, the then acting us attorney, molly, of the southern. district of new york. she was a. >> trump appointed. >> southern district, new york ag, okay. and two. as evidenced in the letter that sassoon wrote. >> to attorney. >> general pam bondi, everyone. >> on the. >> team. >> everybody ■in that office dealing with this case, said. >> that the case. >> was strong. >> and that there was evidence. in fact, she was bringing a superseding indictment to add additional charges, including obstruction. >> of justice. so trump there again. misleading americans. >> but his answer. >> let's be honest, was not exactly an enthusiastic statement of support of eric adams's innocence there. >> well. >> look, there are a number of problems here. one is that. >> you. >> know, there has been a lot of talk about eric adams, the charges, the superseding. i mean, there have been a lot of people resigned. it didn't it has never looked like a mayoral administration that seemed without problems and possible lots of other stuff. the other thing is, of course, is a trump appointee. she was

danielle sassoon i think she's something like 38 years old. it's not like she's in the back half of her career ready to be done. she's at the top of her career. these other five attorneys, they could be throwing their careers away. these are their livelihoods, right? a scathing public letter that the whole world sees to pam bondi. what does that tell us? you know, i would characterize it a little bit differently, steph. >> i would call it a. very principled, well. >> reasoned letter. and you're. >> right to say she's at the top of her game. this is really just the start for her. she was a deputy. >> chief in this office. but i think it's. important for people to understand a little bit about who she is. she was hired during a. democratic administration by preet bharara, but. >> she's a. >> card carrying member of the. federalist society. she clerked for justice antonin. >> scalia. >> a conservative legend. in other. >> words. this isn't. >> someone who was hired as a prosecutor because of her politics. she was hired because of her commitment a

danielle sassoon, along with other top prosecutors. in her resignation letter, sassoon made it all sound like some sort of quid pro quo. writing in part, beauvais proposes dismissing the charges against adams in return for his assistance in enforcing the federal immigration laws. in accepting sassoon's resignation, beauvais responded with allegations that the s.d.n.y. weaponized the justice department under the last administration. in just his first week on the job, reuters reports that beauvais instructed federal prosecutors to investigate local officials who refused to assist federal immigration authorities announced an investigation of a local sheriff in upstate new york over the alleged release of an immigrant living in the u.s. illegally, and traveled to chicago to witness the arrest of at least one migrant. beauvais has since ordered the firing of all prosecutors hired on a probationary basis to work on january 6th. related cases. >> the deputy attorney general was trying to demonstrate to everybody in the department of justice th

her name is danielle sassoon. you see her there? she stepped down this afternoon after trump's department of justice ordered her to drop the federal government's corruption case against new york city's democratic mayor, eric adams, something she refused to do. and to be clear about the context here, sassoon is not a what you would call a resistance liberal. she was appointed by donald trump. three weeks ago, she was a member of the right wing legal organization, the federalist society. she clerked for the late supreme court justice antonin scalia, one of the fathers of modern conservative legal thought. but today, sassoon put her loyalty to the rule of law ahead of her ideological affiliations. in a letter to attorney general pam bondi. sassoon said in no uncertain terms that the deal to halt adams prosecution, with the possibility of reviving the charges at some future date, was part of a back door deal to get adams to support trump's immigration crackdown in new york. sassoon recalls a meeting with the acting deputy attorney gener

her name is danielle sassoon. >> you see. >> her there? >> she stepped. >> down this. afternoon after. >> trump's department of. >> justice ordered. >> her to drop the federal government's corruption case. >> against new york city's. >> democratic mayor, eric adams, something she refused. >> to do. >> and to be clear. >> about the. >> context here, says. >> it is not. >> a what you. >> would call a resistance liberal. she was appointed. >> by donald trump. >> three weeks. >> ago, she was. >> a member of the right wing. >> legal organization, the federalist society. she clerked for the late supreme court justice antonin scalia. >> one of the. >> fathers of modern conservative legal thought. but today, sassoon put her. >> loyalty to the rule of law ahead of her ideological affiliations. in a letter. >> to attorney general pam bondi. >> sassoon said in. >> no uncertain terms that. >> the deal to. >> halt adams prosecution with the. >> possibility of reviving the. >> charges at some future date. >> was part. >> of. >> a backdoor. >> deal to. >> get. >> adams to support. >>

attorney in manhattan, danielle sassoon, stood up to donald trump by announcing her resignation todayow a d.o.j. order to drop the corruption charges against new york city mayor eric adams. mind you, sassoon is no liberal deep state prosecutor by any means. quite the opposite. she was a member of the conservative federalist society and once clerked for the late, very conservative supreme court justice antonin scalia. and she was appointed by trump to the acting position just a few weeks ago. while she did not refer to the adams case in her brief resignation statement, nbc news has obtained a letter from her describing the d.o.j. order as being part of a quid pro quo. quote i attended a meeting on january 31st, 2025 with mr. beauvais adams, counsel and members of my office. 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. beauvais admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting and directed the collection of

this letter from hagan scotten, but the letter from danielle sassoon, that's eight single spaced pages. it spells it out in great detail. emil bove effectively admitted it. this was a political, politically motivated dismissal. they sought the dismissal because eric adams needed to be free from the indictment in order to focus on the trump administration's immigration priorities, and that's why they were seeking it, they said explicitly. emil bove did in his letter. it was not about the merits of the case. the prosecutors who brought the case acted properly and with integrity. and it was only about this notion of eric adams being freed up in order to help the trump administration. so that's exactly what it is about. that's why mr. scott and miss soon were so vigorously defending their case and saying that ethically, they were not in a position to seek its dismissal because it wasn't about the the the merits of the case at all. and it would be improper for them to go before a judge and seek dismissal of a grand jury, obtained indictment on that basis. >> elise, assuming doj does find a

i'm just going to jump right in to one of the things that danielle sassoon said in her resignation letter. she's talking about the idea of a quid pro quo. eric adams offering help on trump's immigration plans in exchange for putting off the case, she wrote, 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. although mr. bovÉ and he is the justice department official involved here, disclaimed any intention to exchange leniency in this case for adams assistance in enforcing the law. that is the nature of the bargain laid bare in mr. bovÉ's memo. she is basically saying there were like quid pro quo discussions here, and the justice department was part of it. chan. >> yeah. and i think, john, the really. >> disturbing part of it is. >> really on the receiving end. >> of that offer. >> so adams attorneys. >> are, of course, going to dispute that there's some sort of corrupt motive. they're just trying to pitch things for their client, and there's a little bit of a question

and i would expect danielle sassoon to have the backs of her line, prosecutors and those supervisors in the same way that trump nominated trump, acting u.s. attorney jeff berman did during the first trump administration. >> maybe she's going to say, fire me. i'm not going to do this. have somebody else carry it out. katie. again, this is layered. it's not just the trump administration saying, we feel like this guy has been unfairly targeted. we want to we want to we want to criticize the biden team. this is the way we're going to do it. they're not dismissing the charges and saying we're never going to file them again. they put in a memo that, yes, these charges haven't been looked into fully, but we think that they're distracting mayor adams from helping us with immigration enforcement. that feels like a sword of damocles that is hanging over his neck. >> exactly. and like you said, they didn't say. >> the charges are. >> incorrect or false. they're just saying they're impeding with the mayor acting to order out president trump's mass deportation. rules and what he wants to do. mass

danielle sassoon describes a quid pro quo where the d.o.j. would dismiss the charges against adams in support of president trump's agenda. what questions does this raise for you? >> i think this is a disagreement between prosecutors. the u.s. attorney disagrees what are your superiors are saying. and eric adams for the last year or so has been moving in the direction to crack down on illegal immigration any way. i don't know if he would be behaving differently in the first place. but this is a judgment call and u.s. attorney whether in the southern district of new york thinks of itself as a sovereign district as they call it, doesn't get to make that call. if the superiors decide that the underlying evidence is interimsy or the prosecution itself was politically motivated, that's their call to make. geoff: the deputy ag cited the need for adams to help with donald trump's immigration policy and adams and immigration czar said if he doesn't come through i will be up his butt where the hell is the agreement? this isn't subtle -- >> i don't know

attorney danielle sassoon claim there. i should note, but moments later in that interview, tom homan went on to make what seemed to be a friendly threat if adams doesn't cooperate with the trump. administration. >> 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? >> a bit of awkward laughing there. i should note for his part, at the white house, president trump, who i remind remind you met with eric adams at mar a lago right before he took office, says that he had nothing to do with any of this. >> well, i don't know about it. i mean, obviously i'm not involved in that. i know that they didn't feel it was much of a case. they also felt that it was unfair with the election. look, i would know that better than anybody because, uh, i was weaponized more than any human being in the history, probably of the world. >> and i should note, we have new reporting tonight. that is how trump feels abou

danielle sassoon is a registered republican who clerked for antonin scalia. and so when it comes to to the argument about that and who's that? they're not carrying out what they were told by the acting deputy attorney general to do. i've heard from from trump world that it's that they're kind of frustrated by the fall out here because they weren't following orders that they were given by main justice. >> yeah. >> well, they weren't following orders. but, you know, the other thing, i think the most striking thing about the motion that they filed is that what they've been saying in their letters is that they want to file this without prejudice. and i think, you know, what does that. it means that they can bring it back. so it means that they want to hold this over. eric adams head, so that it's possible. that is very strange because. >> it's not unusual. >> it's very unusual. i mean, in my experience, i can't think of a time when you would. you would unless you give somebody a deferred prosecution or something like that. and they have to do certain things, do c

attorney for the southern district of new york daniel sassoon, a republican who clerked for the leadme court justice antonin scalia a, started the exodus. writing to trump's new attorney general pam bondi, he accused mayor adams and officials in the doj of what amounted to a quid pro quo. that adams would aid trump's immigration enforcement if the doj dropped his case. sassoon excoriated the alleged offer, writing "it is a breathtaking end dangerous precedent to reward adams opportunistic and shifting commitments on immigration and other policy matters with dismissal of a criminal indictment. yesterday, mayor adams met with trump's borders are and sat beside him on fox news this morning as he denied the claims. >> that is quid pro quo, that is a crime. it took three weeks to report in front a criminal action? >> then home and implied if adams did not help with immigration. >> in the office, up his but saying where is the agreement we came to? >> the acting u.s. security and former trump lawyer who ordered the dismissal rejected the assertion that there was any quid pro quo. in respon

attorney daniel sassoon on her decision to resign.ited states attorney's office and the department of justice. the department's announced intent to investigate miss sassoon and some of the career prosecutors. prosecutors who served alongside her is a stark departure from those traditions, and that should concern everyone committed to the pursuit of justice without fear or favor. and it is signed by seven former u.s. attorneys from s.d.n.y. robert fisk, john s martin, mary jo white, james comey, david kelly, jeffrey berman, audrey strauss. after seven different prosecutors, including sassoon, resigned rather than accede to the demand to drop the corruption charges against new york city mayor eric adams. that request to the court to drop the charges, it has now finally been made. but charges don't just get dropped on their own automatically, because the justice department says to the judge overseeing the case now has to consider that request from the justice department. what is that likely to entail? is this saga ongoing? joining us now

attorney danielle sassoon has quit after being told to drop the case against mayor eric adams. let's go right to cnn's kara scannell. kara, what do we know? brianna. >> so the acting u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. >> danielle sassoon, submitted her resignation in a letter to the attorney general. this, as she has been under pressure to drop the corruption case against new york city mayor eric adams. this letter was sent this afternoon to the attorney general's office, and it had been a looming question since. it was only earlier this week that the acting deputy attorney general had instructed sassoon to drop the case against eric adams. and in that highly unusual directive, the main justice prosecutors had said that they were not they were not making this directive based on the evidence in the case or the strength of the case, but because they wanted the mayor to be free and unencumbered, to help make some of the policies that president donald trump has been pushing, including on immigration. so that put the prosecutor here in this office, s.d.n.y. it's kn

michael, first to you in danielle sassoon resignation letter to attorney general bondi, she said that eric adams attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo to help trump on immigration if the case was dropped. what do you make of that accusation? >> you know. >> i'm glad to be with all of you. >> i think this is a quid pro quo by any definition. i don't care if you use the webster's dictionary or the elon musk dictionary or whatever, but this is a quid pro quo. and essentially what they've done is they've made a charging decision and a prosecution decision based on whether or not adams will be in compliance and in agreement with and effectuate, if you will, the administration's policies. and that is absolutely contrary to everything the department of justice stands for. if a lawyer had done that under my charge, they would have been terminated immediately. um, so, you know, i think that this ultimately is going to be a question for a judge. and if i was a federal judge, i would invite mr. bovÉ down to a hearing and allow him to stay in his place in front of me. why thi

attorney for the southern district of new york, danielle sassoon, have resigned in protest. the seventh resignation coming this morning from hagan scotten, an assistant u.s. attorney at the s.d.n.y. 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 near

and importantly, as danielle sassoon notes, her team tried to take notes but was told to stop. and then they seized their notes. so ultimately it would come down to different accounts of what exactly was said within that meeting. i'm sure they would differ in substantial ways. >> beauvais is bondi's hatchet. she could have signed that motion. you correct me if i'm wrong. i heard her say she was in a different time zone. but in the end, when they couldn't get someone else to sign it, he did it himself. but why didn't she? i guess is my question. >> yeah, the time zone excuse doesn't really hold much water with me. things still are happening simultaneously. um, pam bondi has a bit of a management and leadership problem on her hand, a self-created one. first of all, she seems to not know what's happening in this case. at a press conference three days before she was asked about this case, she said, your office has ordered this case to be dismissed, but no motion has been put in. and her response was, i didn't know that either. she is hopelessly out of touch with what her own justic

however, as danielle sassoon argues in her letter, she doesn't believe, and i agree. she does not believe that a judge will accept this dismissal. >> so there's a. >> whole separate process that has to happen here. it would not surprise me at all if the judge rejects this dismissal, and then we're going to be in a real showdown. so not as easy as just saying. i snap my fingers as the attorney general. case dismissed. >> right. you can't just say we're dismissing this case because we want him to cooperate. we think he'll cooperate with us on this other priority. uh, without commenting on the corruption allegations, karen, this morning, mayor adams and trump's border czar, tom homan. i mean, this is just the weirdest story. they went on fox together to discuss their meeting on immigration enforcement with this huge background about all of this questionable behavior on fox. and in a statement moments ago, adams said this was not a quid pro quo. he denied being offered anything by the justice department or offering them anything. and then homan said this about their allia

of course, this all started earlier this week when danielle sassoon, she was trump's pick to serve as the acting u.s. attorney for s.d.n.y. she's a prosecutor with sterling credentials among conservatives clerked for scalia. she, in response to being ordered to drop the case, sent a letter offering her resignation directly to the attorney general, pam bondi. right, bypassing bovay who had sent her this instruction, writing that adams attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo, indicating adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed. 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. in that same letter, sassoon outlines a particularly damning anecdote in which bovay admonished a member of my team who took notes during that meeting with adams lawyers and directed the collection of those notes at the meeting's conclusion. like, why are you writing things down? lawyer f

we'll see if that will happen to daniel sassoon or whether she'll play ball. >> all right. lisa, aaron, ken, thank you all. joining us now is mark zaid, founding legal partner of the organization whistleblower aid. mark, good to have you. here. we are hearing the phrase constitutional crisis. already less than a month into this presidency, the dean of the law school at uc berkeley telling the new york times, there have been so many unconstitutional and illegal actions in the first 18 days of the trump presidency. we've never seen anything like this, mark. other administrations have clashed with courts before. so how do you see it? is this a constitutional crisis or is it just heightened friction between these two branches? >> i mean. >> constitutional crisis may. >> be a little bit over the. >> top, but i think what we're seeing is we're we're on the verge of getting there. i've been saying to so many people that we're not even close to how bad it's going to be. it is going to get far, far worse. i've been litigating against trump and. >> his allies. >> for almost a decade

acting attorney for the southern district of new york danielle sassoon told attorney general pam bondi that dropping the corruption case against eric adams would be, quote, inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and advance good faith arguments before the courts. end quote. so soon refused to sign the document dismissing that case. so too did other prosecutors working on it. acting deputy attorney general emil bove then turned to officials in the doj office of public integrity. they too resigned. rather than comply. bove, you'll remember, represented donald trump during the new york state case in which he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records. the president has denied any involvement in the adams case. >> 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? >> no, i didn't know nothing about it. i did not. that u.s. attorney was actually fired. i don't know if he or she resigned, but that u.s. attorney was fired. >>

one is, as you noted, danielle sassoon and her colleagues say, that there's this improper quid pro quo that has been disputed by eric adams counsel. so there is a factual dispute, and that gives every reason for a judge to hold a hearing. that's what judges do when there's a factual dispute. and he can say to a meal, beauvais, if you think this is wrong. if you think that this is not what happened, you can come here and take take the stand and put your right hand up and swear to tell the truth. and i will make credibility determinations. and oh, by the way, and this is something you will appreciate as a trial lawyer, you know, those notes that you confiscated and you didn't want anyone to see? bring those with you. i want to see what the contemporaneous notes are, that you didn't want anyone to take out of that room to see what people were saying about that meeting. >> so, andrew, i want to stay in this because i find the procedure to be just as fascinating as the substance sometimes. right. so you could envision an evidentiary hearing perhaps in, in camera, meaning not open to the pub