Trump's DOJ Doesn't Even Attempt to Hide Its Corrupt Intent in Dropping Charges Against Eric Adams

Seven DOJ Prosecutors Resign, Most of Them Republicans

Welcome to another "how worried should I be?" post. I’m pretty worried. The blatant, overt corruption of what the Trump Justice Department just did needs to be better understood. Seven DOJ prosecutors, most of them Republicans themselves, resigned over it. They understood; that’s why they quit. The most worrying part? It’s that the official reasons given by their boss for dropping the case constitute an open admission of corrupt intent by the Department of Justice and Trump Administration. This is worth a deeper look.

The Context: A Troubling Dismissal

On February 10, 2025, Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered federal prosecutors in New York to drop the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams had been indicted in September 2024 on charges including bribery, fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. This wasn’t even a close call — the evidence is overwhelming. The indictment alleged that Adams accepted illegal contributions and lavish perks in exchange for political favors. The evidence was overwhelming. The acting US Attoreny Danielle Sassoon resigned. Then her deputy resigned. Then Deputy AG Emil Bove pulled the case from SDNY and tried to get the Public Integrity Section at Main Justice to do it — and five lawyers there resigned. Finally on Friday afternoon Bove dismissed it himself.

Resignations in Protest

Why did seven career prosectors resign, one after another, as the baton to dismiss the case got passed to them? Interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, a Republican member of the Federalist society who clerked for arch-conservative justice Antonin Scalia, was g the first to step down. In her resignation letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, Sassoon stated:

"The reasons advanced by 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."

What were those reasons? The official rationale provided by the Justice Department for dropping the case included the assertion that the prosecution had "unduly restricted Mayor Adams’ ability to devote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime."

What???

Ponder that for a second. The criminal case was impeding Adams’ ability to support the Trump administration’s policy objectives so the case was dropped?

Sassoon's left, and the responsibility began to get passed down the line. In all, six other prosecutors, including Kevin Driscoll and John Keller, also resigned, expressing their discontent with the directive based on political motivations. Hagan Scotten, the lead prosecutor in the case, stated in his resignation letter:

"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."

Boom. That’s it in a nutshell. “Help my political agenda and you won’t get prosecuted.” For Bove to just come right out and say that out loud is gasp-inducing. Or resignation inducing, as it has turned out to be.

As Heather Cox Richardson notes in reporting on this:

Bove claims that administration officials did not make an arrangement with Adams to dismiss charges in exchange for his political support. But this morning, Adams and Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan undermined that assertion when they appeared together on the Fox News Channel. "If he doesn’t come through,” Homan said of Adams, "I'll be back in New York City and we won't be sitting on the couch. I'll be in his office, up his butt saying, 'Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'”

Today, Hagan Scotten, the acting assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned in a blistering letter to Bove, calling his justification for dropping the charges against Adams “transparently pretextual.” “[N]o 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 wrote.

A Quid Pro Quo Exposed

This reasoning implies a direct exchange: in return for Mayor Adams's support of the administration's immigration policies, the Justice Department would drop serious corruption charges against him. These charges were ased upon voluminous, thoroughly vetted evidene. Such an arrangement not only undermines the rule of law but also sets a dangerous precedent where legal accountability can be negotiated away for political cooperation.

Implications for Justice and Governance

The resignations of seasoned prosecutors underscore the severity of the situation. This has to trigger a profound crisis within the Justice Department, where political considerations are overriding legal principles. What do you do if you’re a career prosecutor suddenly finding yourself in such a situation? Stay and ride it out? The seven chose otherwise, and in so doing made a powerful statement.

The Worst Part — The Normalization of Corruption

It’s hard to see this as anything less than the normalization of corruption at the highest levels of government when the official reasons given for the dismissal acknowledge corrupt intent. Legal decisions can’t be made based on political expediency — that’s the very weaponization of the Justice system that Trump decries.

My bottom line is this. The DOJ’s decision to drop the case against Mayor Eric Adams, coupled with the overtly political justification and subsequent resignations, should alarm every citizen concerned about the integrity of our legal system. This is a jarring step on the road to a compromized, politicized judiciary, where legal outcomes can be manipulated to serve political ends. This is not normal. It is crucial to remain vigilant and demand accountability to preserve the rule of law and the principles upon which our democracy is built.