1 of 2 | New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during his State of the City address on January 9. The U.S. Department of Justice wants to drop its criminal case against him. File Photo by Peter Foley/UPI | License Photo
Feb. 14 (UPI) — A seventh federal prosecutor on Friday resigned after the Department of Justice ordered criminal corruption charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams dropped.
Hagan Scotten, the lead prosecutor in the case against the Democratic mayor in the Southern District of New York, sent a letter to Emil Bove, the acting U.S. deputy attorney general, saying he was leaving.
On Monday, Bove sent a memo instructing prosecutors in Manhattan to abandon the five-count indictment filed in September so the mayor can advance Trump’s immigration agenda, which includes pledges to launch “mass deportations” of all undocumented people in the country.
But he said case could be reopened after November’s mayoral election.
DOJ later Friday filed a motion to end the case, which would have to be reviewed by Judge Dale Ho.
“I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion,” Scotten said in the one-page letter. “But it was never going to be me.”
On Thursday, his boss, acting U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, resigned and sent a scathing eight-page letter.
Then five other DOJ officials, three others in the New York office and two in the Washington office, resigned.
DOJ wants to transfer the case to its Public Integrity Section in Washington that oversees federal corruption cases against public officials.
Scotten is Harvard law graduate who clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He also was awarded two bronze stars as a troop commander in Iraq.
“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,” Scotten wrote.
“There is a tradition in public service of resigning in a last-ditch effort to head off a serious mistake. Some will view the mistake you are committing here in the light of their generally negative views of the new administration. I do not share those views.”
In referring to Trump, he wrote, “I can even understand how a chief executive whose background is in business and politics might see the contemplated dismissal-with-leverage as a good, if distasteful deal.
“But any assistant U.S. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.”
Bove, who is President Donald Trump‘s former personal attorney, said the prosecutors would be investigated by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility, according to CNBC. Bondi then would determine if Scotten and the prosecutors should be fired, Bove said.
Bove also placed at least two other prosecutors who worked on the case on leave, according to the letter, which was obtained by NBC News.
The massive resignations is reminiscent of the “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973 that resulted from President Richard Nixon‘s effort to oust special prosecutor Archibald Cox, and ultimately led the Republican president to resign in disgrace.
In 2024, Adams pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and fraud charges filed by the DOJ after obtaining an indictment accusing Adams of illegal acts dating to 2014, when he was the president of the borough of Brooklyn.
The DOJ accused Adams of accepting travel benefits from an official in Turkey in exchange for allegedly encouraging Fire Department of New York officials to approve permits for a Turkish consular building that failed a fire safety inspection.
The worth of these travel benefits exceeded more than $120,000, according to prosecutors.
Adams has claimed the case against him was retaliation against him by the Biden administration for criticizing its handling of migrant arrivals in New York City.
Adams met Thursday with Thomas Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” and announced he will take executive action to allow federal immigration agents to “operate” on Rikers Island. The city has a sanctuary law that bans that.
He said in a statement that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents allowed onto Rikers “would specifically be focused on assisting the correctional intelligence bureau in their criminal investigations, in particular those focused on violent criminals and gangs.”
Homan and Adams appeared together in a joint interview on Fox and Friends on Friday.
“If he doesn’t come through, I’ll be back in New York City, and we won’t be sitting on a couch,” Homan said about New York City helping the federal government. “I’ll be in his office, up his butt, saying, ‘Where the hell is the agreement we came to?'” Homan said.
Adams responded: “We’re going to deliver for the safety of the people of this city.”
Adams and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, deny there is a quid pro quo deal with the DOJ on dropping the case.
Adams is not included in a civil lawsuit announced Wednesday by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday regarding immigration enforcement.
The lawsuit named Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Attorney General Letitia James and Mark Schroeder, the state’s motor vehicles commissioner, as defendants.
The lawsuit focuses on the state, rather than New York City, which has been taking most new arrivals.
