From today’s Morning Memo at TPM:
Worse Than The Saturday Night Massacre
The mass resignations at the Justice Department mark the most serious crisis in its history, a darker moment than its previous low point during Watergate.
By this point, you know the gist of what happened. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York resigned Thursday afternoon rather than follow an order from Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to drop the criminal case against NYC Mayor Eric Adams. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the case was kicked back to Main Justice to do the dirty work of dismissing the Adams case, but at least five senior attorneys also resigned rather than participating in the nakedly political scheme.
I’d argue that yesterday’s Valentine’s Eve Massacre is worse than 1973’s Saturday Night Massacre, not out of some prurient obsession with ranking political scandals but as a way of highlighting the seriousness of what is happening right now.
Unlike the Saturday Night Massacre, when the top officials at the Justice Department held the line and resigned rather than carry out President Nixon’s corrupt order to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, here the higher-ups have acquiesced to and are furthering the corrupt scheme. This time, the resignations are coming from lower down in the chain of command because Bondi and Bove are doing President Trump’s bidding rather than holding the line in defense of the law, DOJ guidelines, and their own ethical obligations as lawyers.
All of this is happening in the broader context of political purges at DOJ and FBI even as Bondi and the White House tear down the walls meant to protect the Justice Department from improper political influence. The bad things are all happening, and they’re happening now.
Danielle R. Sassoon, 38, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, a career prosecutor who has been with the office since 2016. She has sterling credentials: Harvard undergrad, Yale law, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. She is a Federalist Society member who was named to the acting role just last month by the Trump administration to fill the post until Jay Clayton is confirmed.
Kevin Driscoll, the acting head of the department’s Criminal Division who previously had been in the Public Integrity Section;
John Keller, the acting head of the Public Integrity Section;
Rob Heberle, a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section;
Jenn Clarke, a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section;
Marco Palmieri, a prosecutor in the Public Integrity Section.
Bove’s letter responding to Sassoon’s resignation is as dastardly and villainous as anything I’ve ever seen come out of the Justice Department. It’s comic book villain material. Among the snarling remarks and acts of retaliation:
Bove put on administrative leave at least two other line prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office in Manhattan who had worked the Adams case, claiming without basis that the entire prosecution was politically motivated (improbably by a Democratic president against a Democratic mayor in a Democratic city).
Bove threatened Sassoon and the line prosecutors with internal investigation, by both the attorney general’s bogus “weaponization” group and the Office of Professional Responsibility.
Bove suggested that Sassoon’s oath to uphold the Constitution was superseded by “the policies of a democratically elected President and a Senate-confirmed Attorney General.
In her letter, Sassoon had revealed: (i) Bove cut her out of his negotiations with Adams’ lawyers of what she alleged was a quid pro quo arrangement; (ii) scotched one of the prosecutors from taking notes of the meeting with Adams’ lawyers; (iii) made his decision to drop the case despite knowing that a superseding indictment was in the works to add additional obstruction charges against Adams.
MUST READ: The Dueling DOJ Letters
Feb. 12: Danielle Sassoon’s letter to Bondi
Feb. 13: Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s response letter to Sassoon
Any attorneys here care to offer professional opinions on what this means to the rule of law?
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